where did this come from

The murgatroyd reference comes, I believe, from The Jetsons, a fun cartoon comparable to the Flintstones but instead of the Stone Age, this family was in the future. George Jetson (the dad) would always say it. I have fond memories of watching that show as a kid! I think the show might be from the 60s or 70s...

oops...as far as the Bob's your uncle reference...I don't know, but have you searched, because I swear I remember a thread on this...perhaps on a different board or forum though. I do think it is hilarious, just for the tone it is said in.

robert is your mothers' brother meaning thats why UK police are calle bobbies too.

micvan - I think the origin of the British Bobbie is different. The police force was started, I believe, by Sir Robert Peel. Hence police were called bobbies and, also, peelers. The latter is no longer used.

I've no idea about "Heavens to Murgatroyd" etc. Never heard the expressions.

But Wikipedia has the following to say about "Bob's your Uncle":-

"Bob's your uncle is a commonly used expression known mainly in Britain and Commonwealth countries. It is often used immediately following a set of simple instructions and roughly carries the same meaning as the phrase "and there you have it." For example, "Simply put a piece of ham between two slices of bread, and Bob’s your uncle!”.

In 1887, British Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, appointed his nephew Arthur James Balfour as Minister for Ireland. The press had a field day when he referred to the Prime Minister as “Uncle Bob”.[1]. Balfour later went on to become Prime Minister himself. This theory claims that to have "Bob" as one's uncle is a guarantee of success, hence the implied meaning, "and if you do this, you cannot fail." Another theory is that the phrase derives from the slang "all is bob", which means "everything is good".[2]

A variation of this saying is also "Robert's your father's brother." It is used in the same context as "Bob's your uncle" and is meant to put a spin on the commonly used phrase."

#1's memory is faulty.

"Heavens to Murgatroid" was the catch-phrase of the early Hanna-Barbera character Snagglepuss. (The linked article notes that the phrase was borrowed from a Bert Lahr film.)

As for the Jetsons, the only notable catch-phrase they spawned was "rut roh reorge!"

A bit of elaboration on the Lahr origin from The Phrase Finder <blockquote>Quote
<hr>The first use of the phrase wasn't by Snagglepuss but comes from the 1944 film Meet the People. It was spoken by Bert Lahr, best remembered for his role as the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz. Snagglepuss's voice was patterned on Lahr's, along with the 'heavens to Murgatroyd' line. Daws Butler's vocal portrayal of the character was so accurate that when the cartoon was used to promote Kellogg Cereals, Lahr sued and made the company distance him from the campaign by giving a prominent credit to Butler.

As with Betsy, we have no idea who Murgatroyd was. The various spellings of the name - as Murgatroid, Mergatroyd or Mergatroid tend to suggest that it wasn't an actual surname. While it is doubtful that the writers of Meet The People (Sig Herzig and Fred Saidy) were referring to an actual person, they must have got the name from somewhere.

No less than ten of the characters in Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera Ruddigore (1887) are baronets surnamed "Murgatroyd", eight of whom (or is that which?) are ghosts. Herzig and Saidy were well versed in the works of the musical theatre and that plethora of Murgatroyds would have been known to them.

Where then did the librettist Sir William Gilbert get the name? It seems that Murgatroyd has a long history as a family name in the English aristocracy. In his genealogy The Murgatroyds of Murgatroyd, Bill Murgatroyd states that, in 1371, a constable was appointed for the district of Warley in Yorkshire. He adopted the name of Johanus de Morgateroyde - literally John of Moor Gate Royde or 'the district leading to the moor'.

Whether the Murgatroyd name took that route from Yorkshire to Yellowstone Park [Snagglepuss was connected with Yogi Bear, who lived in "Jellystone Park"] we can't be certain. Unless there's a Betsy Murgatroyd hiding in the archives, that's as close as we are likely to get to a derivation.<hr></blockquote>

Royd show up in at least one other Yorkshire place name, Mytholmroyd (the area by the waters) where Ted Hughes was from and where he and Sylvia Plath are buried. At least I suppose he's buried there; I know Plath is.

According to the Beeb, <blockquote>Quote
<hr>The poet was born Edward James Hughes in Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire, in 1930...But he moved to North Tawton in Mid Devon in 1961, and he remained in the county until his death from cancer in 1998.
[snip]
In 2003 - five years after his death - the BBC in the South West tracked down a memorial stone in his honour in a remote part of northern Dartmoor - one of his favourite places.

Hughes had requested his name be cut in a long slab of granite and placed between the sources of the rivers Teign, Dart, Taw and East Okement.

There is speculation the slab must have been airlifted into place. The spot is on Duchy of Cornwall land, and Prince Charles - a friend of the poet - gave special permission for it.

Hughes also asked for his ashes to be scattered in the area. <hr></blockquote>TEd Hughes Memorial Stone describes the stone & its location. They say the ashes were scattered near Taw Head.