i'm not sure ive ever heard a disappointed expression described as "a long face" outside of the horse joke

it was pretty confusing the first time i heard the joke

@codl "why the long face" is a stock phrase to ask why someone looks a bit sad, with a nuance of trying to cheer them, though i think it went out of fashion a while ago
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@codl i don't think "long face" is used outside that specific stock phrase

i would look at google ngrams to see if our thoughts about it being less common now are backed up by the data, but the problem is the joke is really common
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@codl we checked ngrams anyway and the data does not back up our thoughts, so who knows!
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@Felthry damn, long faces have had a big comeback these last 20 years

@codl also i separated out the capitalizations and for some reason there was a spike in specifically Long Face in the 40s

title of a popular book or something? or a location that was in the news a lot?
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