bigger than Ben Hur

== English == === Etymology === A comparison to the extravagance of the 1899 play Ben-Hur. Though the phrase is often erroneously claimed to have been coined in reference to the 1959 film, use of the phrase long predates the film. === Pronunciation === === Phrase === bigger than Ben Hur (simile, informal, comical) huge, extravagant. 1916, Columbia Theatre advertisement in The Argonaut, Volume 79, No. 2071, page 379: