More information on Ish Kabibble and his odd relationship with MAD Magazine than any normal person could want

Last updated on: February 29, 2020 at 12:44 am by Mark Shea

More information on Ish Kabibble and his odd relationship with MAD Magazine than any normal person could want 2020-01-17T12:24:29-07:00 Mark Shea

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

… is just what this blog needs on a Saturday morning.

Who or what is Ish Kabibble, you ask? Precisely what I was wondering myself after my wife, as is her custom, wandered through the house in a cold-induced haze, muttering the mysterious incantation. I’d heard it before and had the vague impression it was the name of some old timey vaudevillian. She just knew it because her mother used to randomly say “Ish Kabibble” as an exclamation.

So I went the global database of all knowledge–Google–and consulted the Oracle. It reveal to me that Ish Kabibble is both a what and a who.

Here’s stuff mostly about the “what” part:

This dismissive slang expression came into existence in the USA quite suddenly around 1913 with the ostensible meaning “I should worry!”, which means, of course, “Don’t worry!” or “Who cares?”. It had quite a vogue for a decade or two and was the name of a character played by Merwyn Bogue on a 1930s radio show called Kay Kyser’s Kollege of Musical Knowledge (they don’t make titles like that any more).

Those of us who sift the detritus of language for fun and profit are intrigued by it. It looks and sounds Yiddish and the phrases nish gefidlt, nicht gefiedelt, and ich gebliebte have all been suggested as sources. The idea of a Jewish connection was reinforced in 1914 when Harry Hershfield began his cartoon strip Abie the Agent in Hearst newspapers, which featured the car salesman Abraham (“Abie”) Kabibble.

Many people at the time certainly thought it was Yiddish, and it’s notable that some Anglicised it to “I should bibble” or “we should bibble”. But it was equally firmly said by contemporaries that no Yiddish connection existed at all. And the slang term bibble is recorded a few years earlier, albeit with the meaning of nonsense talk. It’s a shortened form of bibble-babble, a reduplication of babble, which goes right back to the sixteenth century and turns up in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night: “Endeavour thy selfe to sleepe, and leave thy vain bibble babble.”

Might ish-ge-bibble — as it was often written in the early days — have been a fake Yiddishism? It could have been based on German ich for I (often said by natives as ish), the ge prefix for the past participles of German verbs, plus bibble.

In his autobiography, Merwyn Bogue said that he took his stage name from a song he used to sing on the radio show, Isch Gabibble (I Should Worry), words by Sam M Lewis, music by George W Meyer, dated 1913. Bogue said he changed the spelling to make it easier to say. This song seems to have been the immediate source for the sudden arrival and popularity of the term. But did George W Meyer invent it or borrow it in his turn? It would be nice to know.

And here’s stuff mostly about the “who” part:

Ish Kabibble (January 19, 1908 – June 5, 1994) was an American comedian and cornet player. Born Merwyn Bogue in North East, Pennsylvania, he moved to Erie, Pennsylvania with his family a few months after his birth.

Bogue studied law at West Virginia University, but his comedy antics soon found an audience. He performed with Kay Kyser on the radio and television quiz show Kay Kyser’s Kollege of Musical Knowledge in 1949 and 1950. Bogue also appeared in ten movies between 1939 and 1950. In Thousands Cheer (1943), he appeared with Kyser and sang “I Dug a Ditch”, and he also appeared as a vocalist in That’s Right—You’re Wrong (1939), You’ll Find Out (1940), and Playmates (1941).

The origin of Merwyn Bogue’s stage name, Ish Kabibble, can be traced back to the 1913 novelty song “Isch ga-bibble” and this 1915 cartoon postcard, which displays a spelling (Ish Ka Bibble) almost identical to that used by Bogue. Between the song and the card, in 1914, Harry Hershfield introduced his character Abie Kabibble in his comic strip Abie the Agent.
In his 1989 autobiography, Bogue explained his stage name, which he took from the lyrics of one of his comedic songs, “Isch ga-bibble.”

The song derived from a mock-Yiddish expression, “Ische ga bibble?”, which was purported to mean “I should worry?”, prompting a curious (and perhaps not coincidental) association with the “What, me worry?” motto of Mad Magazine‘s mascot, Alfred E. Neuman. While this derivation has been widely quoted on the Internet and elsewhere, the expression “ische ga bibble” is not Yiddish and in fact contains no Yiddish words at all. However, there is a Yiddish expression, “nisht gefidlt,” meaning “it doesn’t matter to me,” from which the term “ish kabibble” may derive.

Although Bogue’s stage persona was that of a dumb person, he was a notable cornet player and was also business manager for the Kay Kyser Orchestra from 1931 to 1951. With the decline of the big bands, Bogue found a new career in real estate. By 1973, he was living in Hawaii, causing double-takes from prospective clients who saw his trademark haircut and read his business card: “Ish Kabibble, Sales Manager”.

Personal life

Bogue married Janet Meade in 1932, and the couple had three children: Merwyn (known as Peter), born 1937; Pamela, 1940; and Janet, 1941, according to the book Ish Kabibble: The Autobiography of Merwyn Bogue (1989), co-written by Bogue and his sister, Gladys Bogue Reilly.

Bogue died in 1994 in Joshua Tree, California of respiratory failure brought on by pulmonary disease and emphysema.

Cultural legacy

Kabibble’s distinctive black hair in a bowl cut, similar to that used by Three Stooges member Moe Howard, is said to have been an inspiration for the hairstyle worn by Jim Carrey’s character in Dumb and Dumber.

The name “Ish Kabbible” was used for a hoax student supposedly enrolled at Princeton University in the 1950s.

Around 1983, Ish Kabibble was the voice recording for the animated series Challenge of the GoBots. This predecessor to the more popular Transformers series also had humans allied with both sides of feuding mechanical extraterrestrials. One example was Soviet Russian scientist Dr. Anya Turgenova. Towards the end of the pilot episode, she muttered, “Ishkabibble!” in boredom after hearing her friends’ summoned to a U.S. federal government inquiry.

In 1985, the character’s name was used as a plot device on the animated series The Thirteen Ghosts of Scooby-Doo when Scooby and the gang, along with an animated spoof of Vincent Price, go in search of the Amulet of Ish Kabibble.

In the TV show M*A*S*H, Alan Alda’s character Hawkeye Pierce several times refers to Ish Kabibble. Once Pierce asks whom he and Trapper John should drink to—”MacArthur or Ish Kabibble?” Another time he refers to Ish Kabibble and his All-Girl Orchestra and refers to him as part of a dream. In the TV show Green Acres, Sam Drucker sells “Ish Kabibble” kazoos. In the “Cousin Maude’s Visit” episode of All in the Family, Maude refers to how the name “Ish Kabibble” makes Archie Bunker laugh, in an automatic juvenile response.

In the animated sitcom Sit Down Shut Up, Ish Kabbible is referred to several times in one episode.

In the movie Photographing Fairies, Ish Kabbible is used a few times as a toast.
A children’s book, “Ishkabibble!” by Dorothy Crayder, with art by Susan Vaeth was published in 1975. The word in the book is a nonsense motivational term, and is revealed to translate as “who cares?” as in the alleged etymology from above.

The academic society known as The International Society for History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology goes by the acronym ISHPSSB, but the abbreviation is commonly pronounced ″ishkabibble″ at the suggestion of David Hull, as an homage to Bogue.

Kay Kyser and Ish Kabibble are caricatured as Kaynine Kyser and Ish Kyoodle in the Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon “Hollywood Canine Canteen.” Ish Kabibble recited a poem (“Roses are red / Violets are blue / If skunks had a college / They’d call it P.U.”).

Image result for the more you know gif"

Uncategorized

Fun stuff

Previous Post

February 28, 2020

Dorothy Day, Post-Abortive Member of Communion of Saints

Next Post

March 2, 2020 Almsgiving Monday: St. John Chrysostom: Komminniss

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 September 2006 June 2006 July 2005 April 2005 May 2002 April 2002 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz