Mel Brooks Starts Nonprofit Foundation To Save Word 'Schmuck'

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 2:46pm

NEW YORK — Saying he could no longer stand idly by while a vital part of American culture is lost forever, activist and Broadway producer Mel Brooks has founded a private nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the word "schmuck."



"Schmuck is dying," a sober Brooks said during a 2,000-person rally held in his hometown of Williamsburg, Brooklyn Monday. "For many of us, saying 'schmuck' is a way of life. Yet when I walk down the street and see people behaving in foolish, pathetic, or otherwise schmucky ways, I hear only the words 'prick' and 'douche bag.' I just shake my head and think, 'I don't want to live in a world like this.'"

The nonprofit, Schmucks For Schmuck, has compiled schmuck-related data from the past 80 years and conducted its own independent research on contemporary "schmuck" usage. According to Brooks, the statistics are frightening: Utterances of the word "schmuck" have declined every year since its peak in 1951, and in 2006, the word was spoken a mere 28 times—17 of these times by Brooks himself. The study indicates that today, when faced with a situation in which one can use a targeted or self-deprecating insult to convey a general feeling of disgust, people are 50 times more likely to use the word "jerk" than "schmuck," 100 times more likely to use "dick," and 15,000 times more likely to use "****ing asshole."

Perhaps more startling, only 23 percent of men know what schmuck means, and only 1.2 percent of these men are under the age of 78. If such trends continue, Brooks estimates that by 2011, such lesser-used terms as "imbecile," "dummy," "schlub," and "contemptible ne'er-do-well" will all surpass schmuck, which is projected to completely disappear by the year 2020 or whenever Brooks dies.

"We must save this word!" Brooks said to thunderous applause as those in attendance began chanting "Schmuck! Schmuck! Schmuck!" "How will we be able to charmingly describe someone who acts in an inappropriate manner? Especially given the tragic loss of the word 'schmegeggie' in 2001. So I urge you: Tonight, when you get home, please, call up your family, your friends, your loved ones, and tell them they're a bunch of schmucks."

More At Link:
Mel Brooks Starts Nonprofit Foundation To Save Word 'Schmuck'

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 2:48pm

Was this your first time reading The Onion, Sweets?

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 2:51pm

I know The Onion is fake. I assume everyone reading this knows it too. I just thought I'd post it because it's funny.

Posted: 12/4/07 at 2:53pm

And it is. The Onion is best when, like this time, it's just plausible enough to make you go "Hmmmmmm...maybe..."

[Corine2]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 2:57pm

OMG. This made me laugh. Thank you!
PS I LOVE MEL BROOKS!

[mauriposa]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 2:59pm

While I appreciate the funny, I'm having a bit of deja vu. Did we do this already?
Updated On: 12/4/07 at 02:59 PM

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 3:00pm

Oh, okay. You'd be surprised at how many people DON'T realize it's a fake.

[Mamie]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 3:01pm

I love it. The funniest part of this one is the feeling in the back of your brain that it just might be true. I can see Mel doing this. Can't you?

I love to grab a copy of The Onion to read during my commute each day. I do raise a lot of attention by being the only one on the bus or train who's laughing out loud. I can hear the word 'schmuck' being uttered now and then...

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 3:12pm

Hey, Phyllis, don't be such a schmuck.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 3:35pm

Feh.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 3:39pm

The article doesn't say this, but the literal meaning if the Yiddish word schmuck is "the foreskin removed from the penis during a circumcision."

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 3:42pm

Oy, but the faygeles just love that part!

Posted: 12/4/07 at 3:46pm

I thought it was just a penis.

My Great grandfather was a Mohel. He didn't charge a set fee, though he only took tips.

[artscallion]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 3:51pm

I remember that old vaudeville ditty, "Ya gotta move the schmuck off the schmekle to get at the smegma!" Or was that from Young Frankenstein?

Posted: 12/4/07 at 3:54pm

From Wikipedia (Although Wickstein would probably be better):

When used as a pejorative, schmuck is a noun that literally means a penis or head of a penis, used as insult to men, saying that their penis is small, dirty and unsatisfying. Can mean a detestable person, or a jerk. The word also means a stupid or idiotic person. In these senses, schmuck entered English as a borrowed word from Yiddish, where it is an obscene term and an insult. In his famous cultural lexicon, The Joys of Yiddish, Leo Rosten lists the Yiddish schmuck as related to the Slovene word, šmok, meaning "a fool, an innocent, a gullible dolt."

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 4:03pm

Putz is a penis, I thought.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 4:31pm

A putz is a penis. A schmuck is the head of a penis.

Those who continue to confuse them, see me after class.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 4:39pm

"The article doesn't say this, but the literal meaning if the Yiddish word schmuck is "the foreskin removed from the penis during a circumcision." "


Never use a butcher who is also a mohel. My last cut of beef was rather chewy.

Posted: 12/4/07 at 4:42pm

My grandfather the Mohel kept all the foreskins he snipped off. When he retired, he took them all to a leatherworker and told him to make something he could keep as a souvenir of his career. He came back and the leatherworker gave him a wallet. My grandfather looked at it and said "A Wallet! I give you hundreds of foreskins and you give me a wallet!" The leatherworker said "A wallet, yes- but rub it a little and it turns into a suitcase!"

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 4:43pm

You are trying too hard.

Posted: 12/4/07 at 5:01pm

I just don't get many opportunities to use all my boffo Mohel jokes.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 5:58pm

Finally a worthy cause to get behind.

[Undeniably Bway]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 7:15pm

Roxy, considering what the word means... you may want to rephrase that

PJ - you forgot shmeckle.

[The Boy From Ohio]

Posted: 12/4/07 at 8:19pm

I thought Joe's joke was funny...

Posted: 12/4/07 at 9:57pm

Thanks BFO! Me too- I laugh every time I tell it!