I'm pretty sure it's not German for, "Jesus Fucking Christ," but that's all I've got to go on.

October 8, 2006 10:42 PM

Does the exclamation "Sheesh Kabibble" mean anything, or is it just nonsense?

When I was a kid I used to say it all the time, then someone convinced me it was a German curse phrase. Googling reveals that it's in the general idiolect... so what's it mean?

posted by anotherpanacea to society & culture (16 comments total)

Ish Kabibble - it's Yiddish for "What, me worry?"
posted by ikkyu2 at 10:56 PM on October 8, 2006

Sounds to me like it's a distortion of "shish kebab".
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 10:56 PM on October 8, 2006

There's a mid-20th century musician and comedian named Ish Kabibble. This wikipedia link says that he chose his stage name after a Yiddish espression "Ische ga bibble?" which translates as "What, me worry?"

Maybe people combine that with "shish kabob"?
posted by LobsterMitten at 10:58 PM on October 8, 2006

it's ish kabibble who played with kaye kayser's band in the 30s and 40s

supposedly derived from a Yiddish expression, "Ische ga bibble?", which loosely translates as "What, me worry?"

i had the interesting experience of reading his manuscript for his autobiography at the family print shop ... his sister had dropped it off to be photocopied and as i did so, i sped read through it ... being out on the road with the big bands wasn't easy, but they had some (good, clean) fun ...
posted by pyramid termite at 10:59 PM on October 8, 2006

On preview: Fuck, you people are fast.

What I was about to say: If this delightful chap and the matching Wikipedia article are any indication, it's a corruption of the Yiddish phrase for "What, me? Worry?"
posted by Schlimmbesserung at 11:00 PM on October 8, 2006

Although this article linked from the wiki page disputes whether the phrase is actually Yiddish or a fake Yiddishism that was made into a song that the performer then lifted his name from.
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:02 PM on October 8, 2006

More info here including the lyrics to the song and a discussion of an early 20th century cartoon featuring a Jewish character named Abie Kabibble.

I'm wondering how you and I came to know this piece of slang from the 1900s as young kids. My guess is that Bugs Bunny or similar cartoons used it, maybe even with explicit goofing on the Ish Kabibble country bumpkin character, as a reference only adults would have gotten in the 50s, and then those cartoons inspire references in other media.
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:11 PM on October 8, 2006

Sheesh, I never knew that, interesting.

'Sheesh' on its own is a corruption of 'jeez' which is a corruption of "Jesus". cf. 'gee'.
posted by Rumple at 11:19 PM on October 8, 2006

Well, "What, me worry" is the catchphrase of Alfred E. Neumann, of MAD magazine fame. the archetypal AEN picture - the one on almost every cover of MAD was based on an earlier simpleton who was used in a multitude of ways in the early 20th century. Jes' sayin'.
posted by notsnot at 5:03 AM on October 9, 2006

it's Yiddish for "What, me worry?"
a Yiddish expression, "Ische ga bibble?", which loosely translates as "What, me worry?"
it's a corruption of the Yiddish phrase for "What, me? Worry?"

This is the problem with people relying on Wikipedia. There is no Yiddish phrase "ish ga bibble" or whatever. The Yiddish word for 'I' is ikh (just as in German), but that's as far as it goes. It's a vaguely Yiddish-sounding phrase that sounds funny and was used as a comedian's catchphrase, and when people asked him what it meant he said "I should worry?" or "What, me worry?" or the like. If you take that seriously, you might also believe that Henny Youngman was actually trying to get rid of his wife. (If you're curious, the actual Yiddish expression for 'I should worry!" is Bin ikh bedales!)

Sounds to me like it's a distortion of "shish kebab".

Gee, thanks for your knowledgeable contribution. It's great you can share your understanding of everything so generously.
posted by languagehat at 6:35 AM on October 9, 2006 [1 favorite]

Thanks all! What a wierd memetic trajectory....
posted by anotherpanacea at 7:10 AM on October 9, 2006

"Ishkabibble! Ishkabibble!" is also a children's book from the 1970s. While Amazon doesn't have much to say about it, I remember it being about a kid who was bullied and used the nonsense word to fend the bullies off.
posted by brina at 7:22 AM on October 9, 2006

This is the problem with people relying on Wikipedia.

actually, the problem is with popular entertainers of the 30s and 40s and their self-mythologizing ... (although in his autobiography, ish comes off as a pretty modest, unassuming and likable guy ...)

ps - when quoting me, you left off "supposedly derived" from the beginning of my sentence ... there's a reason why i stated it that way, you know
posted by pyramid termite at 8:27 AM on October 9, 2006

I used to say this as a kid, too. In my case, it came from a spell that a character casts in the Care Bears Movie. Others have also mentioned it.

What? Stop looking at me like that! it was the 80s; I was six!
posted by vorfeed at 12:27 PM on October 9, 2006

ps - when quoting me, you left off "supposedly derived" from the beginning of my sentence

Yes, I did, because what you said was:
supposedly derived from a Yiddish expression, "Ische ga bibble?", which loosely translates as "What, me worry?"

Which I read as "supposedly derived from [a Yiddish expression which loosely translates as 'What, me worry?']"; in other words, the "supposedly" qualified the derivation of the comedian's name, not the meaning of the Yiddish phrase. If that's not what you meant, you should have written it more carefully (e.g., which supposedly translates as "What, me worry?").
posted by languagehat at 1:32 PM on October 9, 2006

languagehat, I think the links provided above are actually pretty clear about the popular song of 1913 (which Ish performed and from which he then took the name) having only a quasi-Yiddish origin. Most of us were just summarizing, and in summarizing we were sloppy. But the source links are reasonably clear about it.

But thanks for the additional clarity on there actually being no such Yiddish expression.
posted by LobsterMitten at 1:38 PM on October 9, 2006