# German, Hebrew, Yiddish, or Gibberish?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-hebrew-yiddish-or-gibberish/13877>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [February 17, 2000, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-hebrew-yiddish-or-gibberish/13877 "2000-02-17T16:35:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-hebrew-yiddish-or-gibberish/13877/1 "2000-02-17T16:35:00Z")

</div>

In the Three Stooges short “You Natzy Spy.”

There is a scene where the Stooges are appointed to be triumvirate dictators of Moronia.

They all shake hands and say “something.” Approximations are “beblak,” “beblach,” “bedlak,” and “bedlach.”

Any ideas what that means???

Earlier in the short, they said “Sholem alechem,” so I thought it might also be a meaningful term.

(I apologize for the spelling, but I did not have the benefit of learning Hebrew growing up in rural Dixie.)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Frankie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/258eb7/32.png) [@Frankie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frankie)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-hebrew-yiddish-or-gibberish/13877/2 "2000-02-17T19:01:00Z")

</div>

Sounds like it could be yiddish, but that could be the point you know? To sound like it but not actually mean anything?

anyone?

* * *

-Frankie

“Mother Mercy, can your loins bear fruit forever?/Is your fecundity a trammel or a treasure?”  
-Bad Religion

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2000, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-hebrew-yiddish-or-gibberish/13877/3 "2000-02-17T20:08:00Z")

</div>

All of the Stooges–with the exception of Joe DeRita–were Jewish. In one short, where Moe and Larry are trying to get away from an Irish cop (Bud Jamison) who thinks they’ve kidnapped a baby (Curly is with the baby, hiding in their laundry cart), Moe speaks Chinese-sounding gibberish and Larry says this:  
“Huck mir nisht a chynick, and I don’t mean efsher.”  
This means in Yiddish, “Get off my back, don’t bother me, and I don’t mean maybe.”  
In another short, Moe, in a falling rocket ship, hollers, “Help! Gevalt!” (“Gevalt” translates as "Good God! or “Carramba!”)  
In still another short, the stooges find out World War I has just ended; Moe hollers “Mazeltov!” and Curly hollers “L’chaim!”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Grigalem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de0a6/32.png) [@Grigalem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grigalem)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-hebrew-yiddish-or-gibberish/13877/4 "2017-02-14T16:37:51Z")

</div>

> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#):
>
> In the Three Stooges short “You Natzy Spy.” There is a scene where the Stooges are appointed to be triumvirate dictators of Moronia. They all shake hands and say “something.” Approximations are “beblak,” “beblach,” “bedlak,” and “bedlach.” Any ideas what that means???

Beblach! (used several times in the film) is a Yiddish word meaning “beans”.

A bedlach is a glass front display cabinet.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-hebrew-yiddish-or-gibberish/13877/5 "2017-02-14T17:18:37Z")

</div>

Hmmm . . . I had thought about bumping this a few days ago when [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=443926) resurfaced, although I see numerous sources attesting to this that I did not find. . .

Jiminy Cricket! SEVENTEEN years ago!:eek: