I understand that if someone tells someone to ‘get smart’ (Jewish phrase), he’s saying, ‘You’re being an idiot. Look at the situation like you’re n intelligent person.’ (More or less.) I’m not Jewish, but I get the joke with the TV series title. Is the phrase still in use, more than half a century later?
I did not know that!
And I’m sure you know this, but the title was a play on what a KAOS officer woud say to an agent ordered to whack Maxwell Smart.
I’ve been around and with Jews from NYC all my life and haven’t heard the phrase. My folks spoke a lot of Yiddish and it’s not something common. I was watching TV during the last few seasons of the show and I was unaware of that connection.
Do you have evidence that the phrase was ever in common use or has Jewish origins?
Only that I have only heard the line being uttered by a Jewish person from New York to another Jewish person from New York, in one move or another. As Mel Brooks was a producer (with Buck Henry), the title seems an obvious play.
I’m Jewish. My entire family is from Brooklyn. I have lots of close Jewish friends. I have never heard that phrase in my life.
You heard the phrase once more than fifty years ago and assumed that it is and/or was a common Jewish phrase?
I think it’s just another snappy way of saying “wise up”. Never heard of it being a Jewish thing, despite growing up in a Jewish family in a Jewish community.
That doesn’t make it a Jewish phrase. I’m surprised you’d draw such a conclusion.
“Be a smarty” on the other hand…