You are probably on to something here.
I disagree. I think it was used in the positive sense for the show title. Maxwell Smart got to his position as top spy by succeeding, even if he was dumb bumbler. The title “Get Smart” was a just a play on “wise up”, not “don’t be a wise ass”.
I’m still wondering why hearing this phrase said in a movie many years ago by someone Jewish means this is “a Jewish phrase.”
I agree it was used in the positive sense in the show title. But I think the expression itself could be both.
I remember authority figures snarling, “Don’t get smart with me!”
“The expression could be both” doesn’t make sense to me. They’re separate expressions that happen to share two words, but those words have a completely different, unrelated definition in each expression.
The words “get smart” are in both phrases, but telling someone to “get smart” means telling them to wise up. Telling someone “don’t get smart” means don’t be a smart ass. One is not the negative of the other.
I can’t find any evidence from Google Ngram that “get smart” comes from Yiddish or is particularly Jewish. Incidentally, do you know that the television series Get Smart was created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry? Brooks is of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. Henry’s father was of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, but his mother wasn’t.
Because it was uttered by a Jewish character. (Not in the TV series.)
Another Jew
To whom it’s new
But I’m not doubting
The word of you
Another Jew who never heard of this being a “Jewish phrase” before.
I have heard the phrase before, but never associated it with a particular entho-religious identity.
??
That’s… a really odd thing to think.
Whatever. My question has been answered.
That’s the only way I ever heard it and does not seem to be used especially by Jews.