# Who was the first to make an ass out of u and me? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 30, 2008, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-to-make-an-ass-out-of-u-and-me/458244 "2008-07-30T16:25:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-to-make-an-ass-out-of-u-and-me/458244/61 "2014-05-08T22:15:05Z")
Dr. Elizabeth Green is a chucklehead. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-to-make-an-ass-out-of-u-and-me/458244/62 "2014-05-08T22:19:43Z")
> [@daveb81](#): > > “When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me.” > ~ Oscar Wilde on Assumption This was in the same set of aphorisms in which Wilde noted “Nothing compares 2 U.” ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-to-make-an-ass-out-of-u-and-me/458244/63 "2014-05-08T23:34:08Z")
> [@daveb81](#): > > “When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me.” > ~ Oscar Wilde on Assumption > Since he died in 1900, it’s quite old. Don’t know the year. > Here’s one of the many articles I can cite: [http://www.drelizabethgreen.com/assume-ass-u-me/](http://www.drelizabethgreen.com/assume-ass-u-me/) _Bon jour_ Found it on the internet, did you? 😃 > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Dr. Elizabeth Green is a chucklehead. QFT. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-to-make-an-ass-out-of-u-and-me/458244/64 "2014-05-08T23:36:54Z")
> [@Lex122](#): > > I must be the oldest person on the Internet because no one else has posted that this was a bit that was done by Abbott and Costello back in the fifties, and they may have used it in their vaudeville routine prior to that. Lou Costello even used the blackboard to show Bud Abbott ass + u + me = assume. The writers from the odd couple stole that bit. I don’t disbelieve you. Just wish we could have a cite to prove it. You’re probable right. I just took it back to a Google book cite from 1959. Business school journal. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2014, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-to-make-an-ass-out-of-u-and-me/458244/65 "2014-05-08T23:58:17Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Using Google Books, you can find a cite from a 1966 issue of PMI, Photo Methods for Industry. [PMI Photo Methods for Industry - Google Books](http://books.google.com/books?id=ufoiAAAAMAAJ&q=%22make+an+ass%22+assume+date:1900-1975&dq=%22make+an+ass%22+assume+date:1900-1975&lr=&num=30&as_brr=0&pgis=1) > > You have to learn how to search inside the issue, then you have to make sure to make sure that the issue isn’t more recent. VERY many false Google Book hits. I did the work. It’s there. > > So, it predates The Odd Couple. I recall seeing it on the Odd Couple, but had heard it before that among military guys, and perhaps even before that in college (1965-67). ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-to-make-an-ass-out-of-u-and-me/458244/66 "2014-05-09T00:03:32Z")
I wish whoever said it first had also said it last. Whenever someone says that, I like to ask, “OK, list all the assumptions you’re making.” The smart ones laugh. The dumb ones say “None!” in which case I get to laugh. Good assumptions don’t make an ass of anyone. Bad ones do. It’s not always easy to tell between the two, but when we find we’ve made a bad one, it’s a learning opportunity. Not to never assume (which is impossible). When someone at work mentions an assumption they’re making, I say “Good! Can we test that?” It most often comes up when debugging, and it’s surprising how often really good assumptions turn out to be false. You’d think that after a while, the surprise would fade, but it seems it’s the gift that just keeps on giving. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-to-make-an-ass-out-of-u-and-me/458244/67 "2014-05-09T12:21:49Z")
> [@photopat](#): > > I first heard it on the Odd Couple, along with the joke in the ghost episode about the ritual phrase “Owah Tagoo Siam.” > > It was funny at the time and slightly shocking since I hadn’t heard words like Ass too often on network tv in the early '70s. That one I heard (as “the Siamese National Anthem”, “Oh wa ta na Siam”, to be sung to the tune of “God Save the Queen”) when I was a kid, from another kid. That was in England, in what must have been about 1960, so it definitely long predates _The Odd Couple_, who merely seem to have bowdlerized it a bit. As for the “ass - u - me” thing, I do not remember specifically, or otherwise know its origin, but the suggestion of Benny Hill sounds quite plausible to me. He did actually go in for that sort of rather ponderous wordplay sometimes, and it is worth pointing out that his show ran on British TV from [1955](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Benny_Hill_Show), so it was around for a good fifteen years before _The Odd Couple_ debuted on US TV. Mind you, I imagine Tony Randall managed to make it a lot funnier than Benny ever did (and I say that as a fan and admirer of Benny). _The Odd Couple_ may well have introduced it into America, and, maybe, generally popularized it. Indeed, I doubt if it would have been very funny in the show, despite all Randall’s talents, if it had already been well known in the USA. (Benny Hill, although he had long been well known in Britain, does not seem to have been shown in the USA until [much later, the late 1970s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Benny_Hill_Show#International_airings).) Also, I am totally on board with **middleman** ’s rant (although I am baffled as to how “deduce” which means something quite different, almost opposite, can be used as an alternative). ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-to-make-an-ass-out-of-u-and-me/458244/68 "2014-05-09T14:00:35Z")
It was Jack Klugman, not Tony Randall, who delivered it on The Odd Couple. ---
**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:** [May 9, 2014, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-to-make-an-ass-out-of-u-and-me/458244/69 "2014-05-09T14:07:48Z")
So. . . instead of Oscar Wilde, it was Oscar Madison. . . . Anyway, while it might not be the first occurence of the phrase, I’d submit that “The Odd Couple” was gave the phrase the currency that it has. ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-to-make-an-ass-out-of-u-and-me/458244/70 "2014-05-09T14:38:27Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > It was Jack Klugman, not Tony Randall, who delivered it on The Odd Couple. If you watch the clip linked in post #42, you’ll see that it was Randall. I’m another who first heard in on TOC. I’m a pretty big Abbott & Costello fan, and I’ve never heard them do it, though that doesn’t mean they never did. There was a mediocre sitcom in 1990 called _The Fanelli Boys_. I remember one episode in which one of the characters pulled the routine on his dumber brother. Later, someone said something to the brother that began with “I presume…” and the brother replied “You _presume_? You should never _presume_, because when you _presume_…” He wrote the word, then stared at it in confusion for a few beats. “When you _presume_… you _press you_ to _me_, you ass.” ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-to-make-an-ass-out-of-u-and-me/458244/71 "2014-05-09T14:50:34Z")
Well, hell, I was relying on my memory and I just assumed… ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-to-make-an-ass-out-of-u-and-me/458244/72 "2014-05-09T16:47:54Z")
When you assert, you make an ass out of the Emergency Response Team. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-to-make-an-ass-out-of-u-and-me/458244/73 "2014-05-09T22:53:32Z")
This smells like a military joke, as told by sergeants. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2014, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-to-make-an-ass-out-of-u-and-me/458244/74 "2014-05-09T23:25:37Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > When you assert, you make an ass out of the Emergency Response Team. I would assent, but that would make an ass out of a walking tree. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-to-make-an-ass-out-of-u-and-me/458244/75 "2014-05-11T05:16:43Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Yeah, that was the first (pretty awful) sequel and it was Jack Warden who made the joke at the very beginning. He was only in the film for this first scene (though confusingly he played the Walter Matthau part in the short lived TV series based on the original movie!) I remember seeing it on HBO and immediately remembering The Odd Couple a few years earlier. > > First place I ever heard this was **Al Franken’s** great **Stuart Smalley** SNL character. It was the one where he was talking to Michael Jordan (the host) so we’re talking early 90s. I had never heard it before that so I found it really funny (still do). By the way, full joke is, _“Remember, **denial** ain’t just a river in Egypt!”_ > > Reminds me of another really funny joke Fred Willard told on Letterman a few years back that just has to be an old, bawdy vaudeville routine: _“You know what they say about a blind hooker don’t ya? You really have to hand it to them!”_ For Fred Willard, that seems to be pretty unfunny. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-to-make-an-ass-out-of-u-and-me/458244.md?page=3)