Schlemiel or Schlemozzle

Part of my late 1970's and early 1908's TV menu was a steady diet of Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley, even when they moved to California. However, it was not until this week that I began to understand the deeper value of the latter show.

At the start of every Laverne and Shirley show they are walking down the street arm and arm coming at a stop in front of some stairs. At this point they both yell out two Yiddish words I have never understood until now: Schlemiel and Schlemozzle.

Here is what Fredrick Buechner says about these words, "The Yiddish word schlemiel has been translated as the kind of person who is always going around spilling soup on people and a schlemozzle as the kind of person he is always spilling it on." (Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale)

With this in mind the show makes so much for sense! Laverne is the schlemiel and Shirley is the schlemozzle.

I believe it is safe to say that Jesus was the schlemozzle to our schlemiel.