1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!
If your old like me then you may recall that little chant from the opening sequence of the Laverne and Shirley show . . . actually I’m not dating myself all that much since I only caught the show in syndication. So, nuts to you!
The little ditty is a Yiddish-American hopscotch chant. Okay, that clears that up but what is a schlemiel and, for the love of Pete, what in the heck is a Schlimazel??
A schlimazel is the guy who walks past a second floor window-ledge and knocks the flower pot off . . . a schlemiel is the guy walking underneath.
A schlemiel is a klutz . . . an awkward person. A schlimazel is a born loser. It’s kind of a commentary of the type of people that Laverne and Shirley were I guess because they were always finding themselves in sticky situations and pretty much always down on their luck. Like Lavern and Shirly . . . you can’t have a schlemiel without a schlimazel . . . they go together.
Kind of like ramma lamma lamma ka dinga da dinga dong. Something like that, anyway.