Word, Schmord
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Magic, schmagic. Boooo! —Rainbow Dash, from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Viewable here.
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A Stock Phrase, or rather, a Stock Phrase Template. A character scornfully dismisses a warning or advice for restraint by repeating the word that represents the advice, then the same word with its beginning replaced with "schm-". "Safety, schmafety!" "Rules, schmules!"
The Other Wiki tells us the actual name for this is Shm-reduplication and it's, unsurprisingly, of Yiddish origin.
Advertising
- All the kids want to play these these days is Tetris, Schmetris! Whatever happened to the unicycle? And the ball?
Film
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show: "Planet, schmanet, Janet!"
Live-Action TV
- Fraggle Rock used this in at least one episode. There was a whole string of examples until somebody said, "Fraggles, schmaggles," which was apparently the most shocking thing any fraggle could ever say.
- An episode of Scrubs had JD claiming he could rhyme anything, but did so by repeating whatever the last person said and invoking this trope. Leading to this punchline to a Brick Joke when he annoys Lavern earlier in a scene;
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JD *cheerfully*: Eat schmit and die. |
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- The Colbert Report had its "Evolution, Schmevolution" Week.
- In the Married... with Children episode "The Joke's on Al", Officer Dan has Griff arrested on the counts of "indecent exposure, murder, cannibalism" as a practical joke. Later, a TV report is seen about his arrest:
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Announcer: This news bulletin just in: The Chicago Cannibal has been arraigned for over 100 murders. The cannibal, shown in this picture, says he's innocent, claiming there is no evidence. The D.A. responded by saying, "Evidence, schmevidence". |
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- In the David Letterman Top Ten List of "Other O.J. Defense Rhymes" (on both the show and the book), Number one was "Evidence, Schevidence".
Music
- In Tom Lehrer's song "Wernher von Braun":
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Call him a Nazi, he won't even frown. |
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- Harry Nilsson's 1971 album Nilsson Schmilsson.
Newspaper Comics
- There's a Far Side cartoon with several characters saying some variant of the phrase: "Neanderthals Schmeanderthals" (mammoths), "Indians Schmindians" (Custer), "Huns Schmuns" (castle guards), "Genghis Schmengis" (Chinese soldiers). The caption is "History Schmistory".
- In Zits, Connie reads an article about how the decision-making part of the brain isn't fully mature until the early 20s. She then says, "Science, schmience," as she decides to punish Jeremy.
Web Original
- Done by Homestar Runner in the Strong Bad Email "video games", where Strong Bad is talking about vague text parsers in text adventure games.
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Strong Bad: And you'd be all like "get ye flask", and it'd say "You can't get ye flask", and you'd just have to sit there and imagine why on Earth you can't get ye flask! Because the game's certainly not going to tell you. |
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- A variant from "part-time job":
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Bubs: Pictures with the Tragic Clown Dog ain't free! 50 bucks! 60 bucks! Get back here and let me confiscate your film! |
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This Very Wiki
Western Animation
- Bugs Bunny short Ali Baba Bunny: After collecting a load of treasure, Daffy Duck gets a genie angry by cramming him back inside his lamp.
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Genie: Duck, you have desecrated the Spirit of the Lamp! Prepare to face the consequences! |
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- Another Merrie Melodies cartoon, Hobo Bobo, tells the story of Bobo the baby elephant, who didn't like his job in India - carrying logs with his trunk. Eventually he joins a circus in the United States, where they had performing elephants playing baseball. The Narrator tells us, "He is now the official batboy."
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Bobo: "Batboy, shmatboy, I'm still carryin' logs!" |
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- And this being the Merrie Melodies / Looney Tunes library, that's just for starters.
- The Venture Brothers episode "Hate Floats": One of the Monarch's henchmen has a closet full of toys that he proposes to use for the group to battle their way out of a bad situation. At one point he says, "Toys, schmoys!"
- Dale Gribble attempted to do this in one episode of King of the Hill, but he got tripped up trying to say "Mask, Schmask."
- The Simpsons episode "Bart's Friend Falls in Love":
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Bart: How would I go about creating a half-man, half-monkey-type creature? |
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- And "Lisa The Skeptic" loved it.
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Lisa: Hey, they can't just build a parking lot on Saber Tooth meadow! That's where they found all those fossils! |
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- And later the same episode, "facts schmacts".
- The South Park episode "Rainforest Schmainforest".
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic does this every once in a while, especially Rainbow Dash seems to be fond of it. The page quote is even from Rainbow Dash.
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Twilight Sparkle: Curses, Schmurses |
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Rainbow Dash: Loyalty, Schmoyalty. Have you guys seen Ponyville? It's a DISASTER! |
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Rainbow Dash: Easy Schmeasy! |
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- When CatDog becomes cowboys in the rodeo, Rancid Rabbit tells them to take the fall for a huge bull because the audience favors him according to a phone survey. Dog replies with "Phone survey, schmone schmurvey!".
Real Life
- During a staff meeting of the Israeli government in 1955, Prime Minister David Ben Gurion responded to a comment about Israel owing its existence to the UN with the words "Um shmum",[1]), UM being the acronym for the United Nations in Hebrew.[2]
- In Portland, Oregon, there's a pizza chain called "Pizza Schmizza". It got its name when the founder's father told him, "Pizza schmizza — get a real job."
- ↑ Or um schmum, or oum shmoom, or oum shmoum, or...
- ↑ The full name is roughly "haUmot haMaochadot".