schlemiel
{{Short description|Yiddish term meaning "incompetent person" or "fool"}}
Schlemiel ({{langx|yi|שלומיאל}}; sometimes spelled shlemiel) is a Yiddish term meaning "inept/incompetent person" or "fool".{{cite book|last=Harkavy |first=Alexander|authorlink=Alexander Harkavy|title=Yidish-English-Hebreyisher Verterbukh|date=1925|location=New York City|url=https://archive.org/details/nybc201108|publisher=Alexander Harkavy|language=yi}}{{page needed|date=January 2019}} It is a common archetype in Jewish humor, and so-called "schlemiel jokes" depict the schlemiel falling into unfortunate situations.{{Cite news|url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/schlemiels-schlemazels/|title=Schlemiel Jokes {{!}} My Jewish Learning|work=My Jewish Learning|access-date=2017-11-17}}
Meaning
File:Kirchner - Schlemihl in der Einsamkeit des Zimmers.jpg
The inept schlemiel is often presented alongside the unlucky schlimazel. A Yiddish saying explains that "a schlemiel is somebody who often spills his soup and a schlimazel is the person it lands on".{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/barry-kibrick/schlemiel-schlimazel-hase_b_8512356.html|title=Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!|last=Kibrick|first=Barry|date=2015-11-09|website=Huffington Post|access-date=2017-11-17}} The schlemiel is similar to the schmuck but, as stated in a 2010 essay in The Forward, a schmuck can improve himself while "a schlemiel, a schlimazel and a schmendrik are irredeemably what they are".{{Cite news|url=http://forward.com/culture/127941/etiquette-for-schmucks-schlemiels-schlimazels-and/|title=Etiquette for Schmucks, Schlemiels, Schlimazels and Schmendriks|work=The Forward|access-date=2017-11-17}}
The etymology of the term is unsure. Ernest Klein in his Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language suggests that the word comes from the Hebrew term {{Transliteration|he|shelo mo'il}}, meaning "useless".{{Cite web|url=http://www.balashon.com/2009/12/shlemiel.html|title=shlemiel|website=www.balashon.com|access-date=2017-11-17}} Another theory is that the word is derived from the name Shelumiel, an Israelite chieftain.{{Cite news|url=http://forward.com/culture/1043/shelumiel-e2-80-94-the-first-schlemiel/|title=Shelumiel – The First Schlemiel?|work=The Forward|access-date=2017-11-17}}
File:Chamisso Peter Schlemihl 1814.jpg
Heyse and some other etymologists suggest that the name comes from the words "shlomi" + "el" in the meaning "God is my salvation", i.e., a Schlemiel hopes that God will save him.
The term was popularized by the name of Peter Schlemihl, the main character of a 19th century novella by Adelbert von Chamisso.{{Cite journal|last=Zeldner|first=Max|date=1953|title=A Note on "Schlemiel"|journal=The German Quarterly|volume=26|issue=2|pages=115–117|doi=10.2307/401795|jstor=401795}}
According to Harvard University literature professor Ruth Wisse, the schlemiel as a type emerges in the Yiddish literature of the period of Jewish emancipation.The Shlemiel as a Modern Hero, by Ruth Wisse, University of Chicago Press, 1971. Review: Avni, Abraham. Comparative Literature, vol. 25, no. 4, 1973, pp. 361–363. {{JSTOR|1769513}}
In culture
- An archetype shlemiel entrepreneur is Menahem-Mendl of Sholem Aleichem.
- In a 1944 essay, Hannah Arendt argues that Charlie Chaplin's Tramp character is a schlemiel whose only comfort is "the kindness and humanity of casual acquaintances".{{Cite journal|last=Arendt|first=Hannah|authorlink=Hannah Arendt|date=1944|title=The Jew as Pariah: A Hidden Tradition|jstor=4464588|journal=Jewish Social Studies|volume=6|issue=2|pages=99–122}}
- Many of Woody Allen's films feature Allen portraying a schlemiel type, particularly in his relations with women.{{Cite book|title=A Companion to Woody Allen|last=Feuer|first=Menachem|date=2013|publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Inc.|isbn=9781118514870|editor-last=Bailey|editor-first=Peter|pages=403–423|doi=10.1002/9781118514870.ch19|editor-last2=Girgus|editor-first2=Sam|chapter = The Schlemiel in Woody Allen's Later Films}}
- Larry David's character on the HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm serves as a modern schlemiel, encountering "problems that affect contemporary middle- to upper-class American Jews".{{Cite journal|last=Gillota|first=David|date=2010-11-22|title=Negotiating Jewishness: Curb Your Enthusiasm and the Schlemiel Tradition|journal=Journal of Popular Film & Television|volume=38|issue=4|pages=152–161|doi=10.1080/01956051003725244|s2cid=143932889 |issn=0195-6051}}
- In the sitcom Seinfeld, George Costanza "follows the pattern of the classic schlemiel", with Jerry Seinfeld's character serving as his schlimazel.{{Cite journal|last=Johnson|first=Carla|date=1994-07-01|title=The Schlemiel and the Schlimazl in Seinfeld|journal=Journal of Popular Film & Television|volume=22|issue=3|pages=116–124|doi=10.1080/01956051.1994.9943676|issn=0195-6051}}
- The 1995 Israeli-European animated feature The Real Shlemiel centers on a village of schlemiels, with its rabbi even taking it as a given name.
- Software engineer Joel Spolsky coined the term Schlemiel the Painter's algorithm in 2001, based on a Yiddish joke, to describe a certain type of inefficient software method.
- The titular character of the 2004 comedy film Napoleon Dynamite embodies the traits of the schlemiel, according to researcher David Buchbinder.{{cite journal | last = Buchbinder | first = David | author-link = David Buchbinder | title = Enter the Schlemiel: the emergence of inadequate or incompetent masculinities in recent film and television | journal = Canadian Review of American Studies | volume = 38 | issue = 2 | pages = 227–245 | doi = 10.3138/cras.38.2.227| date = Summer 2008| s2cid = 163138459 }}
- In the drama series The O.C. (2003–2007), Seth Cohen's personality "is self-deprecating and in line with that of past schlemiels".{{Cite web|url=http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=hmcs_honors|title=Popular Representations of Jewish Identity on TV: The Case of The O.C.|last=Olson|first=Tamara|website=Digital Commons at Macalester College}}
- In the 2009 film A Serious Man directed by the Coen brothers, the character of Larry Gopnik is depicted as a schlemiel.{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/10/05/gods-and-victims|title=Gods And Victims|last=Denby|first=David|authorlink=David Denby|date=2009-09-28|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=2017-11-17|issn=0028-792X}}{{Cite news|url=http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/153484/coen-brothers-inside-llewyn-davis|title=J. Hoberman Reviews the Coen Brothers' 'Inside Llewyn Davis'|work=Tablet Magazine|access-date=2017-11-17}}
- In "Park Safety", a 2010 episode of the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation, Ron Swanson states that his clumsy coworker Jerry "is both the schlemiel and the schlimazel".{{Cite news|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/02/and-the-meek-shall-inherit-pawnee/385985/|title=The Downtrodden Jerry Gergich Is the True Hero of Parks and Recreation|last=Garber|first=Megan|work=The Atlantic|access-date=2017-11-17}}
- In Thomas Pynchon's novel V., the protagonist Benny Profane is identified as a schlemiel numerous times.