Hi,

I was listening to "The Impractical Joke" the other night and it motivated me to ask a question about it that has had me curious for some time. In the very first scene where Buddy is pulling his phone gag, he calls Madame Guy's Flower Shop asking if she has "cooking chrysanthemums" for "the Shah of Zolzai." (Pardon me if I'm not spelling that correctly.) Then he says, "That's right, the Zolzine Shah" after which the audience laughs.

For the life of me (and even after searching online) I cannot figure out that joke and why "the Zolzine Shah" was a funny line. Can someone explain it to this pinhead. :crazy:

Thanks !

For easy reference, you can find the episode in question at Hulu (http://www.hulu.com/watch/114044/the-dick-van-dyke-show-the-impractical-joke). The gag starts around 45 seconds into the episode.

Hi,

I was listening to "The Impractical Joke" the other night and it motivated me to ask a question about it that has had me curious for some time. In the very first scene where Buddy is pulling his phone gag, he calls Madame Guy's Flower Shop asking if she has "cooking chrysanthemums" for "the Shah of Zolzai." (Pardon me if I'm not spelling that correctly.) Then he says, "That's right, the Zolzine Shah" after which the audience laughs.

For the life of me (and even after searching online) I cannot figure out that joke and why "the Zolzine Shah" was a funny line. Can someone explain it to this pinhead. :crazy:

Thanks !

For easy reference, you can find the episode in question at Hulu (http://www.hulu.com/watch/114044/the-dick-van-dyke-show-the-impractical-joke). The gag starts around 45 seconds into the episode.
It's not an obvious one. A little Googling revealed that "zol zein shah" is Yiddish for "shut up"!

It's not an obvious one. A little Googling revealed that "zol zein shah" is Yiddish for "shut up"!
Oy vey!!

...would get the joke (and I suspect the majority of those in the studio audience the night that episode was filmed were Jewish). The only other time I've heard "zol zein shah" used in a "mainstream" film or TV show, was when Daffy Duck (!) said it [holding up a sign of the same phrase in Hebrew] in a 1938 Warner Bros. cartoon, "The Daffy Doc".

:tv:

Great ! Thanks for clearing that up for me. I'm sure I never would have found that out for myself (even with Google). :)