Originally Posted by
arb
Assuming (making an ass out of u and ming) isn't always bad. The phrase "better safe than sorry comes to mind.
I looked this up because I have heard many different versions.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Belson
Abbot & Costello
I must be the oldest person on the Internet because no one else has posted that this was a bit that was done by Abbott and Costello back in the fifties, and they may have used it in their vaudeville routine prior to that. Lou Costello even used the blackboard to show Bud Abbott ass + u + me = assume. The writers from the odd couple stole that bit.
'The odd couple'.
It was definitely you make an "ass out of you and me". Felix had a blackboard in the courtroom and as he said "when you assume" with a heavy emphasis on the first syllable, he wrote out the letters A S S, which he circled, then the U, which I think he circled, then the M E, which I think he also circled. And IIRC, the court case was not about a traffic ticket, but allegedly scalping tickets to some event (that I don't remember.)
Yes, Oscar and Felix were arrested for scalping a ticket to a Broadway play, since Oscar couldn't get a date. It was the episode called "My Strife in Court," first aired on February 16, 1973.
When I first heard of, it was "To assume makes a 'ass out of you in front of me" different version.
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