Attention, Bill Maher!

Okay, I don't think he reads this weblog but maybe somebody does who could call this to his attention…

Bill…I'm watching you on Larry King Live, and you just said some very nice things about Johnny Carson. But then you said to Larry, "Sim holla bim," and explained that you use that phrase often because it was what Johnny always said when he was playing Carnac the Magnificent. Not quite.

The phrase is "sim sala bim." These were the magic words coined and made famous by the late, great magician, Dante. It's sometimes spelled as one word — "simsalabim" — but the middle part starts with an "S," not an "H." This became a very famous phrase/word in the world of professional magicians, and many a rabbit-producer utilized them. Carson probably used it when he was in that line of work. (You can see Dante in action in a Laurel and Hardy feature, A-Haunting We Will Go. He says "sim sala bim" about eight thousand times in it.)

I agree with some of what you said on the show about the environment and the War in Iraq and Social Security and the deficit, and disagree with other things…but that's trivia. Misquoting Carson and Dante is monumental.