Potrzebie (; dative/ locative of '' potrzeba'', "a need") is a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

word popularized by its non sequitur use as a

running gag A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling. Though they are similar, catchphrases are no ...

in the early issues of '' Mad'' not long after the comic book began in 1952.

Origin

''Mad'' editor

Harvey Kurtzman Harvey Kurtzman (; October 3, 1924 – February 21, 1993) was an American cartoonist and editor. His best-known work includes writing and editing the parodic comic book '' Mad'' from 1952 until 1956, and writing the ''Little Ann ...

spotted the word printed in the Polish language section of a multi-languaged "Instructions for Use" sheet accompanying a bottle of

aspirin Aspirin, also known as acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used to reduce pain, fever, and/or inflammation, and as an antithrombotic. Specific inflammatory conditions which aspirin is used to treat inc ...

, and Kurtzman, who was fascinated with unusual words, decided it would make an appropriate but meaningless background gag. After cutting the word out of the instruction sheet, he made copies and used rubber cement to paste "Potrzebie" randomly into the middle of ''Mad'' satires.

Appearances

''Potrzebie'' was first used in a story in ''Mad'' #11 (May 1954), where it was the exclamation of a character who spoke only in foreign languages and song lyrics, in "Murder the Story," a parody illustrated by Jack Davis. It was used again in Bernard Krigstein's "From Eternity Back to Here!" in ''Mad'' #12 (June 1954) on an airplane advertising banner. With the same type font, it reappeared in Jack Davis's "Book! Movie!" in ''Mad'' #13 (July 1954), pasted into a panel as the title of an abstract painting seen in the background. In the same issue the word appears as POTS-REBIE, emblazoned on a cauldron in which Robinson Crusoe is roasting a frankfurter. This piece reappeared in one of the earliest ''Mad'' paperbacks, ''Bedside Mad'' It was illustrated as a

rebus A rebus () is a puzzle device that combines the use of illustrated pictures with individual letters to depict words or phrases. For example: the word "been" might be depicted by a rebus showing an illustrated bumblebee next to a plus sign (+ ...

in "Puzzle Pages!" in ''Mad'' #19 (January 1955). These stories, like others in ''Mad'' comics, were written by Harvey Kurtzman. Frequent repetition gave it the status of a

catch phrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

or in-joke among the readership which continues to the present day. In the first ''Mad Style Guide'', edited by

Bhob Stewart Robert Marion Stewart, known as Bhob Stewart (November 12, 1937 – February 24, 2014) was an American writer, editor, cartoonist, filmmaker, and active fan who contributed to a variety of publications over a span of five decades. His articles a ...

in 1994, the word was made available for display on T-shirts and other licensed ''Mad'' products. It also sees occasional use as a

metasyntactic variable A metasyntactic variable is a specific word or set of words identified as a placeholder in computer science and specifically computer programming. These words are commonly found in source code and are intended to be modified or substituted before ...

hackers A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...

. A typical appearance of the word is exemplified by the ''Mad'' version of

Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

's ''

Canterbury Tales ''The Canterbury Tales'' ( enm, Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's ''magnum opus ...

'' (from ''Mad'' #43, December 1958), which begins: :"Whon thot Aprille swithin potrzebie, :"The burgid prillie gives one heebie-jeebie.

System of measurement

In issue 33, ''Mad'' published a partial table of the "Potrzebie System of Weights and

Measures Measure may refer to: * Measurement, the assignment of a number to a characteristic of an object or event Law * Ballot measure, proposed legislation in the United States * Church of England Measure, legislation of the Church of England * Measu ...

", developed by 19-year-old

Donald E. Knuth Donald Ervin Knuth ( ; born January 10, 1938) is an American computer scientist, mathematician, and professor emeritus at Stanford University. He is the 1974 recipient of the ACM Turing Award, informally considered the Nobel Prize of computer sc ...

, later a famed computer scientist. According to Knuth, the basis of this new revolutionary system is the potrzebie, which equals the thickness of ''Mad'' issue 26, or 2.2633484517438173216473 mm, although a digit was mistakenly dropped and the thickness appeared as 2.263348517438173216473 mm in the MAD article. A standardization in terms of the wavelength of the red line of the emission spectrum of

cadmium Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, silvery-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Like zinc, it demonstrates oxidation state +2 in most of ...

is also given, which if the 1927 definition of the Ångstrom is taken for the value of that wavelength, would equal 2.263347539605392 mm. Volume was measured in ngogn (equal to 1000 cubic potrzebies), mass in

blintz A blintz ( he, חֲבִיתִית; yi, בלינצע) is a rolled filled pancake of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, similar to a '' crepe'' or Russian ''blini''. History Traditional blintzes are filled with sweetened cheese, sometimes with the addition ...

(equal to the mass of 1 ngogn of halavah, which is "a form of pie

ith The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany. Geography Location The Ith is immediatel ...

specific gravity Relative density, or specific gravity, is the ratio of the density (mass of a unit volume) of a substance to the density of a given reference material. Specific gravity for liquids is nearly always measured with respect to water at its densest ...

of 3.1416 and a specific heat of .31416"), and time in seven named units (decimal powers of the average earth rotation, equal to 1 "

clarke Clarke is a surname which means "clerk". The surname is of English and Irish origin and comes from the Latin . Variants include Clerk and Clark. Clarke is also uncommonly chosen as a given name. Irish surname origin Clarke is a popular surname i ...

"). The system also features such units as '' whatmeworry'', '' cowznofski'', ''vreeble'', ''hoo'' and ''hah''. According to the "Date" system in Knuth's article, which substitutes a 10-clarke " mingo" for a month and a 100-clarke " cowznofski", for a year, the date of October 29, 2007, was originally rendered as "Cal 7, 201 C.M." (for Cowznofsko Madi, or "in the Cowznofski of our MAD"). The dates are calculated from October 1, 1952, the date MAD was first published. Dates before this point are referred to, tongue-in-cheek, as "B.M." ("Before MAD.") Later Knuth preferred 0-origin indexing, so October 29, 2007 is now rendered as "Cal 6, 201 C.M.". The ten "Mingoes" are: Tales (Tal.) Calculated (Cal.) To (To) Drive (Dri.) You (You) Humor (Hum.) In (In) A (A) Jugular (Jug.) Vein (Vei.) Google's calculator can perform conversions from the potrzebie system to other units.3 potrzebie / 2 ngogn = 0.000292824232 kilometers per liter
(retrieved October 31, 2017)

References

External links

''The Dual Role of Bob Brookmeyer'': Jimmy Raney's "Potrezebie" (sic)

''Salon'': "The Art of Don E. Knuth" by Mark Wallace

{{Mad magazine Mad (magazine) In-jokes Running gags Polish words and phrases Units of measurement Donald Knuth 1950s neologisms Comedy catchphrases Quotations from comics