The Schmilblick is an imaginary object first described in a nonsense prose by the French

humorist A humorist is an intellectual who uses humor, or wit, in writing or public speaking. A raconteur is one who tells anecdotes in a skillful and amusing way. Henri Bergson writes that a humorist's work grows from viewing the morals of society ...

Pierre Dac André Isaac (15 August 1893 Châlons-sur-Marne, France – 9 February 1975 Paris, France), better known as Pierre Dac, was a French humorist. During World War II, Pierre Dac was one of the speakers of the BBC's ''Radio Londres'' service to occu ...

during the 1950s. According to its creator, the Schmilblick can be used in almost any occasion, therefore being strictly indispensable. Dac himself credits the fictional brothers Jules and Raphaël Fauderche with its invention ("Fauderche" means "Fake arse" in French). The ''Schmilblick'' resurfaced in 1969, in a TV show by

Guy Lux Guy Maurice Lux (21 June 1919 – 13 June 2003) was a French Television presenter, TV host and Television producer, producer best known for his 1961 creation of the game show ''Intervilles'' and its numerous spinoffs. During his 40 year career, ...

and

Jacques Antoine Jacques Antoine (14 March 1924 – 14 September 2012) was a French creator and producer of game shows. His most famous creations include '' Treasure Hunt'', ''Interceptor'', '' Fort Boyard'', and ''The Crystal Maze''. Personal life Jacques Anto ...

entitled ''Le Schmilblic'' (sometimes spelled ''Schmilblik'' or ''Schmilblick''). The aim of the game was to guess the name of an object given some of its characteristics (color, shape, use and so on). This TV game actually re-uses an idea from an old radio show called ''Tirlipot'' created several years before. The word quickly became very popular in

French language French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-R ...

and was sometimes used as a

placeholder name Placeholder names are intentionally overly generic and ambiguous terms referring to things, places, or people, the names of which or of whom do not actually exist; are temporarily forgotten, or are unimportant; or in order to avoid stigmat ...

, particularly for a strange or unknown object similar to English words like "thingamajig" or "whatchamacallit". Nowadays, this word is occasionally used to refer to some limited help provided by someone to solve a difficult problem. The idiom is actually ''faire avancer le schmilblick'' ("to make the schmilblick move/get ahead", literally) and was used a lot in the TV quiz show where it meant asking another pertinent question that might make it easier to guess the object.

Coluche Michel Gérard Joseph Colucci (, ; 28 October 1944 – 19 June 1986), better known under his stage name Coluche (), was a French stage comedian, cinema actor, activist and philanthropist. He adopted ''Coluche'' as a stage name at age 26, when he ...

used this word in one of his sketches, a parody of

's show.

References

External links

Pierre Dac's original sketch
French words and phrases Fictional objects {{word-stub

See also

References

External links