Felix and MacGyver Wouldn't Assume; Neither Should We

I LEARNED ABOUT ASSUMPTIONS FROM FELIX UNGER. Felix is, of course, one half of Neil Simon’s Odd Couple, portrayed by Tony Randall when the popular play-then-movie was translated to television. I recall watching an episode when I was about nine where Felix is defending Oscar (Jack Klugman), in court – the reason why escapes me – and chastises a woman on the witness stand because of an assumption she made. “Ah… you ‘assumed’!” Felix proclaims. He leaps to a nearby blackboard and scrawls the word in thick, self-righteous chalk capitals. “My dear, you should never ‘assume,” he says, then underlines three parts of the word. “You see, when you ‘assume’ you make an ASS of U and ME!” I thought it was pretty funny. (It was 1973. I liked wordplay even as a child, but I suspect the fact that he said “ass” tickled my funny bone as much as anything.)

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