Dewey, Cheatem & Howe
Dewey, Cheatem & Howe is the gag name of a fictional law or accounting firm,[1] used in several parody settings. Comic figures Johnny Carson, Groucho Marx, and Daffy Duck were the among first to mention a firm of this name[citation needed]. The gag name pokes fun at the perceived propensity of some lawyers and accountants who take advantage of their clients, as the name of the firm is a pun on the phrase "Do we cheat them? And how!". This gag name is also used more broadly as a placeholder for any hypothetical law firm.[2][3][4][5][6]
The spelling of the second name varies somewhat, including Cheetem, Cheater, Cheethem and Cheatham.
Examples
Tom and Ray Magliozzi, of NPR's Car Talk radio program, named their business corporation "Dewey, Cheetham & Howe". Their corporate offices are located on a third-floor office at the corner of Brattle and JFK street in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The name of "DC&H" corporation on the window of their office is readable from ground level. The Magliozzi brothers have asserted that they established the firm in 1989, although this assertion is immediately followed by the sentence "In all seriousness, we've had lot of fun along the way."[7]
A popular Three Stooges poster features the Stooges as bumbling members of such a firm, although the actual episodes use the name "Dewey, Burnham, and Howe".
The champion Standardbred race horse Deweycheatumnhowe takes his name from this pun. On August 3, 2008, that undefeated horse won harness racing's most prestigious event, the Hambletonian Stakes, run at the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, New Jersey.[8]
Variants exist on the theme. The British magazine Private Eye uses "Sue, Grabbitt, and Runne" ("sue, grab it and run") when satirising the legal profession, reflecting the magazine's experience defending from libel lawsuits. In a set of legal forms published for lawyers and other legal professionals,[vague] one fictitious law-firm name is "Skrewer, Widow & Children." The narrating presidential aide in Christopher Buckley's novel The White House Mess came from the law firm of "Dewey, Scruem, and Howe".
A firm of lawyers in Leamington Spa are called Wright Hassall Solicitors,[9] a homonym for the phrase "right hassle".[10]
Payne & Fears LLP is the Irvine, CA, law practice of James Payne and Daniel Fears, who allude on their website to their "unintentionally ominous name."
See also
- Aptronym, a personal name descriptive of the person so named.
- Blackacre, another legal placeholder name
- do-dew merger
References
- ^ Gerald P. Koocher, Patricia Keith-Spiegel (1998). Ethics in psychology: professional standards and cases. Oxford University Press. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-19-509201-1.
- ^ "The Fullname Citation Style". Harvard University. Retrieved 2010-03-09.
- ^ "LaTeX letter using "appmhead" styles". University of Colorado at Boulder. Retrieved 2010-03-09.
- ^ "Math 103, Fall 2009, questions for final exam televised review, with solutions" (PDF). Rutgers University. Retrieved 2010-03-09.
- ^ "MEET YOUR CLIENTS - CONSUMER PROTECTION - FALL 2002" (PDF). Georgia State University. Retrieved 2010-03-09.
- ^ "RESEARCH MEMO ASSIGNMENT". Louisiana State University. Retrieved 2010-03-10.
- ^ "The History of Car Talk". Cartalk (cartalk.com). Retrieved 2010-03-09.
- ^ New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority, August 2, 2008
- ^ Wright Hassall Solicitors
- ^ "Wright Hassall = Right Hassle solicitors (The One Show photo gallery)". BBC. Retrieved 16 December 2009.