Born Merwyn Bogue, this versatile and amusing artist managed to come up with a stage name that was even weirder sounding than his real name. Or actually, his boss, Kay Kyser, came up with the name when the trumpeter joined Kyser's band in 1931. At first, "Ish Kabibble" was just the name of a trumpet feature that allowed Bogue a chance to do his thing. When Kyser became the host of the enormously popular '30s radio program kraftily kalled Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge, Bogue began to portray a perpetually silly and addled character named Ish Kabibble, serving as a comical sidekick to the leader. Why Bogue decided to take his character's name as his own might have had something to do with being named Merwyn Bogue, but the most likely inspiration for the Kabibble name itself was a humorous popular song by Sam Lewis entitled "Isch Gabibble" or "I Should Worry," published in 1913.
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