Wonga and Yankel?

[HarryP]

On the 49-03-27 program at about 8 minutes, Jack says, "you can say that again, Wonga" to Phil. I understand that part, but Phil replies "Well, how about it, Yankel?". Is that a Benny nickname? Apologies if this has been hashed over, but I didn't find it in a forum search.

Maybe the writers figured Wonga calling Jack "Benny" wouldn't work out so well.

Also, Googling reveals that Yankel is a common Yiddish nickname for "Jacob", so maybe someone actually called him that after he traded Benny for Jack.

[Roman]

I understood the Yankel reference to be exactly as you did - a Yiddish version of Jack (Jacob). I don't know if the writers wrote it or Phil ad-libbed, but it seemed clear that it was meant to be a friendly insult in response to Jack's Wonga crack. What struck me about it, and makes me think it was an ad-lib, was that Jack made VERY few references to his being Jewish. So it would seem unlikely that the writers would have written this. But who knows? Around that same time, they surprised me by having Jack mention his original name of Benny Kubelsky. So maybe the Yankel line was in the script.

[LLeff]

So you got my curiosity up enough to refer to the scripts. Both Jack's "Wonga" and Phil's "Yankel" were ad libs. Original lines:

Jack: You can say that again.
Phil: Well, how about it, Bub...can you cash my check for me?