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Herb Smith
Credit Group, Portrayed By	Guest Starring Wallace Shawn
First Appearance	Doink
Last Appearance	Panty Pose

Herb Smith

Hack joke writer. Diner denizen. Sophie Lennon’s ex.

Biography

S1E5 - Meets with Midge at The Stage Deli and agrees to write jokes for her. $15 for the first five minutes.

S1E5 - Sends Midge’s packet of jokes to B. Altman’s, with a pickle. Takes a confused phone call from her.

S1E5 - Comes to see Midge’s set at the Gaslight.

S3E3 - Susie meets Sophie at her house. Sophie escorts Susie up to the writer's room, where Herb Smith, Ted, and several other men are toiling away at jokes with no sense even of what time or day it is.

Quotes & Dialogue

MIDGE: Excuse me. Herb Smith?
HERB: That depends. Are you with the government?
MIDGE: No.
HERB: Then I'm Herb Smith. I joke.
– S1E5

MIDGE: Herb, hi. Midge Maisel.
HERB: And not the IRS? Thank God.
– S1E5

HERB: You see the pickle?
MIDGE: I did see the pickle.
HERB: The pickle's funny.
– S1E5

SUSIE: Okay, I'm just trying to catch up here. How do you know Herb Smith?
HERB: She answered my ad in the Hollywood Reporter. Hi, Susie.
SUSIE: You hired the Stage Deli bottom-feeder to write your act?
HERB: All based on her notebook. Lot of good stuff in there.
MIDGE: Nothing from these cards came from my notebook.
SUSIE: Yeah, because he sells the same crappy jokes to everyone who hires him. He's a fuckin' recycler!
– S1E5

HERB: Hey, Midge, one thought?
SUSIE: Oh, he's got a thought.
HERB: The husband joke? When you hit him over the head with the frying pan, it's not “doink.” It's… “Doy-yoy-yoy-yoy-yoink!”
MIDGE: Herb, the thing I'm gonna hit you over the head with, your screams are gonna drown out the doy-yoy-yoy-yoy-yoy-yoink!
– S1E5

HERB: Oh! Hi, Susie.
SUSIE: You're working for Sophie, huh?
HERB: Yeah. Going on 20 years now. We used to be married.
– S3E3

HERB: Susie, what time is it?
SUSIE: Uh, around 3:00.
TED: A.M. or P.M.?
SUSIE: You're joking, right?
HERB: Could you get word to my mom? Tell her I'm okay?
– S3E3

Appearances

Season 1

Doink

Season 3

Panty Pose

Trivia

Wallace Shawn also appeared in the Palladinos’ previous series, The Return of Jezebel James, as Garson Leeds.

His number is shown on-screen in S1E5 as “KL5-0187”