EXPLAINING THE LETTERS “KMIT” AND WHAT THEY REALLY MEAN

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“KMIT”…The tag was the vanity licence plate that Mel Blanc had on his car in California for many years. In case you don’t know who Mel Blanc was, he was the most prolific voice actor in history; the voice of many Warner Brothers cartoon characters we all surely remember from our childhood; Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Sylvester the Cat, and a whole lot more.

When vanity license plates first came out in California in the early 1960s Blanc had applied to the DMV for a plate reading “KMIT” for his car. The DMV officials in charge of vanity plates thought it might be the call letters of a radio station which would have been prohibited because it was commercial. Blanc told them: “No it wasn’t a radio station; it was an old Jewish expression: “Know Me In Truth”. They bought it and a California vanity license plate reading “KMIT” was issued to him.

What did Mel Blanc actually have in mind when he chose “KMIT” for his car’s vanity license plate? Mel confided in friends that it really stood for “Kush Mir im Tuchis” which is Yiddish for “kiss me in the behind” or more graphically, “Kiss My Ass”. The California DMV never caught on and Blanc had the KMIT license plate on his car until his death in 1989.

In honor of Mel, in 2013 a friend of mine, who has now passed away was able to obtain “KMIT” on his New Hampshire car vanity license plates.

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Published:
11.12.21 5:32
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