Dewey, Cheatem & Howe
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Dewey, Cheatem & Howe ("Do we cheat 'em? [Yes, we do,] And how!", "how" used as an intensifier) is the gag name of a fictional law firm, used in several parody settings. For example, a popular Three Stooges poster features the Stooges as bumbling members of such a firm (although the name was never used in an actual episode). Similarly, mention of a firm by this name is employed by comic figures such as Groucho Marx and Daffy Duck. In Leisure Suit Larry III, the protagonist must pay several visits to a firm by this name.
The name pokes fun at the perceived propensity of some lawyers to take advantage of their clients. Many law professors perversely work "Dewey, Cheatem & Howe" into the hypotheticals presented on final exams, especially in professional responsibility and legal ethics courses.
There is a variant law firm, lesser known, by the name of Howe, Dewey, Cheatem and Wynn which is similarly amorphic in its physical existence, but nevertheless is known in certain circles.
Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers, the pseudonyms of Tom and Ray Magliozzi of NPR's Car Talk radio program, named their corporation for managing the business end of Car Talk "Dewey, Cheatem & Howe." The DC&H corporate offices are located on a third-floor office, directly above the corner of Brattle and JFK Streets, in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The office is clearly visible from the square and, like the show, is a perennial source of amusement to the denizens of Cambridge.
The name is mentioned in One Night at McCool's during an early scene with Paul Reiser and Matt Dillon.
The UK magazine Private Eye uses the similarly-inspired "Sue, Grabbitt and Runne" (sue, grab it and run) when satirising the legal profession, reflecting the magazine's experience defending from libel lawsuits.
In the Simpsons episode Bart the Fink the family visits the law firm: "Dewey, Cheathem, Howe, & Weissmann" (the joke being that the addition of "Weissmann" ruins the pun).
In a set of legal forms published for lawyers and other legal professionals, one fictitious law-firm name is "Skrewer, Widow & Children."
In the late 1950's, MAD Magazine ran an article spoofing college catalogs. Under the heading of "Business Law," the instructors in one class were named as "Mr. Batton, Mr. Barton, Mr. Durstine, and Mr. Tanakawa," a spoof of the name of the advertising agency Batton, Barton, Durstine, and Osborne (BBD&O).
