1719 Wordworst

So if you've experienced my commentary in any media modality before, you know I'm fascinated by words and phrases. Like the other day I was reading a book translated from Swedish. It was a pretty good book. But I couldn't help but wonder if it was a good book because the original Swedish writer was good or because the translator was also a good writer.
In any event, he used the phrase many of us have heard, "if worse comes to worst." Except he said, "If worst comes to worst." That seemed wrong somehow. If already-the-worst comes to already-the-worst, where's the progression? The normal order would be bad, worse, and worst. Positive, comparative, and superlative.
So you would say, "When bad comes to worse, we will move." And then say, "If worse comes to worst we'll move even further." But I doubt you'd say if worst comes to worst. Something must have been lost in translation. Maybe Swedish adjectives are always at their most extremist.
Then again, he could have just misspelled the Swedish sausage.
I came across another word of mysterious literary lineage the other day. Some commentator was talking about politics and he referred to a party's leaders as the grand Pooh-Bahs of the party.
Pooh-Bah. It's a weird word when you think about it. Pooh-Bah. He's a Pooh-Bah. You wonder. Is it only masculine? Can there be a she Pooh-Bah?
Pooh-Bah actually comes from a pompous character in W.S Gilbert's Mikado. Sounds to me like something you play in a marching band. Trombones and Pooh-Bahs filled the air.
Or perhaps something Christopher Robin's animal would snarl when feeling cross-literarily Scrooge-ish. "Bah," said Pooh. "Humbug."
There's another one. Humbug? What type of bug is that?
Some many odd words---Scrooge, Pooh-Bah, Pooh, humbug. Literarily, worst really has come to worst.
America ya gotta love it.