Not Just Sackcloth and Ashes

The Israelis are remarkably resilient people.  In times of trouble and trauma they, like a lot of other Jews, turn to humor, sometimes a “gallows humor,” about their situation.  There is a long history of Jewish comedians, from Sid Caesar, Mel Brooks, Don Rickles, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David and Bette Midler, Paula Poundstone, Fran Drescher, and Sarah Silverman along with the 522 other Jewish comics listed by Wikipedia.  From Sophie Tucker (1907) to Sara Silverman (now), Jewish comics have provided a steady stream of “Jewish” and other types of humor.

With regard to the “Jewish” humor, here are a few current examples, with thanks to Joshua Hoffman, author of  “The Future of Jewish” on Substack : 

On the Zara “mistake” (from Meital Avni):  “Dear Zara, we saw the picture you posted yesterday with a red wall, white model, and green scarf and you didn’t mean the Palestinian flag?  No Way!  By accident, by chance.  Right.  Do you know how many times I accidently gave my child five doses of Tylenol when he had a fever and sent him on to kindergarten, completely by accident.  Tell me, do you think we are fools?  Have an H & M day.”

Or this one from Eretz Nehederet (“Wonderful Country) in their sketch about the pink and blue haired Columbia students.  One student in a Palestinian scarf tells the camera…..”here we are live on YouTube with Columbia Antisemity News, where everyone is welcome: LGBTQH.”  “What’s the H?” asks the other student.  “Hamas” is the answer and then the two students chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”  One student says the other: “Do you know why it’s true?  Because it rhymes.”

And for real gallows humor, this one: after the explosion of the Hezbollah pagers, many Israelis switched around the college campus expression, “from the river to the sea” to “from the liver to the knee.” 

Israelis are particularly known for their rather blunt demeanor.  A journalist approaches a group of three Jews, one from the US, one from Russia, and one from Israel.  “Excuse me,” the journalist asks, “what to you think about the current shortage of meat?”

The American asks, “A shortage?  What’s that?”
The Russian asks, “Meat?  What’s that?”
The Israeli asks, “Excuse me?  What’s that?”

As Jews, we are not unaware of how certain portions of the population view us.  Try this one on:

Two Jews are walking down the street.  One is telling the other about the tough time his business is having, and with the new baby, cash is pretty thin.  They walk past a church with a big sidewalk sign that says, “We pay $$ for conversion!”  The down-on-his-luck guy stops and looks and then says to his companion, “give me a few minutes, I am going to check this out.”  He is gone for more than a few minutes and when he comes back wearing a cross on his lapel his companion asks, “Well, how much did you get?”  To which the brand-new convert replies, “You Jews are always thinking about money.”

Or this:  Two Jews are sitting on a train in Nazi Germany; one is reading Der Sturmer and the other is reading a Yiddish paper.  The latter asks, “How can you stand reading that antisemitic rag?”  He answers, “When I read Der Sturmer, I hear about how rich and powerful the Jews are, and when I read the Jewish papers, I read only about our tsuris (troubles)!”

And, sometimes, the Jewish “jokes” are not told by Jews or really even about them.  Dave Chappell is a smart, funny guy.  Right on the edge and sometimes over it.  He is also, I think, an antisemite.  He got in real trouble with a couple of disparaging comments about Jews.  So did Kanye West.  But Chappelle, in his first appearance on Saturday Night Live after his unvarnished thoughts were aired, told the audience that he would start his monologue with a prepared statement: “I denounce antisemitism in all forms, and I stand with my friends in the Jewish community.”  Then he looked up and added, “And that, Kanye, is how you buy yourself some time.”

Two points here:  First, I do not think Chappell cares one whit about apologizing for what he said because he believes it.  His “sorry, not really sorry” statement was really a set-up for his  joke.   Second, I am sure he remains an antisemite and I will never again watch or pay to see him.  But damn, that was a great dis on Kanye.

A few points here.  First, Jewish jokes are best told by Jews to Jews.  There is usually a cultural context that adds to the humor.  If you are not Jewish, you may not have found these “jokes” particularly funny.  I found them all terrifically funny.   Second, I caution against non-Jews telling Jewish jokes to Jews.  You will likely not get the reaction you were looking for.  Just saying.  Third, If you cannot laugh, you will certainly cry.

Throughout history Jews have done their fair share of crying and that may be the reason that so many comics are Jewish.