Jewish humor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jewish humor is the long tradition of humor in Judaism dating back to the Torah and the Midrash, but generally refers to the more recent stream of verbal, self-deprecating and often anecdotal humor originating in Eastern Europe and which took root in the United States over the last hundred years. Beginning with vaudeville, and continuing through radio, stand-up, film, and television, a disproportionately high percentage of American comedians have been Jewish.^[1]

Contents 1 The history of Jewish humor 2 Types of Jewish humor 2.1 Religious humor 2.2 Eastern European Jewish humor 2.2.1 Chelm 2.2.2 Hershele Ostropoler 2.3 Humor about Anti-Semitism 2.4 American Jewish humor 2.4.1 The role of Yiddish 2.4.2 About religion 2.4.3 About Jews 2.4.4 About Christianity 2.5 Jewish humor in the Soviet Union 2.6 Israeli humor 3 Notes 4 References 5 See also 6 Further reading 7 External links

[edit] The history of Jewish humor

Jewish humor is rooted in several traditions. The first is the intellectual and legal methods of the Talmud, which uses elaborate legal arguments and situations often seen as so absurd as to be humorous in order to tease out the meaning of religious law. [1].

Hillel Halkin in his essay about Jewish humor ^[2] traces some roots of the Jewish self-deprecating humor to the medieval influence of Arabic traditions on the Hebrew literature by quoting a witticism from Yehuda Alharizi's Tahkemoni.

A more recent one is an egalitarian tradition among the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe in which the powerful were often mocked subtly, rather than attacked overtly—as Saul Bellow once put it, "oppressed people tend to be witty." Jesters known as badchens used to poke fun at prominent members of the community during weddings, creating a good-natured tradition of humor as a levelling device. (Parallels in other cultures include Tall poppy syndrome and Jante Law). Rabbi Moshe Waldoks, a scholar of Jewish humor, argued: "You have a lot of shtoch, or jab, humor, which is usually meant to deflate pomposity or ego, and to deflate people who consider themselves high and mighty. But Jewish humor was also a device for self-criticism within the community, and I think that's where it really was the most powerful. The humorist, like the prophet, would basically take people to task for their failings. The humor of Eastern Europe especially was centered on defending the poor against the exploitation of the upper classes or other authority figures, so rabbis were made fun of, authority figures were made fun of and rich people were made fun of. It really served as a social catharsis."[2]

After Jews began to emigrate to America in large numbers, they, like other minority groups, found it difficult to gain mainstream acceptance and obtain upward mobility. The newly-developing entertainment industry, combined with the Jewish humor tradition, provided a potential route for Jews to succeed. One of the first successful radio "sitcoms," The Rise of the Goldbergs, featured a Jewish family. As radio and television matured, many of its most famous comedians, including Jack Benny, Sid Caesar, George Burns, Henny Youngman and Milton Berle, were Jewish. The Jewish comedy tradition continues today, with Jewish humor much entwined with that of mainstream humor, as comedies like Seinfeld indicate.

Sigmund Freud in his Wit and the Unconscious, among other things, analyzes the nature of the Jewish jokes.

[edit] Types of Jewish humor

[edit] Religious humor

The lives of the early hasidim, while not funny in and of themselves, are rich in humorous incidents. The dealings between rabbis, tzaddikim, and peasants form a rich tapestry of lore.

Some jokes make fun of the "Rebbe miracle stories" and involve different hassidim bragging about their teachers' miraculous abilities:

Three hasidim are bragging about their Rebbes: "My rebbe is very powerful. He was walking once, and there was a lake in his path. He waved his handkerchief, and there was lake on the right, lake on the left, but no lake in the middle." To which the second retorted, "Ha! That's nothing. My rebbe is even more powerful. He was walking once, and there was a mountain in his path. He waved his handkerchief, and there was a mountain on the right, mountain on the left, but no mountain in the middle." Said the third, "Ha! That is still nothing! My rebbe is the most powerful. He was walking once on Shabbos [Saturday is a holy day in Judaism, on which it is forbidden to handle money], and there was a wallet full of money in his path. He waved his handkerchief, and there was Shabbos on the right, Shabbos on the left, but no Shabbos in the middle."

Similarly, in the tradition of the legal arguments of the Talmud, one prominent type of Jewish humor involves witty solutions to problems, such as:

Q: Is one permitted to ride in an airplane on the Sabbath?

A: Yes, as long as your seat belt remains fastened. Then it is considered as if you are wearing the plane.

[edit] Eastern European Jewish humor

A number of traditions in Jewish humor date back to stories and anecdotes from the 1800s.

[edit] Chelm

One popular humorous tradition from Eastern Europe involved tales of the people of Chełm, a town reputed in these jokes to be inhabited by fools (including their rabbi). The jokes were almost always centered on silly solutions to problems. Some of these solutions display "foolish wisdom" (reaching the correct answer by the wrong train of reasoning), while others are simply wrong.

Chelm tales were told by authors like Sholom Aleichem and Isaac Bashevis Singer. A typical Chelm story might begin, "It is said that after God made the world, he filled it with people. He sent off an angel with two sacks, one full of wisdom and one full of foolishness. The second sack was of course much heavier. So after a time it started to drag. Soon it got caught on a mountaintop and so all the foolishness spilled out and fell into Chelm."

Here is an example of a Chelm tale:

In Chelm, the shammes used to go around waking everyone up for minyan in the morning. Every time it snowed, the people would complain that although the snow was beautiful, they could not see it in its pristine state because by the time they got up in the morning, the shammes had already trekked through the snow to wake the men up for minyan. The townspeople decided that they had to find a way to let the shammes wake everyone up for minyan without having him make tracks in the snow.

The people of Chelm hit on a solution. They got four men to volunteer to carry the shammes around standing on a table every time there was fresh snow in the morning. That way, the shammes could make his wake up calls, but he would not leave tracks in the snow…

[edit] Hershele Ostropoler

Hershele Ostropoler, also known as Hershel of Ostropol, was a legendary prankster who was based on a historic figure. Thought to have come from the Ukraine, he lived in the small village of Ostropol, working as shochet, a ritual slaughterer. According to legend he lost his job because of his constant joking, which offended the leaders of the village.

In his subsequent wanderings throughout Ukraine, he became a familiar figure at restaurants and inns.

Eventually he settled down at the court of Rabbi Barukh of Mezbizh, grandson of the Baal Shem Tov. The rabbi was plagued by frequent depressions, and Hershele served as a sort of court jester, mocking the rabbi and his cronies, to the delight of the common folk.

After his death he was remembered in a series of pamphlets recording his tales and witty remarks.

He was the subject of several epic poems, a novel, a comedy performed in 1930 by the Vilna Troupe, and a U.S. television program in the 1950s. Two illustrated children's books, The Adventures of Hershel of Ostropol, and Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins, have been published. Both books were written by Eric Kimmel and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. In 2002, a play entitled Hershele the Storyteller was performed in New York City. [3]

[edit] Humor about Anti-Semitism

Much Jewish humor takes the form of self-deprecating comments on Jewish culture, acting as a shield against anti-Semitic stereotypes by exploiting them first:

Rabbi Altmann and his secretary were sitting in a coffeehouse in Berlin in 1935. "Herr Altmann," said his secretary, "I notice you're reading Der Stürmer! I can't understand why. A Nazi libel sheet! Are you some kind of masochist, or, God forbid, a self-hating Jew?"

"On the contrary, Frau Epstein. When I used to read the Jewish papers, all I learned about were pogroms, riots in Palestine, and assimilation in America. But now that I read Der Stürmer, I see so much more: that the Jews control all the banks, that we dominate in the arts, and that we're on the verge of taking over the entire world. You know – it makes me feel a whole lot better!"

Or, on a similar note:

After the assassination of Tsar Alexander II of Russia, a government official in Ukraine menacingly addressed the local rabbi, "I suppose you know in full detail who was behind it."

"Ach," the rabbi replied, "I have no idea, but the government's conclusion will be the same as always: they will blame the Jews and the chimneysweeps."

"Why the chimneysweeps?" asked the befuddled official.

"Why the Jews?" responded the rabbi.

And another example, a direct slice of galgenhumor (gallows humor):

During the days of oppression and poverty of the Russian shtetls, one village had a rumor going around: a Christian girl was found murdered near their village. Fearing a pogrom, they gathered at the synagogue.

Suddenly, the rabbi came running up, and cried, "Wonderful news! The murdered girl was Jewish!"

[edit] American Jewish humor

[edit] The role of Yiddish

Yiddish, the language first spoken by Central and Eastern European Jews, has a sound well-suited to humor along with an ability to form new words in a way that facilitates jokes. Terms like shnook and shmendrik, shlemiel and shlimazel (often considered inherently funny words) were exploited for their humorous sounds, as were "Yinglish" shm-reduplication constructs, such as "fancy-schmancy". Yiddish constructions—such as ending sentences with questions—became part of the verbal wordplay of Jewish comedians.

[edit] About religion

One common strain of Jewish humor examines the role of religion in contemporary life, often gently mocking the religious hypocrite. For example:

A Reform Rabbi was so compulsive a golfer that once, on Yom Kippur, he left the house early and went out for a quick nine holes by himself. An angel who happened to be looking on immediately notified his superiors that a grievous sin was being committed on earth. On the sixth hole, God caused a mighty wind to take the ball directly from the tee to the cup for a miraculous and dramatic hole in one.

The angel was horrified. "Lord," he said, "you call this a punishment?!"

"Sure," answered God with a smile. "Who can he tell?"

Or, on differences between Orthodox, Conservative and Reform movements:

An Orthodox, a Conservative, and a Reform rabbi are each asked whether one is supposed to say a brokhe (blessing) over a lobster [non-kosher food, normally not eaten by religious Jews].

The Orthodox rabbi doesn't know what a "lobster" is. The Conservative rabbi doesn't know what to say. The Reform rabbi doesn't know what a "brokhe" is.

In particular, Reform Jews are often lampooned for their rejection of traditional Jewish beliefs. An example is in one of Woody Allen's early standup routines:

We were married by a Reform rabbi in Long Island. A very Reform rabbi. A Nazi.

About the gender roles (in the more traditional Orthodox movement, people marry at a young age and have many children. The more liberal Conservative and Reform movements make the genders' roles more egalitarian, by ordaining females as Rabbis. The Reconstructionist movement was the first to ordain homosexuals.):

At an Orthodox wedding, the bride's mother is pregnant. At a Conservative wedding, the bride is pregnant. At a Reform wedding, the rabbi is pregnant. At a Reconstructionist wedding, the rabbi and her wife are both pregnant.

Or, more absurdly, from Woody Allen's Without Feathers:

Rabbi Zwi Chaim Yisroel, an Orthodox scholar of the Torah and a man who developed whining to an art unheard of in the West, was unanimously hailed as the wisest man of the Renaissance by his fellow Hebrews, who totaled a sixteenth of one per cent of the population. Once, while he was on his way to synagogue to celebrate the sacred Jewish holiday commemorating God's reneging on every promise, a woman stopped him and asked the following question: 'Rabbi, why are we not allowed to eat pork?'

'We're not?' the Rev said incredulously. 'Uh-oh.'

Often jokes circulate around the practice of the Jewish religion, and the strain between people in such:

A man is rescued from a desert island after 20 years. The news media is amazed at this feat of survival, and ask him to show them around his island.

"How did you survive? How did you keep sane?" they ask him as he shows them the island.

"I had my faith. My faith as a Jew kept me going. Come." he leads them to a small glen, and there stands an opulent temple, made entirely from palm fronds, coconut shells and woven grass. The news cameras take pictures of everything - even a torah made from banana leaves and octopus ink. "This took me five years to complete."

"But that left fifteen years. sure there was more..."

"Come with me." He leads them around to the far side of the island, and there, in a shady alcove, is an even MORE beautiful temple. "This took me twelve years to complete."

"But sir" asks the reporter, "Why did you need two temples?"

"This is the temple I attend. I would not set foot in that other temple if you PAID me!"

Jokes also circulate about Jewish accents. For example:

One early winter morning, Rabbi Bloom was walking beside the canal when he saw a dog in the water trying hard to stay afloat. It looked so sad and exhausted that Rabbi Bloom jumped in and after a struggle managed to bring it out alive.

A passer-by saw this and said, "That was very brave of you. Are you a vet?"

Rabbi Bloom replied, "Of course I'm a vet! I'm a freezing cold as vell."

[edit] About Jews

Jewish humor continues to exploit stereotypes of Jews, both as a form of in-humor and as a defense. Jewish mothers, "cheapness," and other habits are all common subjects.

An old Jewish beggar was out on the street in New York City with his tin cup.

"Please, sir," he pleaded to a passerby, "could you spare seventy-three cents for a cup of coffee and some pie?"

The man asked, "Where do you get coffee and pie for seventy-three cents in New York? It costs a minimum of a dollar!"

The beggar replied, "So who buys retail?"

Or...

A Buddhist monk goes to a barber to have his head shaved. "What should I pay you?" the monk asks. "No price, for a holy man such as yourself," the barber replies. And what do you know, the next day the barber comes to open his shop, and finds on his doorstep a dozen gemstones.

That day, a priest comes in to have his hair cut. "What shall I pay you, my son?" "No price, for a man of the cloth such as yourself." And what do you know, the next day the barber comes to open his shop, and finds on his doorstep a dozen roses.

That day, Rabbi Finklestein comes in to get his payoss [sideburns] trimmed. "What do you want I should pay you?" "Nothing, for a man of God such as yourself." And the next morning, what do you know? The barber finds on his doorstep a dozen rabbis!

About traditional roles of men and women in Jewish families:

A boy comes home from school and tells his mother he got a part in a school play. "Yeah?" asks the mother, "Which part?" / "The part of a Jewish husband." The mother frowns and says: "Go back and tell them that you want a talking part."

Or, from David Bader's Haikus for Jews:

Is one Nobel Prize

so much to ask from a child

after all I've done?

[edit] About Christianity

Many Jewish jokes involve a rabbi and some other religion's clergyman. Often they start with something like "A rabbi and a priest..." and make fun of either the rabbi's interpretation of Christianity or (seeming) differences between Christian and Jewish interpretation of same areas.

A Catholic priest says to a rabbi: "It seems to me that if the Creator made pork, He must have made it for a purpose. It must be a sin not to use it then, don't you think? When are you finally going to try it?"

The rabbi replies: "At your wedding."

A few more examples:

A rabbi once asked his old friend, the priest, "Could you ever be promoted?"

The priest says, thoughtfully, "Well, I could become a bishop."

The rabbi persists, "And then?"

With a pause for consideration, the priest replies, "Maybe I could be a cardinal, even."

"And then?"

After thinking for some time, the priest responds, "I may, someday, rise to be the Pope."

But the rabbi is still not satisfied. "And then?"

With an air of incredulity, the priest cries, "What more could I become? Jesus Christ Himself?"

The rabbi said, quietly, "One of our boys made it."

Or...

A rabbi is on his deathbed, and a friend asks him if he has any last requests. The Rabbi requests that his friend find him a Catholic priest, so that he might convert.

His friend, confused by the request, asks: "why, rabbi? You have been a great teacher and leader of your followers, and you have led nothing short of a good, honorable Jewish life. Why do you want to become a Catholic now, before you die?"

He says, "eh, better one of them than one of us."

(Note: This joke is also seen with an Irish Catholic replacing the Rabbi, and a Protestant minister replacing the Catholic priest.)

Or...

A minister told his friend, Rabbi Goldman, "Last night, I dreamed of the Jewish Heaven. It was a slum, and it was overflowing with people—running, playing, talking, sitting—doing all things. But the dream, and the noise, was so terrific that I woke up."

The rabbi said, "Last night, I dreamed of the Protestant Heaven. It was a nice, proper suburb, with neatly trimmed lawns, and houses all neatly lined up."

"How were the people?" asked the minister.

"What people?"

Or...

A Catholic priest is called away due to a family emergency one day while on duty attending the confessional. Not wanting to leave it unattended, he asks his rabbi friend from the synagogue across the street if he can fill in for him.

The rabbi says he wouldn't know what to do, so the priest agrees to stay with him for a few minutes and show him the ropes.

They enter their half of the confessional together and soon enough, a woman enters and says, "Father forgive me, for I have sinned."

"What did you do?" asks the priest.

"I have committed adultery." she replies.

"How many times?" continues the priest.

"Three times."

"Do three Hail Marys, put $5 in the poor-box, and sin no more." finishes the priest.

The woman leaves and not long after a man enters and says, "Father forgive me, for I have sinned."

"What did you do?"

"I have committed adultery."

"How many times?"

"Three times."

"Do three Hail Marys, put $5 in the poor-box, and sin no more." The man leaves.

Now the rabbi tells the priest he thinks he's got it figured out now, so the priest leaves, and the rabbi waits until another woman enters the confessional and says, "Father forgive me, for I have sinned."

"What did you do?" Asks the rabbi.

"I have committed adultery." She replies.

"How many times?"

"Only once."

"I tell you what," says the rabbi. "Go do it two more times. We got a special this week, three for $5!"

And finally, possibly the most gigantic clash of religions:

One Pope, in the Dark Ages, decreed that all Jews had to leave Rome. The Jews did not want to leave, and so the Pope challenged them to a disputation to prove that they could remain. No one, however wanted the responsibility... until the synagogue janitor, Moishe, volunteered.

As there was nobody else who wanted to go, Moishe was given the task. But because he knew only Hebrew, a silent debate was agreed.

The day of the debate came, and they went to St. Peter's Square to sort out the decision. First the Pope waved his hand around his head. Moishe pointed firmly at the ground.

The Pope, in some surprise, held up three fingers. In response, Moishe gave him the middle finger.

The crowd started to complain, but the Pope thoughtfully waved them to be quiet. He took out a bottle of wine and a wafer, holding them up. Moishe took out an apple, and held it up.

The Pope, to the people’s surprise, said, "I concede. This man is too good. The Jews can stay."

Later, the Pope was asked what the debate had meant. He explained, "First, I showed him the Heavens, to show that God is everywhere. He pointed at the ground to signify that God is right here with us. I showed him three fingers, for the Trinity. He reminded me that there is One God common to both our religions. I showed him wine and a wafer, for God's forgiveness. With an apple, he showed me original sin. The man was a master of silent debate."

In the Jewish corner, Moishe had the same question put to him, and answered, "It was all nonsense, really. First, he told me that this whole town would be free of Jews. I told him, Go to Hell! We’re staying right here! Then, he told me we had three days to get out. I told him just what I thought of that proposal." An older woman asked, "But what about the part at the end?" "That?" said Moishe with a shrug, "Well, I saw him take out his lunch, so I took out mine."

[edit] Jewish humor in the Soviet Union

In the Stalinist police state, it was not uncommon to get purged not only for telling a casual joke, but even for not reporting it to the authorities. See Russian joke in general, or more specifically Rabinovich jokes, Russian Jewish jokes, Russian political jokes; also History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union

Q: Rabinovich, what is a fortune?

A: A fortune is to live in our Socialist motherland.

Q: And what's a misfortune?

A: A misfortune is to have such a fortune.

Or

An old Armenian is on his deathbed: "My children, remember to defend the Jews." -"But why?" -"Because if they are gone, we will be next."

Or

An old Jewish man is picked up by the Stalinist police and brought in for questioning:

Q: Where were you born?!

A: St. Petersburg.

Q: Where do you live?!

A: Leningrad.

Q: (menacingly) Where would you like to die?!

A: St. Petersburg.

Or, in the last years of the Soviet Union:

Q: Comrade Lev, why now, just when things are getting better for your people, are you applying for an exit visa to make aliyah to Israel?

A: Well, comrade, there are two reasons. One is that my next-door neighbor is Pamyat and he tells me that after they get rid of you communists, they are coming next after the Jews.

Q: But they will never get rid of us communists!

A: I know, I know, of course you are right! That's the other reason.

[edit] Israeli humor

Israeli humor featured many of the same themes as Jewish humor elsewhere, making fun of the country and its habits, while containing a fair bit of gallows humor as well, as a joke from a 1950 Israeli joke book indicates:

An elderly man refuses to leave for the air raid shelter until he can find his dentures. His wife yells at him, "What, you think they are dropping sandwiches?"

Or about the Israelis' view of themselves:

An Israeli, a Russian, and an American are sitting in a restaurant. A waiter comes by and says, "Excuse me, but we have a shortage of meat." The American asks: "What's 'shortage'?" The Russian asks: "What's 'meat'?" The Israeli asks: "What's 'excuse me'?" (As a note, this is not strictly an Israeli joke; the Israeli can be replaced by other people with little effect to the joke—for example, New Yorkers)

On February 14, 2006, in response to the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, and, in particular, to the International Holocaust Cartoon Competition, an Israeli group announced an Israeli Anti-Semitic Cartoons Contest. The contest was opened to Jewish cartoonists only, who were invited to poke fun at their own religion and ethnicity.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• San Diego Jewish Chronicle on Jewish Humor
• Humor in the Talmud
• Funny People - A Film About Jewish Humor
• Harry Liechter's Clean Jewish Humor Site
• Novak, William & Waldoks, Moshe Big Book of Jewish Humor, originally published by Harper Perennial (1981) ISBN 0-06-090917-X.
• The Jewish jokes of a word in your eye

[edit] See also

• List of American Jewish comedians

[edit] Further reading

• Joseph Telushkin, "Jewish Humor: What the Best Jewish Jokes Say About the Jews", Harper Paperbacks (1998) ISBN 0688163513

[edit] External links

• "On Jewish Humor" a discourse in English by "the Jewish Philosopher", C. Israel Lutsky. Yiddish Radio Project (one of their few English-language recordings). 7-minute RealAudio recording.