❝ Any time a person goes into a delicatessen and The Talmud orders a pastrami on white (A.D. 200–1200) The Yiddish Theater: Mad magazine: Indoctrinates American kids A little slow to get to the Centered on Second Avenue on bread, somewhere a Jew dies. to the rhythms of Yiddish humor and tells punch line. But it instills the Lower East Side. —milton berle them to stick a thumb in the eye of authority. By Christopher Bonanos ❞ two a taste for language play, and for parsing language, ❝The famous Yiddish actor Boris Sigmund Freud in Jewish culture. Thomashefsky takes a whore back (b. 1856) to his hotel room. After they do the Milton Berle: Uncle rabbis walk Author of Wit and deed, instead of paying her, he hands Miltie grabs a brand-new into a bar Its Relation to her a pair of tickets to that night’s medium—television—by the the Unconscious; show. Annoyed, she says, ‘With these arm and pumps the humor “Sometimes a cigar is you can buy bread?’ ‘You out of it with vaudeville shtick, just a cigar.” want bread,’ Thomashefsky says, furious mugging, and a lot of cross-dressing. Several ‘screw a baker.’ ” 5,769 years of the Jewish joke. thousand years of oppression 1910s 1920s 1940s 1950s Nothing brings the The Marx Brothers: Yorkville Jews The Catskills: Every resort has a Henny Youngman: A your show of shows and Mort Sahl: Nightclub funny like coping to the core, though only Groucho tummler—an emcee whose endless trunkful of one-liners, caesar’s hour comedian as intellectual. with shared misery. plays up his Jewishness. rapid-fire patter keeps families cultivated during 60 years Sid Caesar & Co. create a smart Sahl arrives onstage with the entertained for weeks on end. spent in vaudeville and template for sketch comedy. day’s paper under his arm. ❝ I’ve had a then nightclubs. Writers’ room is a future dream perfectly ❝A guy checks into a hotel with team: Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, wonderful his wife. He goes to breakfast, goes ❝Jewish man gets Neil and Danny Simon, Larry ❝ evening. But this to Simon Says, eats lunch, lies hit by a car. Paramedics Gelbart, Mel Tolkin, Carl Reiner. Liberals feel wasn’t it. around the pool, rows on the lake, come, and one asks him, unworthy of ❞ plays softball, eats dinner, goes “Are you comfortable?” Caesar’s sketches are so visual their possessions. —groucho marx to the early show, goes to the late The man says, that they can barely be quoted. Conservatives show, then goes to the coffee shop. “I make a nice living.” But visit YouTube and watch feel they deserve Finally, at four in the morning, the —henny youngman (among others) “The Clock,” wife says: ‘Let’s go to bed.’ ‘Why?’ he a nearly wordless masterpiece. everything they’ve asks. ‘Who’s appearing there?’ ” stolen. —Freddie Roman, —mort sahl❞ former tummler

1970s mid-1960s early 1960s

the angry schlemiels the friendly Albert Brooks: Raised in Joan Rivers: She Former TV Woody Allen: Allen Mike Nichols and Elaine May: schlemiels Mel Brooks: Richard Belzer, Richard Lewis, Beverly Hills, California, and Phyllis Diller are writer takes lowbrow creates the nebbish The thinking man’s sketch comics. Larry David: Heirs to Lenny Billy Crystal, David Brooks (birth name: Albert ❝ People say money the only women who material (fart jokes, bird- character he’ll mine for Their college-educated, sketch- Bruce, able (in a freer era) to Brenner, Paul Reiser, Garry crack an all-male Einstein) creates an L.A. is not the key to happiness, poop sight gags) and the next five decades. driven shtick was a hit in smart shock without getting arrested. Shandling: They are Jewish, version of Allen’s New York standup scene. living rooms nationwide and sold but I’ve always figured leverages it into smart yes, and they make the odd angst with softer punch lines. stand-up and movies. Lenny Bruce: Busted millions of albums. joke about their Jewishness, if you have enough money, open every language but they are palatable to If anything happens you can get a key made. In a sketch where they play a couple ❝ Women need ❝ carl reiner: “Did you taboo, and literally goyish middle America and to me, tell every necking in a car: a reason to have sex. —joan rivers live before man believed in died trying to are a big hit on television. woman I’ve ever gone ❝ ❞ the Almighty?” brooks, go further may: “If I went any further, you Men just need That in turn shifts the center with I was talking about as the 2,000-year-old than that. wouldn’t respect me.” a place. of comedy more and more her at the end. man: “Oh yeah, a few nichols: “Oh, you have no ❞ to L.A., where the TV work —billy crystal That way, they’ll have years before.” reiner: ❝ idea how I’d respect you. I’d is, and the Comedy Store on to re-evaluate me.” “Did you believe in any A lot of people say to me, respect you like crazy!” Sunset Boulevard is in the Allan Sherman: superior being?” ‘Why did you kill Christ?’ I dunno … ascendant. Parody songs packed brooks: “Yes. A guy Phil.” it was one of those parties ❞ with Jewy references. that got out of hand. —lenny bruce ❝ I was raped by a 1980s 1990s 2000s doctor. Which 2009 is so bittersweet wait, they’re jewish? the assimilators Jerry Seinfeld: The perfect comic ❝ Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller: Jon Stewart: The true heir for a Jewish Sarah Silverman: Christopher Guest, Rob for the new unscary New York. Fun for the whole Stand-ins for every goofball Long to Sahl: Politically engaged, girl. A new spin on Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen, ❞ Jack Black, Paul Rudd: Reiner, Nora Ephron, Eugene Old-style Jewish humor—jokes family … Nothing Island guy whoever made up silly arch, and sometimes able, as —sarah the aggressive Levy: Their movies and sketches about babkas or raincoat songs over Thanksgiving dinner. a fake-news anchor, to pull off silverman seventies idiom: Semitic but assimilated, they largely in life is fun for forsake the striver and of-the-tribe often involve Jewishness but manufacturers—has the whole family! Sketch and improv comedy has all what the real journalists can’t. Silverman works don’t depend on it. And— become mainstream but superseded stand-up as the the edge of cringey personas in favor of slackerdom. continuing the innovation of enough that a sitcom There are no smart comic’s idiom. ❝Jews and blacks come racial and sexual These Jews are just everyschnooks Woody Allen—it’s less about doesn’t have to be massage parlors from the same history— taboos and gets with curly hair and fast comebacks, and jokes, more story. about much else. with ice cream and It’s horrible being alone. 2,000 years of bullshit. away with it partly they don’t live in New York L.A., for Significantly, this free jewelry. I threw a surprise party for We just expressed our because she looks all its sun and lack of angst, has won. From Ephron’s script for New York exists ❞ myself … I set up a piñata, with a suffering differently as so winsome. —jerry blindfold and a baseball bat, and people. Blacks developed the From The 40-Year-Old Virgin: When Harry Met Sally: entirely on seinfeld sally: “What’s she like?” sets in L.A. ended up at my neighbor’s house, blues. Jews complain—we david: “Did you just flick me in the balls?” marie: “Thin. Pretty. Big tits. beating up their grandmother.” just never thought of putting Your basic nightmare.” it to music.” cal: “No. I flicked you in —adam sandler the fleshy patch where your —jon stewart balls used to be.” illustrations by jasone lee

38 new york | june 1, 2009 june 1, 2009 | new york 39