have skeletons in their closet. And they’re shaped like menorahs...

b y M a r k I. P in s k y

The pink suburban house might well be the most recognizable American home in history, except maybe for the White House. It’s near Moe’s Bar and the Kwik-E-Mart and right next door to Ned, the nicest darn-diddelyest neighbor you could hope for. So many of us have spent 30 minutes there on Sun­ day nights over the past 18 years that a recent study found that 91 percent of American children and 84 percent of adults recognize its inhabitants-Homer,

Marge, Bart, Lisa and baby Maggie.

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2007 / MOMENT 47 g | | | The Simpsons, which originated as a worthy path, albeit circuitous, through this series of one-minute animated shorts world is the Jewish one, which, like much of on the Show in 1987, is the show, holds surprises. One Sunday ■ B now in its 19th season, with more than evening, when a door to the cluttered storage 400 episodes broadcast; the show airs in closet in the Simpsons’ house swings open, it 70 countries and has been nominated reveals, for just a fleeting moment, a shiny for 34 Emmys, winning 23. This past summer object seemingly out of place amid the subur­ raked in nearly half a bil­ ban detritus: a Hanukkah menorah. What is lion dollars. this ritual candelabrum doing in the home of There is no question about the impact of the a Gentile, lower-middle-class family in a small, series on North American and, arguably, world overwhelmingly Christian city? A home we culture. “The Simpsons is an inexhaustible repos­ thought we knew so w ell... itory of humor, invention and insight, an achievement without precedent or peer in the history of broadcast television, perhaps the C helm: S pringfield’s Sister C ity purest distillation of our glories and failings as Although it exists in a different time a nation ever conceived,” wrote New York Times and place, Springfield, population film critic AO. Scott in his review of the movie. 30,700, could easily be a sister city of “I have long been of the opinion that the entire Chelm. Long before The Simpsons history of American popular culture—maybe became a cultural phenomenon, Jew­ even of Western civilization—amounts to little ish folklore and literature had already more than a long prelude to The Simpsons.” mastered the art of making light of As fodder for satire, The Simpsons has taken village idiots. Many wrote stories of this sort, on modern life’s major institutions: schools, but» the finest were Isaac Bashevis Singer’s tales government and corporations. But the show of Chelm—the iconic Eastern European shtetl really began to break ground when religion was of Jewish fools, buffoons and simpletons, all of added to the list of targets. Considered too whom think they are as wise as scholars. divisive by sponsors and programmers alike, the “The oldest absurdist jokes are the ones subject was off limits during prime time net­ about Chelm, which date back to the 19th cen­ work television’s early years. Gradually and fit­ tury,” writes Rabbi Joseph Telushkin in Jewish fully, faith found its way onto the small screen Humor: What the Best Jewish Jokes Say About the in the late 1980s and into the ’90s with uplift­ . “The citizens of Chelm, an actual city in ing, inspirational shows such as H ighway to Poland, were for unknown reasons stigmatized Heaven, 1th Heaven and Touched by an Angel. But as idiots. Most Chelm jokes are distasteful.... it wasn’t until The Simpsons took aim that reli­ However, the best Chelm jokes are not about gion was portrayed in a way that more closely stupidity, but rather about a naivete so extraor­ mirrored its complex presence in American life. dinary that the listeners are catapulted to a new The Simpsons are a typical Middle-Ameri- vision of reality.” can Protestant family in a typical city, Spring­ Excise the jokes and The Simpsons is a tragedy field (named after another famous television city of operatic proportions—repeated failures and from the 1954-1960 series, Fathers Knows Best). frustrations punctuated by the occasional, They say grace at meals, read and refer to the wacky, life-affirming reprieve that returns every­ Bible, pray out loud and, on Sundays, dutifully thing to the status quo. As is the case with the attend services at the First Church of Spring­ denizens of Chelm, the lives of the Simpson field, part of an invented denomination called family and their neighbors are an ongoing the Western Branch of American Reform Pres- chronicle of misfortune. No one in Springfield bylutheranism Church. ever really succeeds in changing human nature, But running beneath the Father Knows Best including his or her own. The characters are by veneer is a busy, ever-moving religious world turns stupid, ignorant, self-absorbed, lovelorn, in which there is much to explore. One note­ renal and good-hearted.

48 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2007 The distinct sensibility of Chelm humor ^ T o u r of J ew ish S pringfield suffuses much of the program. “The show As in many a North American city, has a Jewish feel,” says Moshe Waldoks, a Springfield’s Jews first settled downtown Boston-area rabbi and co-editor of The B ig before fleeing to the suburbs, although Book of Jewish Humor. “One of the essential they still return to the “old neighbor­ characteristics of Jewish humor, historically, hood” to dine at restaurants like Tan- is parody—the characters on The Simpsons len’s Fatty Meats and Izzy’s Deli. Most seem to are an extension of that. Much of the show’s ittend Springfield’s Orthodox synagogue, Tem- content is poking fun at authority. The idea *>le Beth Springfield, just down the street from of parody, of peeling away things we think he First Church of Springfield. The two hous- are on the surface and getting to deeper :s of worship are so close, in fact, that the church things, is very Jewish.” narquee once carried a decidedly non-ecumeni- Other strands of Jewish humor run :al message: “No Synagogue Parking.” through the series. One comes direct from ’s small Jewish community is —a publication where nisunderstood in ways that are still Jews and Irish have traditionally congregated n small Protestant communities. Homer, for and from which many Simpsons writers hail: a nstance—our bald and sort of snarky iconoclasm. Another is the iverweight, “D’oh”-spout- dark, rapid-fire angst of tummlers like Lenny ng everyman—laughs when “The Simpsons Bruce and Don Rickies. “The Simpsons fits in le first hears Hebrew, with this kind of wisecracking comedic tradi­ hinking it’s a made-up lan­ tion, which stretches back to vaudeville, the guage. In another episode, fits in with Borscht Belt—the absolute nursery of Jewish vhen he needs $50,000 for comedy—and early radio and television,” says i heart bypass, he goes to this kind of Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier :he rabbi, pretending to be Center for Television and Popular Culture at lewish in the only way he wisecracking Syracuse University. aiows how. “Now, I know I Walter Podrazik, co-author of W atching laven’t been the best Jew, comedic tradition, TV: Six Decades o f American Television, muses :>ut I have rented Fiddler on that the humor of The Simpons is, in many '-.he R oof and I will watch it.” which stretches respects, analogous to that of Your Show of All he gets from the rabbi Shows, which featured Jewish comedians Sid s a dreidel.) And at the ele­ back to vaudeville, Caesar, and in the mentary school, Principal early 1950s and where “the characters were Skinner fields an angry the Borscht Belt— not the ones in charge. They had to deal :all from Superintendent with life and whatever turns it imposed on Chalmers. “I know Wein­ the absolute nursery them.” The Simpsons, adds Podrazik, takes this stein's parents were upset,” of Jewish comedy.” same approach to life—“where it’s you fie stammers. “But, but, ah, against the world and, mostly, the world [ was sure it was a phony wins. But you do have victories, and they excuse. I mean, it sounds so always come in humor.” made up: ‘Yom Kip-pur.’” Mel Brooks (who has “appeared” as him­ Then there is Bart, the ever-scheming son, self on The Simpsons), perhaps best articu­ who in one Simpsons comic book is drawn to lated what lies beneath so many Jewish Judaism, like a moth to a menorah, for the eight jokes, and so many Simpsons jokes, when he nights of Hannukah presents. He visits a rabbi said: “Humor is just another defense and argues that if he became Jewish, he’d be a against the universe.” “trash-talkin’ spiky-haired with a Fox attitude.” But the rabbi predicts the boy won’t

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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2007 / MOMENT 4 9 Continued from page 49 S pr in g field ’s M od el J e w revealed in this third-season episode like the religion because “so much Hershel Krustofski, better when he is asked to say grace before din­ Judaism is like opera, the Lincoln-Dou- known as Krusty the , ner at the Simpsons and recites the glas debates and the Atkins Diet, all rolled hosts Lisa and Bart’s favorite Hebrew blessing over bread, the motzi. At into one.” Bart gives it a shot nonetheless, T V show, a children’s pro­ Lisa’s urging, he then tells the family his especially pleased that he no longer has to gram that features off-color real name and describes his upbringing do chores during Shabbat. But eventually, gags and violent cartoons. on the Lower East Side of Springfield Bart decides not to convert, reporting to Descended from a long line ofand rabbis, his estrangement from his father, his sister Lisa: “Love the religion but, Hershelt always knew that his life’s desire who disowned his son after he chose the oy.. .1 can’t handle the guilt.” was to make people laugh. But his rabbi stage over yeshiva. Only Lisa, the show’s wisest character, father could not abide a clown in the Lisa and Bart leap into action: Lisa exhibits sensitivity in her encounters with family, and so parent and child didn’t studies Jewish law and lore, and Bart pres­ Judaism. In the Exodus segment of one speak a word to each other for 25 years, ents her arguments to Rabbi Krustofski in fanciful episode called “Simpsons Bible or until the episode “Like Father, Like a number of venues: in his study, over a Stories,” her friend Milhouse is Moses. Clown,” which aired in 1991 and won park chess table and in the shvitz. Lisa’s He has just led the Israelite slaves across The Simpsons an Emmy. In some ways, sources include Rabbi Simon ben Eleaz- the Red Sea, only to learn that what lies “the story of Krusty is really the story of er, a second-century Talmudic scholar. “At ahead is 40 years of wandering in the American Jews,” says Rabbi Simcha all times,” says Bart, to the approval of desert. But after that, he asks Lisa hope­ Weinstein, author of Shtick Shift: Jewish other rabbis sweating in the steam bath, fully, “It’s clear sailing for the Jews, isn’t Comedy in the Twenty First Century. “let a man be supple as a reed and not that right?” Lisa, unwilling to break the In “Like Father, Like Clown”—written rigid as a cedar.” Bart stays the course and news of what the next 3,000 years hold, by and Wally Wolodarsky later, at a bris, offers this: “Is it not writ­ smiles tightly and says, “More or less.” (who enlisted the help of two rabbis as ten in the Talmud, ‘who will bring It’s Lisa who masters the art of Talmu- consultants)—Lisa and Bart attempt to redemption—the jesters’?” Over the dic dialogue to come to the aid of Krusty reconcile a disconsolate Krusty with his course of this dialogue, Rabbi Krustofski the Clown, Springfield’s most famous Jew. father. Krusty’s Jewish identity is first goes from addressing the boy as a pisher to “my learned short friend.” But in the end, it’s a quote whose source the rabbi cannot identify that wins him over: “The Jews are a swinging bunch of people,” Bart recites. “I’ve heard of per­ “The Jews are a secution but what they went through is ridiculous. But the great thing is that after thousands of years of waiting and hold­ swinging bunch of ing on and fighting, they finally made it.” The rabbi is moved. “I’ve never heard the plight of my people phrased so elo- quendy,” he marvels. He asks Bart if the people,” Bart recites. citation is from a sage like Rabbi Hillel, Judah the Pious, Maimonides or the Dead Sea Scrolls. No, the boy replies, it’s from “I’ve heard of persecution Yes I Can, the autobiography of Sammy Davis, Jr., “an entertainer, like your son.” Father and son are reconciled at last and but what they went appear together on Krusty’s TV show. The second act of Krusty’s Jewish com- edy-drama aired 12 years later. In “Today through is ridiculous ” I Am A Clown,” written by Joel H. Cohen, Krusty is again unhappy, this time because he never had a bar mitzvah. Bart

66 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2007 Neeson guest-starred as an Irish priest Cohen, , , Matt younger generation. Marge’s side of the to explain Catholicism, and Don Chea- Selman as well as two of the show’s cre­ family is also suspect: Her unmarried, dle once provided the voice for a faith- ators and developers, James L. Brooks acid-tongued twin sisters Selma and healing, African-American Pentecostal in and . The same is true of the Patty Bouvier could be channeling Fran a traveling tent show. A few years ago. TV program, which features many of Leibowitz or Sandra Bernhard. Lisa’s disenchantment with the commer­ the same names and others, like long­ Bookish and deeply moral, it’s Lisa cialism at church led her to Buddhism, time writer . who exhibits some of the positive with the help of , whc The Jewish sensibility in the writers’ stereotypical qualities attributed to played himself. room extends beyond the members of the Jews, promoting the Jewish values of Even Satan worship has made a few show’s creative team who are actually Jew­ learning and tikkun olam in nearly every appearances on The Simpsons: Bart. ish. For years, when Mike Reiss wrote episode. She even has an imaginary Homer and Montgomery Burns, the scripts with , his Catholic writing friend named Rachel Cohen who goes sadistic owner of the local to Brandeis. “It’s almost as if nuclear power plant, ,” says Syracuse’s have all had direct dealings Thompson, “was a Jewish with the devil. And the show child who somehow got has featured made-up religions switched at the hospital.” like Movementarianism, an Bart, despite his flirtation evil brainwashing cult strong­ with Judaism, doesn’t seem ly resembling Scientology. Jewish although, in one open­ Every religion has been fair ing sequence, he is made to game for the show’s satirical scrawl “I am not the reincar­ jabs so far, with the conspicu­ nation of Sammy Davis, Jr.” ous exception of Islam. (Inter­ repeatedly across a chalk­ estingly, in the fall of 2005, the board. And while Marge has Arab TV satellite channel some, but not many, attributes MBC launched a heavily cen­ of a Jewish mother, her inflec­ sored Arabic version of the tion sounds Jewish at times, The Simpsons, renaming it Al perhaps because she is the Shamshoon. Stripped of bacon, beer anc partner (and former Harvard roommate), one Simpsons family member voiced by Jews, the show flopped.) Simpsons writ­ everyone assumed that Reiss was the source a Jew, . ers plead both ignorance and cowardice of all Jewish-themed material. In fact, as Homer is the only Simpsons family for avoiding the topic, leaving the Mus­ often as not, the material came from Jean. member without any stereotypical Jewish lim faith to those cartoonists who are “In the writing room, Jewish people are attributes: He hasn’t a whiff of intensity braver or more foolhardy, or live in there to provide authenticity—and pronun­ or guilt; probably a good thing, since Denmark. ciation,” Reiss says. “It’s the Gentiles who there’s much for which he is guilty. get a real kick out of this stuff.” But even Homer occasionally wonders The show’s creators—Jewish and about his origins. One night, as he and T he S im pson s’ J ew ish roots not—seem to enjoy scattering tantaliz­ Marge watch their favorite show, “Rap­ Despite the fact that the man ing hints that just maybe, somewhere in ping Rabbis,” on T\f the subject comes who created the Simpsons the dim mists of their past, the Simp­ up. As the rabbis sing “Don’t eat pork, not character, , is sons family itself might have Jewish even with a fork,” Homer asks his wife, not Jewish, the Jewish presence roots. And the clues aren’t limited to “Are we Jewish?” on The Simpsons is even more that mysterious, unacknowledged meno- Are the Simpsons Jewish? It may evident among Springfield’s rah that briefly glittered in their closet seem like an absurd question, but con­ creators than in the town itself. one Sunday evening. sidering the humor, the traditions and When credits roll on The Homer’s father, Abe, is every alte kach- the creative minds that have given us Simpsons{ Movie, Jewish names are er (old fart) sitting around a swimming this family, Homer might—for the first prominent, beginning with director pool in Miami Beach, complaining about time in his life—be asking a profound David Silverman and writers Joel H. his declining health and the ungrateful question. ©

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