On Jews and Their Jokes 19

Al Gini* and Abraham Singer** Why’dYou HavetoChoose Us?OnJews and Their Jokes Abstract: Humor,laughter,joke telling can be frivolousfun or it could act as a sword and ashield to defend and protect us against life. Humor can, at times, illuminateifnot completelyexplain, some of the irresoluble problems and mysteries thatindividuals face.And, if all else fails, humor can hold off our fear of the unanswerable and the unacceptable. Historicallyitcan be argued that during times of trial, tribulations, and suffering, Jewishcommunities and individuals have used humor as away to copewith and deal with reality. Keywords: pain, suffering, humor,and laughter Whoever has cried enough, laughs! —Heinrich Mann In the 1960s, the Jewish population in America was less than3%, but according to Time Magazine nearly80% of the top performingcomedians wereJewish. As one pundit put it: “ComedyinAmerica was aJewish cottageindustry!” (Menchin 1997, 12). Different from performers like Jackie Mason, Myron Cohen, Henny Youngman, Joan Rivers,and LennyBruce who openlyidentified with and poked fun at their Jewish heritage, most successful comedians Anglicized their names and crafted acomic persona and arepertoire of jokes that appealed to ageneral audience. Forexample: Jack Benny(Benjamin Kubelsky), George Burns (Nathan Bienhaum), JerryLewis (Jerome Levitch), RodneyDangerfield (Jacob Cohen),and Red Buttons (Aaron Chwatt). Today’scomedy scene is no lon- gerascompletelydominated by Jewish performers.But no-nonsense Jewish names are still major players in the world of show business:JerrySeinfeld, Paul Reiser,David Steinburg, LarryDavid, Marc Maron, Sacha Baron Cohen, AmySchumer,Sarah Silverman, Judd Apatow,Adam Sandler, Seth Rogan, Fran Drescher,and Vanessa Bayer. Giventhese names and numbers the trick question is: Are Jews predisposed to comedy?Answer: Geneticallypredisposed or programmedfor comedyand shtick,nowedon’tthink so. To claim that Jews, or anyethnic or racialgroup pos- sesses aspecific gene or cluster of comedic genes is, at best,dubious and cannot * Quinlan School of Business, Loyola University Chicago;[email protected] ** Quinlan School of Business, Loyola University Chicago;[email protected] https://doi.org/10.1515/phhumyb-2020-0005 18 Al Gini and AbrahamSinger be empiricallysubstantiated. But to the question: Are Jews historicallyand cul- turallypredisposed to comedy? The answer is an emphatic yes! Giventhe title and thesis of this book, we think that one otherquestion begs to be answered. “AreJewishcomics predisposed to satire?” After years of re- search on this topic, we’ve come up with aseries of very Jewish responses: “Yesand no!”“Sometimes!”“It happens!”“Every once in awhile!”“Not so much!”“Maybe?” And last,but not least, “Depends on the comic and the joke!” This, we think, is closest to the mark. Most,but not all Jewish humor and most Jewishcomics do not use satire in the waythatJon OliverorSamantha Beepreform their brand of comedy. But there’salways abit of biting satire and seething displeasure in the tone of voice, bodylanguage, and caustic comments of aJeff Garlin, Sandra Bernhard, or Marc Maron, for example. Overall, Jewishjokes tend to be sarcastic, cynical, complaining, kvetching, in nature. (Think Richard Lewis!) Jewish comics tell alot of “woe is me” types of jokes.WoodyAllen is amixtureofNietzschean melancholy, Freudian angst, and Humean skepticism. Mel Brooks,onthe other hand, is the cleverclown who uses over the top parodyand burlesque imitation to deliverhis comic point of view.But whether the type of humor is strictlysatirical, or “pie in the face” slapstick, much, if not all, Jewishhumor is an attempt to deal with the ba- nalities, mysteries, and horrors of life. JeremyDauber in his recent book JewishComedy:ASerious History argues that all of Jewishhumor is basedonseven social-culturalcommonalities (Daub- er 2017,10). (1) Jewishcomedy is aresponse to persecutionand anti-Semitism. (2) Jewishcomedy is asatirical gaze at Jewishsocialand communal norms. (3) Jewishcomedy is bookish, witty,intellectual allusive play. (4) Jewishcomedy is vulgar,raunchy, and body-obsessed. (5) Jewishcomedy is mordant, ironic,and metaphysically oriented. (6) Jewishcomedy is focused on the folksy,everyday,quotidian Jew. (7) Jewishcomedy is about the blurred and ambiguous nature of Jewishness itself. We could not agree more, at least in regardtothe first proposition. However, items #2 to #7 are not uniqueorexclusive to the Jewish experience. They are, in fact,culturaltouchstones or phenomenon that transcend anyclaim of exclu- sivity or ethnicoriginality,and are the sourceorstimulus for jokes in manyother cultures and peoples. Acursory check into the “comic archives” will quicklyre- sult in the discovery of avariety of non-Jewishbased jokes that fit into these cat- egories. Why’dYou HavetoChoose Us? On Jews and Their Jokes 19 2ASatiricalGazeatSocialCommunalNorms Germans are flummoxedbyhumor,the Swiss have no concept of fun, the Spanish think thereisnothingatall ridiculous about eatingdinner at midnight, and the Italians should never,everhavebeen let in on the invention of the motorcar. —Bill Bryson An Indian father’sadmonition to his teenageson. “No parties! No foolingaround! No girls! No dating! Fundoesn’tstart until medical school!” —Hasan Minhaj 3Bookish, Witty,and Intellectual Apsychiatrist was at his office lateone night when he heardavery faint tappingathis door. When he opened it,hefound arather large mouth hoveringinfront of him. Suddenly, the mouth began to speak and complain about the quality of his life and how unhappy he was. According to mouth, he was feelingdepressed and suicidal and he askedthe psychiatrist if he would take him on as aclient. “Yes, of course,” said the psychiatrist, “But whyme? Why now?” The mouth stared at him quizzicallyand said: “Because your light was on!” —Aversion of Norm Macdonald’s “Moth and the Podiatrist” joke. 4Vulgar,Raunchy, andBody-Obsessed Aguy walked into an Irish pub and sees asignthat says: Cheese Sandwiches – $4.00 Handjobs – $10.00 He walks up to the waitress and says: “Excuse me, areyou the one whogives the handjobs?” “Yes, Iam!,” she says smilingly. “Well, please go wash your hands,because Iwould like acheese sandwich!” Afellow gotarrested last Saturday.Hewas standingout in his backyardwith just his pajama tops on. His neighbor askedhim, “What’cha doing out in the backyard with just your pajama tops on?” He says, “Last week, Iwent to the drugstore and Ididn’thaveascarf on, so Igot astiff neck. This is my wife’sidea.” —Redd Foxx 20 Al Gini and Abraham Singer 5Mordant, Ironic, and Metaphysical In 1847, Oscar Wilde was dyingofmeningitis in arun-down, horriblydecorated Parisian hotel. Deeplydepressed by his surroundings and in his failinghealth, Wilde reportedly quipped to afriend: “My wallpaper and Iare fightingaduel to the death. One or the other of us has to go.” 6Folksy, Everyday,Quotidian The onlyway Icould have friends eat at my house was to brief them beforethey came over: “… Listen to me and listen good. When you’re done with the meal, if youwant alittle more, it’sgoing to getvery tricky.Don’ttell my mother youwant alittle more, because then she’ll serveyou awhole new meal… Youwant alittle? Tell her youwant no more. Youwant alot more? Tell her youwant alittle. Youreallydon’twant anymore? Youhavetoshoot her.” —RayRomano Ole was on his first datewith Lena, and he tookher to the New Ulm. In the restaurant Ole said, “Hey, Lena, would youlikeacocktail beforedinner?” “Oh, no, Ole,” said Lena. “What would Itell my SundaySchool class?” Afterdinner,hesaid, “Heywould youlikeacigarette?” “Oh, no, Ole,” said Lena. “What would Itell my SundaySchool class?” Ole was drivingLenahome when they passed the Romeo Motel. He said, “Hey, Lena, how would youliketostopatthat motel with me?” “Yah, Ole, dot would be nice,” said Lena. Ole asked, “But what areyou going to tell your SundaySchool class?” “The same thingIalways tell them. Youdon’thavetosmokeand drink to have agood time!” —AWisconsin/Minnesota Scandinavian Farmer Joke. 7Blurred and Ambiguous CulturalIdentity If yougotofamilyreunions to pick up girls,guess what?You just might be aredneck! —Jeff Foxworthy AGreek and an Italian weredebatingwho has the superior culture. The Greek says, “We have the Parthenon.” The Italian says, “We have the Colosseum.” The Greek says, “We had great mathematicians and philosophers.” The Italian says, “We created aworld empire and established Pax Romana.” And so on and so on, for hours, until the Greek lights up and says, “We inventedsex!” The Italian nods slowly,thinks,and replies, “That is true—but it was Italians whointro- duced it to women!” Why’dYou HavetoChoose Us? On Jews and Their Jokes 21 I’mfromFinland, and I’ve been workingfor alongtime tryingtolook, sound, and be as American as possible. I’mthinkingoftakinganeasy wayout: Get fat,stop voting, and in- vade asmall country in the Middle East! —Lisa Mannerkoski Putting aside Dauber’sfirst rubric for amoment,wewould arguethatany attempt to define and catalogue alist of jokes and subject matter that is exclusive to the Jewish experience and thatare onlytold by Jews is doomed to failure. The subjectmatter and comic punchlines of most but not all Jewish shtick and goyim bits are more often than not gleanedfrom experiences, events and common ex- istential challenges that are universaltothe human condition. Topics such as re- ligion, God, death, illness, marriageand sex (clearly two separate topics), hus- bands, wives, lovers, friends, adversaries, enemies, in-laws, former-laws,

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