Tuesday, June 16, 2009

the evolution of jewish comedy


last night i attended the preliminaries for new york's funniest jewish comic competition. jewish comedy has really changed since the borsht belt in its heyday. we've come a long way since woody allen . thank goodness.


what defines a jewish comic? is it comedy about being jewish or is it jewish comedy because the comic is jewish?


a few times the funniest jewish comic was a southern jew . this proved that to be a jewish comic these days one does not require a cloying jewish new york accent. we are also in an era of third and fourth generation american jews. the jokes are different now. we are more mainstream.


the interesting thing about the funniest jewish comic competition is the religious demographics of the contestants. most of the comedians are not orthodox, but what always amazes me is that several of the contestants are frum and they do make it to the finals and have even won first place. i guess if one is frum one has plenty to laugh about!


i like hearing jokes by comics who are jewish , but i dont especially like " jewish " jokes. usually they insult jewish women too much for my taste. they also tend to not be all that funny . fortunately the new jewish jokes are different. they are more about being jewish in the world as opposed to making fun of the fact that one is jewish and pretty much self-hating.

1 comment:

Ookamikun said...

Meh, there's nothing like Mel Brooks. Though his Spaceballs animated series is horrible. But the original was awesome. "All Druish princesses like money and power, and I have both!"
"I hate Yogurt, even with strawberries!"
"I said shoot across her nose, not up it!"