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Jokes about Jews in Pop Culture



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Ravenclaw




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jan 02 2019, 2:10 pm
So here’s the thing, I was just thinking...
So many comedies will make jokes that highlight a racial/gender-specific stereotype and then get slammed for it on the internet and in the media. The funny thing is though, that I usually don’t find the jokes about Jews to be offensive. I usually find them quite funny. And in general I don’t see Jewish jokes being slammed as often as other racial jokes. Why is that? Are we Jews just good at laughing at ourselves? Or is our place is American society high enough that we don’t feel threatened by jokes?
Just interesting food for thought...
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amother
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Post Wed, Jan 02 2019, 2:17 pm
Ravenclaw wrote:
So here’s the thing, I was just thinking...
So many comedies will make jokes that highlight a racial/gender-specific stereotype and then get slammed for it on the internet and in the media. The funny thing is though, that I usually don’t find the jokes about Jews to be offensive. I usually find them quite funny. And in general I don’t see Jewish jokes being slammed as often as other racial jokes. Why is that? Are we Jews just good at laughing at ourselves? Or is our place is American society high enough that we don’t feel threatened by jokes?
Just interesting food for thought...


Its very much about who is delivering the joke.

(case in point - LF could do a joke 10 years ago that people found funny - now same joke would be considered super offensive).
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qwerty4




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jan 02 2019, 2:18 pm
In general if someone includes themselves in the target of the joke, it goes over well.
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Amarante




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jan 02 2019, 2:39 pm
There was a quite funny Seinfeld episode in which Jerry went crazy because his dentist converted and started telling Jewish jokes.

But as others have posted, self denigrating jokes are fine. Of course Jewish humor devoid of specific Jewish references really shaped American modern humor.
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Fox




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jan 02 2019, 3:52 pm
I've thought a lot about this ever since so many major comedians stopped playing college campuses:

* People who want to be offended will find a way to be offended, no matter how tame the joke.

* There has to be an underlying universal theme that everyone can relate to.

One example that always makes me smile is Wanda Sykes's story about her children and the seals. Sykes's partner and children are white and French-speaking. When they were toddlers, she took the family to an aquarium. When they reached the seal pond, the kids started screaming, "les phoques!" in those bone-jarring voices toddlers have. Of course, everyone was looking, because you can probably guess how "phoque" is pronounced in French. The punchline is Wanda edging away and looking disapprovingly at the kids, saying, "I don't know those white people."

The fact that certain words in one language are "dirty" in another language isn't funny unless you're around 6 years old. Nor is the racial aspect funny. What's funny is that anyone who's been around little kids has had the experience of wanting to crawl under the carpet when they loudly say something inappropriate -- or even something that sounds inappropriate.

"Jewish" jokes have become a mainstay for the same reason. They're not really about Jews; they're about tight-knit immigrant groups striving for upward mobility.

* The performer has to have a persona and ethos that transcends the joke. This was the specialty of the classic insult comedians, people like Don Rickles and Rodney Dangerfield. Had they given the slightest sign of being genuinely misanthropic, their routines would have been universally panned. But each developed an ethos that made it all in good fun; even if you didn't care for their comedy, it was clear that they weren't serious.

* It has to truly be funny. I've forgotten which comedian said this, but the reality is that you can get away with a lot if it's actually funny. Often when a little-known performer gets press for telling an offensive joke, it turns out that the alleged offensiveness wasn't entirely the problem; the primary problem was that it simply wasn't funny enough.
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Ravenclaw




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jan 02 2019, 4:29 pm
While true that self-depreciating humor is usually taken well, I am making a separate point. For example, Pitch Perfect and The Big Bang Theory both have many jokes based on racial stereotypes (including Jewish ones). Personally, none of them bothered me, I found them funny in fact.
But here’s the thing, google “is the Big Bang theory racist” and tons of articles will come up with different opinions. But all of them only talk about whether the jokes about Indians are offensive, there is no mention of the Jewish ones. Same thing with many such shows. And truth is as a Jew, it doesn’t even bother me. So my question is, are we just not as sensitive or are Jewish jokes truly less offensive?
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Ravenclaw




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jan 02 2019, 4:34 pm
Fox, you summarize it well.
I once heard that “Humor is hearing the truth more bluntly than we are used to.”
It has to be based on truth (relatable as you say) and have some element of shock to it.
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amother
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Post Wed, Jan 02 2019, 4:41 pm
Ravenclaw wrote:
While true that self-depreciating humor is usually taken well, I am making a separate point. For example, Pitch Perfect and The Big Bang Theory both have many jokes based on racial stereotypes (including Jewish ones). Personally, none of them bothered me, I found them funny in fact.
But here’s the thing, google “is the Big Bang theory racist” and tons of articles will come up with different opinions. But all of them only talk about whether the jokes about Indians are offensive, there is no mention of the Jewish ones. Same thing with many such shows. And truth is as a Jew, it doesn’t even bother me. So my question is, are we just not as sensitive or are Jewish jokes truly less offensive?


I don't spend too much time with BB theory - but the Jewish jokes as I recall seemed to be portraying a stereotype of an annoying overbearing mother... its mild stuff. (I recognize she is no longer a character - not sure what the jokes are now).

If the jokes moved towards more offensive stereotypes - I think it would be a lot more controversial.

I happen to define racism as comments about 'other' suggesting that they are inferior, and should be discriminated against.
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Ravenclaw




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jan 02 2019, 4:51 pm
amother wrote:
I don't spend too much time with BB theory - but the Jewish jokes as I recall seemed to be portraying a stereotype of an annoying overbearing mother... its mild stuff. (I recognize she is no longer a character - not sure what the jokes are now).

If the jokes moved towards more offensive stereotypes - I think it would be a lot more controversial.

I happen to define racism as comments about 'other' suggesting that they are inferior, and should be discriminated against.


Excellent point. Most jokes about Jews don’t do this. If there was a joke about something that painted us as immoral or inferior I probably would take it personally.
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amother
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Post Wed, Jan 02 2019, 4:54 pm
Ravenclaw wrote:
Excellent point. Most jokes about Jews don’t do this. If there was a joke about something that painted us as immoral or inferior I probably would take it personally.


Not the ones we hear on TV anyway.
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