Jews and humor is, for most people, a natural and felicitous collocation. In spite of, or perhaps because of, a history of crises and living on the edge, Jews have often created or resorted to humor. But what is humor? And what makes certain types, instances, or performances of humor "Jewish"? These are among the myriad queries addressed by the fourteen authors whose essays are collected in this volume. And, thankfully, their observations, always apt and often witty, are expressed with a lightness of style and a depth of analysis that are appropriate to the many topics they cover. The scholars who contributed to this collection allow readers both to discern the common features that make up "Jewish humor" and to delight in the individualism and eccentricities of the many figures whose lives and accomplishments are narrated here. Because these essays are written in a clear, jargon-free style, they will appeal to everyone—even those who don't usually crack a smile!
Acknowledgments
Editor’s Introduction
Contributors
Humor in the Bible, by Charles David Isbell
Why Did the Widow Have a Goat in Her Bed? Jewish Humor and Its Roots in the Talmud and Midrash, by David Brodsky
But Is It Funny? Identifying Humor, Satire, and Parody in Rabbinic Literature, by Eliezer Diamond
Masekhet Purim, by Peter J. Haas
Jewish Humor as a Source of Research on Polish-Jewish Relations, by Joanna Sliwa
Jewish Jokes, Yiddish Storytelling, and Sholem Aleichem: A Discursive Approach, by Jordan Finkin
Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Karl: Immigrant Humor and the Depression, by Leonard M. Helfgott
Nuances and Subtleties in Jewish Film Humor, by Michael W. Rubinoff
The Bad Girls of Jewish Comedy: Gender, Class, Assimilation, and Whiteness in Postwar America, by Giovanna P. Del Negro
One Clove Away From a Pomander Ball: The Subversive Tradition of Jewish Female Comedians, by Joyce Antler
Heckling the Divine: Woody Allen, the Book of Job, and Jewish Theology after the Holocaust, by Jason Kalman
Tragicomedy and Zikkaron in Mel Brooks’s To Be or Not To Be, by Joan Latchaw and David Peterson
“They Ain’t Makin’ Jews Like Jesus Anymore”: The Musical Humor of Kinky Friedman and The Texas Jewboys in Historical and Geographical Perspective, by Theodore Albrecht
The New Jewish Blackface: African American Tropes in Contemporary Jewish Humor, by David Gillota
