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The tradition of humor in Judaism dates back to the compilation of the Torah and the Midrash in the ancient Middle East, but the most famous form of Jewish humor consists of the more recent stream of verbal and frequently anecdotal humor of Ashkenazi Jews which took root in the United States during the last one hundred years, it even took root in secular Jewish culture. In its early form, European Jewish humor was developed in the Jewish community of the Holy Roman Empire, with theological satire becoming a traditional way to clandestinely express opposition to Christianization.[1]
During the nineteenth century, modern Jewish humor emerged among German-speaking Jewish proponents of the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment), it matured in the shtetls of the Russian Empire, and then, it flourished in twentieth-century America, arriving with the millions of Jews who emigrated from Eastern Europe between the 1880s and the early 1920s. [citation needed]
Beginning on vaudeville and continuing on radio, stand-up, film, and television, a disproportionately high percentage of American comedians have been Jewish.[2]Time estimated in 1978 that 80 percent of professional American comics were Jewish.[3]
Jewish humor is diverse, but most frequently, it consists of wordplay, irony, and satire, and the themes of it are highly anti-authoritarian, mocking religious and secular life alike.[4] Sigmund Freud considered Jewish humor unique in that its humor is primarily derived from mocking the in-group (Jews) rather than the "other". However, rather than simply being self-deprecating, it also contains an element of self-praise.
^Tanny, Jarrod (2015). "The Anti-Gospel of Lenny, Larry and Sarah: Jewish Humor and the Desecration of Christendom". American Jewish History. 99 (2): 167–193. doi:10.1353/ajh.2015.0023. S2CID 162195868.
^While numbers are inevitably fuzzy, Paul Chance, reviewing Lawrence Epstein's The Haunted Smile: The Story of Jewish Comedians in America (Psychology Today, Jan-Feb, 2002) wrote, "While Jews make up only about 3 percent of the U.S. population, 80 percent of professional comics are Jewish." Accessed online Archived 2007-03-14 at the Wayback Machine 25 March 2007. Comedian Mark Schiff, reviewing the same book on Jewlarious.com Archived 2020-10-28 at the Wayback Machine, writes, "Most of the comedians that made us all laugh in the 1950s, '60s and '70s were Jewish." Similarly, Drew Friedman (author of Old Jewish Comedians), in a March 22, 2007 interview on Fridays with Mr. Media Archived 2007-06-21 at the Wayback Machine: "Somebody said, 'You could do an Old Protestant Comedian book,' and I said, 'Well, that would be a pamphlet, wouldn't it?'"
^"Behavior: Analyzing Jewish Comics". October 2, 1978. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
^Salvatore Attardo (25 February 2014). Encyclopedia of Humor Studies. SAGE Publications. p. 542. ISBN 978-1-4833-4617-5.
of humor in Judaism dates back to the compilation of the Torah and the Midrash in the ancient Middle East, but the most famous form of Jewishhumor consists...
Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, gallows humor, black humor, or dark humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter...
Nazi-organized Jewish ghettos, in particular, the Warsaw Ghetto. Among other things, the archive documented the humor perspective of the inhumane Jewish life....
[2001]. "1950s JewishHumor". Reform Judaism. New York City. Retrieved 2024-04-23 – via My Jewish Learning. Before World War II, the Jewish presence in the...
at times other than at these events was frowned upon. Jewishhumor is the long tradition of humor in Judaism dating back to the Torah and the Midrash,...
Meshuggenary. Celebrating the World of Yiddish, 2002, p.76 The Targets of JewishHumor Dalzell, Tom (11 May 2018). The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American...
antisemitism History of antisemitism Jewish cuisine Jewish culture Jewish diaspora Jewish ethnic divisions Jewish history Jewishhumor Model minority Perpetual foreigner...
Ostrower [he], הומור כמנגנון הגנה בשואה ["Humor as a defense mechanism in the Holocaust"] Sover, Arie. 2021. JewishHumor: An outcome of Historical Experience...
Johnson. He is also the editor, with Moshe Waldoks, of The Big Book of JewishHumor. He has also written several "private" books, which he described in a...
music, Jewish humor, Jewish theatre, Jewish cuisine and Jewish medicine. Jews have established various Jewish political movements, and Jewish religious movements...
meaning "inept/incompetent person" or "fool". It is a common archetype in Jewishhumor, and so-called "schlemiel jokes" depict the schlemiel falling into unfortunate...
describes the main binary oppositions providing examples (mostly from Jewishhumor), Davies explores the situations where the scripts apply; for example...
Although humor is a phenomenon experienced by most humans, its exact cause is a topic of heavy debate. There are many theories of humor which attempt to...
its humor. Ames then said to Carson: "Think I'm going into another business, John." To which Carson ad-libbed: "I didn't even know you were Jewish!" and...
January 10, 2022. Retrieved July 30, 2018. "Let There Be Laughter – JewishHumor Around the World". Beit Hatfutsot. February 6, 2017. Archived from the...
in 1973. Its content contained many examples of Jewishhumor. Another parody featuring Jewishhumor, Jonathan Segal Chicken, was written by Sol Weinstein...
the 20th century at least, has been the influx of Jewish comedians and their corresponding Jewishhumor, including some of the most influential: The Three...
from a Jewish family in Massachusetts. His parents are Linda (née Manaly) and author William Novak. His father co-edited The Big Book of JewishHumor, and...
first recipient (1988) of the award for American Jewishhumor from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. The award was ultimately named in his honor...
publications in humor research, with brief annotations. The list includes books and scholarly journals that regularly cover articles in humor research. This...
physical faculties to the end of his life. The saying is a fixture of Jewishhumor, as in the story of a man who said to his noisy neighbor "May you live...
by Jewishhumor and actors from the 20th century, wanting Howard to encompass Jewish stereotypes proudly and treat them as a "superpower." The Jewish concept...
Odesa humor is a notable part of both Jewishhumor and Russian humor.[citation needed] Since 1972 Odesa has been hosting the annual festival of humor, Humorina...