The Funniest Jew on Earth

The Tablet ^ | 28 June 2021 | Clayton Fox

[Rummyfan]

Ask Americans—well, Jews, well, most Jews, well, some Jews—over the age of 60 who is the funniest man on Earth? The answer is “Mel Brooks.” Brooks is the last great Hollywood Jew and when he goes—kinahora not for another 25 years—something will die with him. He might be the last great American Jew, period, some cross between a Kishinev shochet and a Williamsburg ganif, with that voice so full of wryness that the mere anticipation of what it might next utter brings a smile to our lips and comfort to our hearts.

It started in Europe, where the American-born Brooks followed his brothers into the army and ended up serving in the final advance on Germany in 1945. Mel says it was the war that really connected him to a deeper sense of his Jewish identity. In Patrick McGilligan’s exhaustive biography, Funny Man, he says, “I knew what Hitler was doing to Jews, so I really did feel this was a proper and just war.” He even tells a story of being called a “dirty Jew” by a fellow GI during training and reflexively lunging at him, proud of being “a tough Jew from Brooklyn.” By the end of his tour, he was entertaining troops with what would become his signature impression: Adolf Hitler with a comb for a tiny mustache and manic German gibberish.

Upon returning to New York, and every day hence, he has carried the torch of Jewish indignation, and pride. Publicly. This torch has created gifts for the millions, Jew and gentile, but especially a subset of us Jews for whom the jokes are not only funny but deeply personal and somehow cleansing—an unabashed embrace of being one of us.

[cyclotic]

Buddy Sorrell was played by Morey Amsterdam. Always one of my favorite characters in early TV.

A few years ago a restaurant had a Morey Amsterdam sandwich. I didn’t even look to see what was on it, just ordered it.

About 35 years ago, I came to know an old man in his 80’s. He went by the name Hal Hamilton. That was the name his agent gave him when he hit the vaudeville circuit.

Hal was a living, breathing Morey Amsterdam. Even as he was in the hospital he was popping one liners.

He was a jew who late in life became a born again Christian. Once Vaudeville ended he moved to Detroit where we met at church.

[Sans-Culotte]

I like some of Mel’s output, others, not so much. I didn’t care a lot about Blazing Saddles aside from Madeline Kahn’s take on Marlene Dietrich. The “hilarious farting scene” was just...guys farting. Loved Young Frankenstein.

[Reily]

How could I forget that one !
Thanks for mentioning it !

[Sirius Lee]

Short clip of funniest Jew ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3jx4WIUYy4

[Zionist Conspirator]

He might be the last great American Jew, period, some cross between a Kishinev shochet and a Williamsburg ganif

According to Rambam, if he doesn't keep Shabbat he is regarded as a non-Jew and an idol worshiper. He can't be witness at a Beit Din or at a wedding (if he was only one of two witnesses then the wedding was invalid), and he can't be buried in a Jewish cemetery. And if he is and they find out he didn't keep Shabbat, he has to be dug up and reburied somewhere else.

There's plenty of excellent Torah on the Internet. It's about time people stopped identifying Jewishness with Borscht Belt tummlers and learned about the Chosen People.

[Ezekiel]

Jews in Space<<<

It's been done.

;)

Yeah, but InJewnuity's was the first birth in space, on Mars.

Jewish identity: it all depends on the mother.

Necessity is the mother of invention.
Perseverance is the mother of ingenuity.

But wait! Perseverance (aka Percy) is a boy.

Which reminds me...
...of Miss Resnik

(Pillow Talk, 1959)

A man said he was going to have a baby and you let him go?

He was obviously a psychopath.

- And if he wasn't?

- But Dr. Maxwell.

Miss Resnick, medical science still has many unknowns to explore.

***

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before!

Contrast Cain, as his was the first recorded birth on Earth.

Cain was not.. Abel

He had a "no-can-do" spirit. He would rather kill anyone who was able. It's the simple meaning.

Genesis 4

13 And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear.
14 Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.

No ingenuity whatsoever! Not a Jew. Compare David on the run -- when faced with the king of Gath, he came up with the idea to act like a drooling madman.

The PINTELe Yid is the one with the INTEL inside.

And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning...

:)

To boldly go where no man has gone before:

Remember the scene in Lawrence of Arabia?

"From the landward side, there are no guns at Aqaba."

Genesis 3:24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Okay but in the spirit of "venahafoch hu", like the verb right there in the verse:

On the West there are no Cherubims guarding the Garden of Eden.

Ingenious Christopher Columbus sailed West in order to go East (to Hodu no less), and he discovered a whole new world.

Surnamed after a dove, the Spirit of Elohim. Gen 1:2.

The God of Abraham -- The Funniest Jew on Earth

"I Yam that I Yam"

(always saving Olive Oyl)

The lyrics to "Jews in Space" --

"When goyim attack us, we'll give 'em a smack.."

What Popeye sang in his theme song:

I'm one tough Gazookus
That hates all Palookas
That ain't on the up and square
I biffs 'em and buffs 'em
And always out roughs 'em
And none of 'em gets nowhere

***

See Jews in Space:

Zooming along, protecting the Hebrew race...

Bonus for anyone who remembers that David called himself a worm, the specific type that was used to make the red dye.

It's the name of this iconic NASA* font. Of wisdom.

*Going up... it's what "Can Do" People DO.

No one can curse a people who make lemonade out of lemons because the curses *are* the blessings.

Talk about low overhead.

David couldn't build the Temple because he was a man of war who shed much blood, which is the same description as Mars. The same for whom the third day was named (Tuesday, martes, martedi..)

But his son... he shall DO.

How would Popeye pronounce "American"? Am-Ares-kin?

Asking for a friend.

[Jacob Kell]

I really enjoyed Dracula Dead and Loving It. “Renfield, you a**hole”!

[DeFault User]

Doing a search I found that the original was taken down because it might be offensive to some groups. Seems the woman taking the video was also blown up by the explosion.

However, I found this one that is almost as good about an ISIS fighter demonstrating how to fire a rocket (in the house). Fun starts at 20 seconds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kOSyf1n6vA

[Jimmy Valentine]

LOL!

[Eleutheria5]

The original Producer with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder tops them all.

[Reily]

Almost agree !

I am a huge “ A Funny thing Happened on the Way to the Forum “ fan. If I’m ever blue it always picks me up !

In regard to the movie “The Producers” . The new one (2005) with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. I was prepared to hate it. I didn’t ! Not as good as the original but not bad.

[Seeing More Clearly Now]

Yes, Jackie Mason! The others mentioned had their great, memorable moments, mostly highly scripted and orchestrated. Laughing at their humor was an occupational hazard for some, though people could not help but laugh along with them in the era of live TV (before taped performances). Groucho had a really quick wit for retorts.

Jackie’s soul had absorbed from Jewish history the sense of tragio-comedic human irony that comes from deep in the soul of his family and the collective history and memory of his people as a whole. It’s humor of survival, bitter, and sometimes able to be perceived as bitter sweet, with deep ties to the experience of continual persecution of the Jews in Russia and the Pale of settlement and the persecutions and relocations of 2,000 years. It has been written that this ordained rabb, Jackie Mason,i was so funny at his early employment as a rabbi that members of the congregation urged him to pursue comedy as a career.

Of all the funny men who have been mentioned, only Jackie Mason time after time, year in and year out, had my parents and me, when I was a kid, uncontrollably howling with laughter. Recordings on YouTube of Jackie Mason’s performances in England, etc, show that one doesn’t have to be Jewish to love Jackie Mason’s humor of hyperbole and truth.

[Seeing More Clearly Now]

“At his age, I would not expect Mel to change, and I think he’s been a Liberal Democrat his whole life. But I do wonder what he thinks when he looks at the current state of American society. This is not at all the country he defended in WWII. Does he see?
In a word....no! He is a typical Hollywood tard. Groucho, and Jackie Mason are funnier IM”

Correct. Jason Mason right up to today understands what makes America great and is grateful to his country. His routines dissect the stupid thinking like that of the sweatshirted trio pictured and their misguided ilk. Jackie Mason makes comedic mince meat of the naive, easily brainwashed fools among us.

[Eleutheria5]

Nothing with Gene Wilder in it can ever be equaled. Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel, fugeddaboudit.

[apocalypto]

My family also thinks he is one of the funniest people.

[dfwgator]

And Dick Shawn.

[Stentor]

There were a bunch of guys who started in the Catskills who kept me rolling on the floor for 30 years. Never saw Brooks do stand up and I never ROTFL at his stuff.

[goldbux]

* * *

[dfwgator]

Myron Cohen was one of my favorites.

[Eleutheria5]

When I was a kid and was brought to see The Producer, his character LSD was truly memorable. We’d do the Love Power dance at home for weeks.