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.

[dfwgator]

LOL, I was just watching the guitar player the whole time.

[dennisw]

Mel Brooks never made me laugh. Jewish Andrew Dice Clay did in his prime. BUT Sam Kinison was the best and gave off some Jewish vibes, he must have picked up along the way on the comedy club circuit. Plus big credit, he had an Old Testament name. He was a semi-honorary Jew/ MOT. At least in my book.

Jewish Rodney Dangerfield also at the top. Whenever he was on Johnny Carson he got Johnny genuinely in stitches.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001048/ -— Andrew Dice Clay is still working and bringing in the Money!

[dennisw]

Mel Brooks?
Three Stooges gave me a million more laughs. All were Jewish except for a late late add on to replace Curley. Joe something.

Laurel and Hardy...100 percent non-Jewish were the ultimate comedians from England. Winston Churchill must have run their reels privately at #10 Downing when in his/England’s darkest hours.

[Political Junkie Too]

I wouldn’t have known all that had it not been for Adam Sandler’s “Hanukkah Song”.

The story is that Mission:Impossible was filming at Desilu at the next studio when season 1 star Steven Hill (a devout Orthodox Jew) would not work on Saturday. Hill went through the studio lots looking for other Jews to join him, and William Shatner went the Desilu executives complaining that Hill was pestering him and Nimoy.

Hill was eventually fired from Mission:Impossible and dropped out of acting for 10 years.

-PJ

[Political Junkie Too]

Joe DeRita.

Olive Hardy was born in Georgia.

-PJ

[Eleutheria5]

I was too young to notice the mini skirt. My attention was focused on LSD and his crazy antics.

[Ratman0823]

As an example in “Blazing Saddles” with Brooks as the Apache chief surrounding Clevon Littles family, it was several years before I found out he was speaking Yiddish to his tribe.

You can see the scene with an English (sic) translation on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvc1I6jsPUo&ab_channel=Rudy%27sMovieReviews

[Ratman0823]

Let’s try that again: https://youtu.be/Wvc1I6jsPUo

(I always seem to mess up YT links here, sorry)