Jewish Humor

Review of Joseph Dorinson, Kvetching and Shpritzing: Jewish Humor in American Popular Culture (McFarland, 2015). ISBN-13: 978-0786494828, i-x, 238 pages, Paperback, $40 (on Amazon).

Jewish people have been characterized as “the people of the book.” To a comedian, this is immediately and catalytically converted into the people of the comic book. I wonder, if it were not for humor, would Jews ever have survived countless hardships involving bondage in Egypt, diasporas, Inquisitions, Ghettos, pogroms, genocide, not to mention the most stressful of them all—the persistent ministrations of overly-doting, chicken-soup bearing mothers?

Joseph Dorinson’s Kvetching and Shpritzing is a work of considerable scholarship dealing with these subjects. It runs the gamut from providing reasons underlying and necessitating Jewish humor, why and how it evolved, and its importance in securing, safeguarding, and maintaining Jewish identity’s very existence in the face of generations of less than cordial treatment, all the way to supplying the reader with multiple examples of Jewish comic relief.

Dorinson systematically traces several genres of Jewish wit: vaudeville, the Yiddish theater, burlesque, musical theater, nightclubs, radio, television, literature, film, and “the Jewish Alps,” a.k.a. the Catskills, or what has simply come to be known as the “Borscht Belt.” ”Why so many Jewish humorists? Why not?” The author asks and answers in a fashion befitting much of Jewish repartee, where an answer to a question often takes the form of another question. It was Sam Levinson who actually attempted to answer this question. He claimed that this apparent paradox might be described as “democracy in action.” That is, in a war of wits, Jews needed to be able to outsmart their adversaries. For example, “A dying Rabbi summons the town atheist. The town atheist asks him ‘why?’ ‘Why not?’ says the Rabbi, quickly adding, ‘all of the others I will see again, but you, to you, I wanted to say goodbye’” (141).

Levinson, says Dorinson, went further, contending that Jewish humor contains specific salient features: consciousness, pride, linkage to and an honest picture of the outer world. He cited incongruity as the motor force behind humor, claiming that it was poverty, rather than wealth, that powers the Jewish joke. Dorinson correctly states that Freud put his imprimatur on humor, its relation to the primary process of the unconscious, and its analysis. He notes that more than promoting healthy skepticism, democratic thought, social principles, and self-criticism, Jewish

Page 324

wit also constitutes an inexpensive form of therapy and catharsis.

While Dorinson does not endow us with an inexhaustible collection of historical background materials (which, short of compiling an encyclopedia, might be a nearly impossible feat), it is extensive and thorough enough to obtain more than an adequate appreciation of the multiple factors that give rise to Jewish humor as a unique and, it would seem, lasting entity. His work is filled with biographical sketches of distinguished humorists, their careers, and the experiences that influenced their output. Among the more notable ones, Dorinson has mentioned fiddlers of the funny bone like Henny Youngman, Milton Berle, Groucho Marx (and his equally zany brothers), Red Buttons (a.k.a. Aaron Chwatt), as well as Sid Caesar and his ensemble with their particularly pertinent penchant for pastiche and parody: Howard Morris, Neil Simon, Mel Brooks, and Carl Reiner (and later his comic genius son, Rob).

He refers to the mind-boggling memory and mile-a-minute musical musings of the inimitable Danny Kaye (a.k.a. Kaminsky) to George Burns (and his brilliantly funny wife, Gracie Allen, who played the fool perfectly, and yet was nothing less than a comic savant in her own right), the understated WASPish humor of Jack Benny (a.k.a. Benny Kubelsky) and his wife, Mary Livingston (a.k.a. Sadie Marks). On the list are Jerry Lewis and his not so subtle, mad cap slapstick comedic bent; Steve Allen’s quirky intellectual characters; Jerry Stiller (and his outrageous son, Ben); the anti-establishment mania of Lenny Bruce; the social criticism of Mort Sahl; the self-effacing humor of Rodney Dangerfield (a.k.a. Jacob Cohen, alias Jack Roy), who “gets no respect;” and the irreverent banter of Jackie Mason “do ya know wad I mean, do ya know wad I’m talkin’ about?” All of these comics, as well as the ones listed below, said Gordon Allport, noted personality psychologist, come from the heritage of a people in strife whose response is humor in the form of acceptance, avoidance, or aggression.

Morey Amsterdam (a.k.a. Moritz Amsterdam) deserves to be mentioned for his encyclopedic repertoire of jokes. Much space is devoted to Woody Allen (a.k.a. Allen Stewart Konigsberg) and his neurotic nihilistic antics, Robert Klein’s outspoken wit, the strangely infectious humor of Andy Kaufman, Al Franken’s diffident characters, Jerry Seinfeld’s extraordinary brand of vin ordinaire, the fertile but never settled mind of Billy Crystal, and on and on, not to mention all the great female comics that have graced the stage, screen, radio, and TV, like Fanny Brice, Judy Holliday (nee’ Tuvim), Joan Rivers, Madeline Kahn, Gilda Radner, Elayne Boosler, Sarah Silverman, Wendy Lieberman, and Korey Kahaney (an Irish-in-name only, wickedly funny lass). The list is seemingly endless and continues to grow to the present day.

It seems to me that the mainstream of Jewish humor illustrated by this incomplete list emanates from a reaction to and defense against op-

Page 325

pression, as well as the means of obtaining a sense of self through identification with a common cultural ethos.

As Dorinson points out, if the humor came naturally to some of the people cited above, it certainly did not come easily or without a price. For example, in search of the showy sparkle of success, they aimed to please no matter the cost, which included self-denial, self-effacement, and self-exhaustion. This was particularly true of Sid Caesar and Jerry Lewis, but also was common with many other gifted comics. We saw this all too clearly in the tortured creativity, internal agony, and ultimate demise of the great Lenny Bruce.

Sometimes because of, and at other times despite their own inner turmoil, this book puts a human face on the loony and delightful characters that regularly put a smile on our faces. The book is not only a scholarly work, but a riot as well. For those reasons and more, it is a wonderful read.

Page 326