The Jewish Joke: A Short History—with Punchlines

Baum (Feeling Jewish), lecturer in English literature and critical theory at the University of Southampton, considers the history of Jewish humor in this cursory study. She begins with a brief exploration of humor within the Torah, recounting that the Zohar (“the foundational text of Jewish mysticism”) considered God’s command to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac “the biggest joke in the Hebrew Bible.” In an attempt to explain that bizarre assessment, she refers to the last-minute substitution of a ram for Isaac as a “classic switcheroo” that Abraham “really fell for,” and that showed God as “a prankster of the highest order.” She effectively considers the roles Jewish humor has played as a response to oppression and as a way to mock hypocrisy about religious observance, but other efforts aren’t as successful. For instance, her explanation of why Jackie Mason employed the simple repetition of the word “Jew” in his stand-up routine—because, for Mason and his audience, there isn’t “all that much of a difference between a Jew and a joke”—is insufficient. Her reliance on personages tainted by accusations of sexual misconduct (such as Woody Allen and Louis C.K.) also distracts from many of her points. Readers interested in Jewish wit will be better served by Jeremy Dauber’s Jewish Comedy or anthologies aiming just for laughs, such as The Big Book of Jewish Humor. [em](May) [/em]