Rex Bloomstein
A Tribute to American Jewish Humour

Rex Bloomstein - A Tribute to American Jewish Humor

- [Shirley] A very, very, very warm welcome to Rex Bloomstein, it’s such a pleasure to have you with us today. Thank you so much for giving up your time, and sharing your insights with all the participants on Lockdown University. So Rex Bloomstein has produced films on human rights, crime and punishment, and the Holocaust. He pioneered the modern prison documentary with films such as “Lifers,” and “Strange Ways,” which won two British Academy Awards, and created 11 years of human right appeals for the BBC, with the series “Prisoners of Conscience,” and “Human Rights, Human Wrongs,” as well as other television productions such as “Auschwitz and The Allies,” and his three-part history of antisemitism, “The Longest Hatred.” He produced “KZ,” described as one of the first post-modern Holocaust documentaries. Other featured documentaries include “An Independent Mind” on freedom of expression, and “This Prison Where I Live,” on imprisoned Burmese comedian, Zarganar. Rex has presented radio programmes such as “Dying Inside,” on older prisoners, one of a Sony Award, and “Inside the Sex Offenders Prison,” both for Radio Four. His work led him to become a co-founder and former chairman of the Medical Foundation for the Care and Victims of Torture, Now Freedom From Torture, and a former longstanding trustee of the Prison Reform Trust. Tonight, he presents for us at the Lockdown University, his exploration, “Jewish humour, American style.” So Rex, I’m very, very sorry that my video is not working, I’m going to jump on my iPad to say thank you, but I’m now going to hand over to you, and we look forward to hearing from you tonight, thank you.

• Thank you very much, Shirley, and I’m sorry we can’t all see you. And thank you also to Lauren, who’s helping with the technical aspects of this. As you’ve heard, I’ve made many films exploring the darkness within human beings, but I’ve also entered the world of magic, music, and humour on film, and it’s humour that I’d like to concentrate on tonight. And in particular, Jewish humour, with by far the most remarkable example being American-Jewish humour. The Jews of America virtually created show business, so many of the greatest comedians, cartoonists, comic writers, producers, directors have been Jews. So how do we begin to explain this phenomenon? Or as someone once wrote, “This haunted smile.” Here’s Leo Rosten, author of “The Joys of Yiddish.”

• A kind of lunacy, a liberating lunacy, dances through the Jews jokes. The best example of that I can give you is a note I once received from Grouch Marx. I had written him a letter, and I didn’t get an answer until months later, and here was his answer. “Dear Junior, excuse me, for not answering you sooner, "but I have so been so busy not answering letters lately "that I have not been able to get around "to not answering yours in time.” Now it boggles the mind to think of these inversions of reason. Jewish humour is steeped in sentiment, and sluiced with sarcasm. Jewish humour loves the ruminative, because it rests on a very sad, and rueful past. It favours paradox because it knows that only paradox can do justice to the injustices of life. It adores irony, because the only way the Jews could retain their sanity was to view a dreadful and threatening world with sardonic eyes. In its innermost heart, the humour of the Jews swings between derision and schmaltz. Schmaltz has become an English word. Old Mr. Sokoloff, a widower, who ate at the same restaurant every Friday night, and this Friday night he came in and the waiters said, “Hello, Sokoloff,” Sokoloff said, “Hello, Waiter.” The waiter brought Mr. Sokoloff chopped liver, he ate it.

Then he brought him a bowl of chicken soup, and started off, and Sokoloff said, “Eh-eh, eh-eh, taste the soup.” The waiter said “What?” He said, “Taste the soup.” He said, “Sokoloff, what’s the matter with you? "You’ve been eating here for 22 years, "you always have the same thing, we have the same chef, "the chopped liver’s always the same, the soup.” He says, “Listen, I’m the customer, "you have to pay attention, "taste the soup.” The waiter says, “All right, I’ll taste the soup. "Where’s the spoon?” Sokoloff says, “Ah-ha.” That’s torture. He didn’t say to the waiter, “Where’s the spoon?” Anyone can say that, he had to put him through this series of mysteries. “What the devil does this fellow want?” “Taste the soup.” “Ah-ha.” Now that use of, “Ah-ha” is typically Jewish, I know of no other language in which that has quite the same resonance. But there’s a Jewish joke for almost every aspect of human behaviour, or human conflict. There are no puns in Jewish humour, there isn’t much word play, even though words are so important. There aren’t many jokes about sex, because the Jews tend to be prudish. There are very few jokes exalting physical prowess, quite the contrary, you’re always outwitting the bully, the whole tradition is of that. And then there are just jokes about people, and jokes about God, for heaven’s sake. The Jewish attitude to God mystifies many people, and when I was a child it mystified me. The story of Moses leading the children of Israel, and he comes to to the the Red Sea. And he says, “Manny, the boats.” Manny is the press agent, and Manny says, “What boats?” He said, “My God, Manny, did you forget to provide "the boats to get across the sea here?” “Oh Moses, I’m so sorry, I forgot.” “You forgot? "Oh my God, what do you expect me to do? "Do you expect me to part the waters, "and have the Jews go across, "and then have the waters come back "and drown the pursuing Egyptians? "Is that what you expect?” Manny said, “Boss, you do that, "and I’ll get you two pages in the Old Testament.”

• Leo was a joy to interview. He once defined the word chutzpah, as “That quality enshrined in a man "who having killed his mother and father, "throws himself on the mercy of the court "because he’s an orphan.” Leo appeared in a 90 minute film tribute I made on American Jewish humour, and shown on BBC’s Arena Series, as well as PBS in the states. Before production began, we contacted many American-Jewish comedians and humorists in an attempt to capture the essence of Jewish humour, especially through the comedic arts. Some said “Yes,” some said “No.” So I thought I’d begin the film with a caption which said “The following people "will not be appearing in this film.” And then I listed them, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Barbara Streisand, Gene Wilder, Seinfeld, Philip Roth, Israel Zangwill, Sigmund Freud. And then I added, “They were either unavailable, "disinterested, or dead.” But I didn’t think this worked well enough as a title sequence. So instead I asked a number of those comedians who had agreed to appear, what the title of a film on Jewish humour should be. This was Jackie Mason’s response.

• I got my own troubles, I didn’t ask you to create a title for my show, what right do you have to bother me with titles for your show? First I’m working for nothing, then you try to steal my act, now I got to do your job. Why don’t you fold up all your papers and tub your hair, do the show for me, and you do the documentary while you go home on a vacation, and maybe find out how it came out. I think you got a lot of goddam nerve, I’ll be honest with you.

• “Next Time Dear God Please Choose Someone Else.” I hope you’ll enjoy looking back with me at this film produced some 30 years ago, sharing the jokes I think bear repetition, a little wisdom, a little history, and some outtakes, which I shall show for the first time. Here, for instance, are two of them. The first from the comedian Carol Leifer, followed by an extract from my interview with Billy Crystal.

• Do you have a problem with men? I’ll tell you right now, I’m always attracted to the wrong type of guy, like the Pope. Nah, I could never go out with the Pope. Talk about Mr. Opinionated, huh? Really, I mean he’s totally against homosexuality. Come on, who does he think designed that outfit?

• I had this theory that my relatives were always hot. You know how you feel bad when it’s like hot, and you always, “Boy, it’s so hot.” I’d look at their family album, and there’d be a picture of my grandparents be in wool coats, big wool hats that that wrap around her neck be a live animal. Like they had that, like a fox, and the clasp was the fox biting its own leg. That thing, and big gloves, and the caption would be “Jones Beach, August, 1912.” And I’m going, “Well they were miserable, they were hot.” So that’s my theory, that’s why the Middle East is so tense, it’s hot, it’s always hot there, so they’re all miserable there, ‘cause it’s hot. If we could cool off, get some Fedders people in there, air condition it, the Middle East would be, just cool it down.

• [Rex] Jews in heat.

• Jews in heat. “Soon at a theatre near you.”

• Of course, the origins of many Jewish comedians lie in the shtetels, the little villages of Eastern Europe. We think of the writing of Isaac Bashevis Singer, , and of course Sholem Aleichem, whose most famous stories include “Tevya, the Milkman,” in “Fiddler on the Roof.” During my research, I had the pleasure to film Sholem Aleichem’s granddaughter, the writer, Bel Kaufman. Unfortunately, there was no time to use her interview in the final film, but here she is giving a gentle flavour of the poverty, pain, and humour, that her grandfather captured so well.

• A Jew offers Rothschild the secret of eternal life for 300 rubles. “What is the secret of eternal life?” Says Rothschild, paying up. “Move to my shtetel,” says the Jew, in the history of our town no millionaire ever died there. Well, you chuckle, I chuckle, but what we are really saying is these are paupers. These are people who are so poor that they are almost proud of their poverty. And as Sholem Aleichem says “The happiest moment comes "if they find something they lost, "that’s all they can expect.” You know, also typical of Jewish humour, and of Sholem Aleichem, is exaggeration. And one of my favourite stories, I will paraphrase and condense for you, has to do with a man who describes three classes of funerals in America. He says, “First class funeral is for millionaires, it’s magnificent, it costs $1,000. "You get a catafalque with silver ornament, "six white horses with tall white plumes, "the sun is shining, children from all the Hebrew schools "walk along singing like angels. "It’s good to be rich. "If you don’t have a thousand, for $500, "you get a second class funeral. "Catafalque without silver ornaments, only three horses, not quite so white, "plumes droop a little. "The weather is so-so. "Children from a few schools walk along singing nicely, "it’s a respectable funeral. "But if you’re poor, for $100 you get a third class funeral. "No catafalque, plain wooden coffin, "one skinny horse, "the weather is threatening. "A couple of children stumble along mumbling something, "it’s no picnic being poor. "What happens, he says, if you don’t even have $100? "That’s not so good. "You get no coffin, no horse, no children, "it’s raining cats and dogs, "and the deceased schleps on foot to the cemetery.”

• Much of our filming took place during the festival of Purim, the holiday to celebrate Queen Esther’s saving Persian Jews from Haman’s diabolical plan to murder them. And a special time when Jews got drunk, dressed up in costumes and masks, and had fun. Here explaining more about Jewish humour, and the Bible, and the significance of Purim, is Rabbi Moshe Waldoks.

• Some people say the first joke in the Bible is when God asked Cain why he killed Abel, he says, “Am I my brother’s keeper? "Come on.” Right, I mean we got to have a sort of a dark sense of humour for that. And I think the flood was kind of funny, too. The flood, a lot of animals, and mud slides and everything. And the plagues in Egypt were certainly very funny, Cause imagine here you have the creator of the universe, right? A few chapters back he creates the entire world. He gets off for the weekend, which is very hard to do. And here he is giving the Egyptians frogs, come on. You expect the Three Stooges to give the Egyptians frogs, not God. But from then on it’s kind of downhill, but at the end of the Bible comes the punchline we’re all waiting for, the tiny little book called the “Scroll of Esther.” And the “Scroll of Esther” is the first official funny book in the Bible, and it becomes the basis for the most important holiday of the Jewish year, which people don’t know much about, it’s called Purim. And Purim is a holiday which comes out in the spring, like Mardi Gras. As a matter of fact, it’s probably based on the Mardi Gras idea, commedia dell'arte, it’s a festival. And the Purim players who started acting out the Purim story, became, if you will, the first Jewish actors and comedians that we have. And that went on to this very day, for about 2000 years, there have been Purim players, called Purim spielers. And even to this day, there are Purim players all around the world. And after a while, they began to act out not only the Purim story, but other parts of the Bible. And that’s the remarkable thing about Jewish humour, that you take this sacrosanct book, this holy source of all our values, and you can make fun of it.

• As a postscript to the research I did for the film, I became aware, as a postscript to the research I did for the film, I became aware of a largely unknown comic Jewish jester, who toured the shtetels of Eastern Europe for generations, called the bodkin. These insult artists performed at weddings, often standing on chairs, Chagall style, playing the violin, insulting the bride, the groom, their respective families, and presumably anybody else in the room. I’m told even now modern bodkin. I think the bodkin is the original standup, and the former of today’s standup comedians.

• Can you make this stool more uncomfortable?

• Like Richard Belzer.

• See Jews complain, no matter what, by definition. It’s the most painful stool I’ve ever sat on, pardon the expression, but go ahead. It’s okay, surgery after this, but no, for you I do it. So how long are you in this country? How long do you have to do this? Any reason why the crew’s wearing masks? Is there a thing here, babe, or?

• [Rex] I understand that the Godfather is in fact a Yiddish movie.

• Well, they’re doing a Yiddish version of it.

• [Rex] Of what?

• Of the Godfather, a musical Yiddish version. And it’s going to open as the other one opened, with the Don, or the Donowitz, as he’ll be in The Godfather, the Donowitz, . Anyway, I’m drinking more wine lately. , you know what I mean? My son, he wants to come back into this country, he wants to rap his villain, he wants to play with his dreidel. If he should drown in a vat of Morgan David, or if he should be run over by a Hasidic truck in Brooklyn, this I will not forgive, but that aside, let me say Thank you very much, thank you. That’ll be under the credits of that. That’s under the credits.

• [Rex] The Godfather a Jew.

• Yeah, well, everybody’s a Jew, you know. Freud’s favourite joke was the fact that this German Countess, when she was pregnant, went through all these lamentations before she gave birth, she spoke in French, she spoke in German, and the Jewish doctor said, “Not yet, not yet,” and finally she spoke Yiddish, and then he said, “Now she’s ready to give birth.” Meaning that inside everyone is a Jew waiting to come out, I guess it has the birth to bring it out. Have you ever had a child, by the way? Not to your knowledge.

• [Rex] Are Jews aggressive? Is there an aggressive? Undoubtedly it was the waves of Jewish immigration to the US in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was to make such an impact on American cultural life. Just when vaudeville, radio, and motion pictures were being introduced, and coupled with the decline of religious influence. As one writer has put it, “People still worked long hours "and lived in cramped conditions, "but they were no longer disposed to seek compensations "in the next world for the hardship suffered in this.” And where they once crowded the synagogues, they now crowded the theatres and music halls. There was a constant demand for entertainment, and a constant call for entertainers. And aptitude’s long subdued burst into the open with almost explosive force, and thrust their way first into vaudeville, and then into films. I talked to the great comedian Milton Berle about the Jewish dialect comedians that he’d known like Eddie Canter, and his own attitude towards performing Jewish humour.

• When it comes to Jewish humour, tell me exactly Rex, here Rex, here. Tell me exactly. Laugh it up please. I laugh when you speak. Tell me exactly, what do you mean by Jewish humour?

• [Rex] Well, humour by Jews that have certain characteristics.

• Done by Jews.

• [Rex] Done by Jews.

• Performed by Jews?

• [Rex] Performed by Jews, done by Jews, which have certain characteristics.

• Well, sometimes in my thoughts, that I’m quite shy on that to a certain extent, even though I am of Jewish faith, that I don’t know sometimes if an audience is laughing with you, or at you, when you’re doing Jewish humour. You understand what I mean? Are you awake? Let’s go on, go on. Eddie Canter, first time I met Eddie Canter, oh, I think it was 1919, 1920, and he was in a show called “The Frivolities of 1920.” Frivolities, murdered titles, but that’s the name of the show. And I used to do an imitation at that time, as a kid, 1920. What was I, I was 12 years old, and I used to do, ♪ If you knew Susie, like I know Susie ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, what a girl ♪ See, and Cantor took a liking to me. And Cantor was individual, he had a style. They all, you see, they all had what we call authority and styles. ♪ Uncle Mo, take the gentleman’s measure ♪ ♪ Come up here and I’ll take your measure ♪ ♪ The neck is 25 ♪ ♪ 25 in the neck ♪ ♪ And the adam’s apple is 7 ½ ♪ ♪ 7 ½ in the adam’s apple ♪ ♪ In the shoulders is 31 ♪ ♪ 31 in the shoulder ♪

• What do you think? Get up there, get up there.

• Boys, Would you like to go to a fire?

• No.

• They’re still sleeping.

• I’m awfully sorry, the boys are not in the humour, call us up any other time, we’d be glad to help you out. What’s that? Say, he says that’s a small fire. Would you like to go, or else?

• Or else what?

• Or else we wouldn’t go.

• Tell him or else. Find out what street that fire is on, Chief.

• Say, buddy, what street is that fire on? What street is the fire located on? Canal Street? Why didn’t you have that fire yesterday? We were on that street yesterday. I’m awfully sorry they can’t go, thank you very much for the invitation. Don’t be a stranger, let’s hear from you again.

• It was in the Catskill Mountains outside New York that holiday resorts were developed, where particularly Jewish holiday makers could relax, be entertained, get away from the tensions of assimilation, antisemitism, the struggles to advance in American society. Whilst many Jewish comedians were becoming mainstream, the Catskills were still the place where they could learn their craft, express their essential Jewishness. Here’s Milton Berle again.

• One thing that they have a place here, which, you know, it’s called the Catskill Mountains, and it’s known as the Borscht Circuit. And that’s where, it’s up in the mountains, where everything is, yeah, actually mostly Jewish, mostly Jewish. They have an Italian area there now. And the comics that go up there usually, well, they see the Jewish audience, they play to whom they relate to. And they tell a lot of funny stories, like, see if I can remember them. That’ll be the day when I forget them, I’ll tell you that. I remember one, oh yeah, about, see these places up in the mountains, they have widows up there, and divorcees, that are in their 60s, and they’re still looking for a man, you know? And they tell a story about this widow meets this new man that just came into the hotel, the first time she’s seen him, and she walks up to him, and she says “Hello.” She said, “I’ve never seen you here before.” He said, “I’m very happy to be here.” She said, “You’re such a good looking man, "what do you for living?” He says, “Nothing.” And she goes, “Oh, "I mean, where you come from?” He says, “Well, I just got out of the can.” She says, “You were in the toilet?” He says, “No, I don’t think you understand me dear, miss, "I just got out of school, college.” “Oh, you just graduated?” “No, no, it’s a colloquial way, "there’s a certain way we say it, "when we say can or school, "we mean that we’ve been away, serving time.” “You served time? "I didn’t know that.” “Yeah,” he says, “I took a hatchet "and I chopped my wife up into 12 pieces.” She looked at him and she said, “Oh, you’re single.” ♪ We’re going to hitchhike up to the Catskills ♪ ♪ We’re on the highway through 17 ♪ ♪ We’re going to hitchhike up to the mountains ♪ ♪ Up to the finest resort we have seen ♪

• The big activity of the Nevele, the big one here, food, food, people freak away here on food, people know they have eight meals a day, 10 meals a day, an early breakfast, a joggers breakfast, a golfers breakfast, a walkers breakfast, an early lunch, a late lunch, a hospitality room, coffee shop. People eat so much food here they have developed a new disease here, Anorexia Ponderosa. People check in here as guests, they leave as cargo, huge. Check out day they don’t need bellhops here for checkout day, “Forklifts, bring those forklifts, "bring those forklifts in here. "Put those prongs under the Epsteins, you got them, boy.” Nah, it’s great to go away to the Catskills, How can you not love it, my God. You had to pack to come up here, you lucky people. Packing between a man and a woman, the joy, the happiness, the festival spirit that. The friction, the animosity, the hatred, the things that two people wanted to say to each other for months now come pouring out of our mouths at packing time. But we never say them to each other, men usually talk into a drawer. “Hey, I ask you, do I need this?” Women, God bless you, women are interpacking, women begin packing a year before they go away. Women are calling each other, “What are you wearing in the morning? "Earth tones in the afternoon. "Wear the blue in the morning.” And we get up, she’s packing, she’s taking, she’s folding, Lysol, tissue paper, hangers are cutting her fingers. And this yutz is walking behind. “Packing? "Are you packing, or are you leaving me?” “How about the couch, are we taking the couch?” Girls, you must admit, you take more than you really need when you go away. My wife and I go on vacation, if they rob my house, who cares, we got everything with us, what the hell do I care? What am I going to lose? Two curtain rods maybe. And I have curtain rod insurance.

• I went to the mountains one year to be a bus boy. Now a bus boy is the hardest work there is in the world, but it’s too hot in New York City during the summer, and everybody goes to the Catskill Mountains. So I couldn’t get anything but a bus boy’s job. I picked up a tray of dishes on the first day, and as soon as I picked it up, it fell down. I couldn’t carry dishes, it wasn’t for me, I never did a day’s work before. And the boss immediately fired me, and made me the lifeguard in the hotel. And I couldn’t swim. I was ashamed to tell him I can’t swim, because I knew then I’d become a busboy again if I can’t swim. So I said, “Compared to a busboy, "I’d rather take my chances as a lifeguard, "besides which I’m not taking a chance, "they’re taking a chance. "I’m not going to swim, let them swim, "if they get wiped out, it’s not my business.” On the other hand, I said to myself, “it’s not nice to see people drown right in front of me.” So I figured this is not too good a job, I figure I better be honest enough to tell him I can’t swim. My conscience started to bother me, so I tell the boss I can’t swim, He said, “Who cares?” ♪ Catskill Honeymoon ♪

• Inevitably an exploration of Jewish humour must confront antisemitism. You might recall Leo Rosten’s comments about outwitting the bully, and that dark and rueful past. I wanted to explore how some Jewish comedians dealt with antisemitism. So let’s begin with this outtake featuring Larry Miller, and I would ask, please don’t repeat what you’re about to hear.

• I was down in the fraternity bar late at night with one of one of my friends in the fraternity, who was from a very wealthy family in the deep south, and a fine fella. And he said to me, it was about three in the morning, and we were, God, what’s the word, drunk. And he said to me, “Tell me Larry, what’s the secret of the Jews? "Why are they so successful? "They seem so smart, and they always, "you plant them anywhere, and a generation later "you have the finest doctors, and creative people, "what is it? "What is the secret of the Jews?” And see, I thought he was kidding, so my first response was, I was furtively looking around, I said, “Well, I’m not supposed to tell you.” And he said, “No, you can trust me.” And I said, “I can get a lot of trouble.” And he said, “No, but there’s no one here.” And it was then I realised he wasn’t kidding, he thought there was a secret handshake, some agenda, the way classic Jew haters think there is “Well, let’s go for the banks next,” or something. Some ridiculous thing that, although true, shouldn’t get out. No, but it’s just. So as he was kidding, he said, “What is the secret of the Jews?” And then I just kind of, I thought for a second, and I leaned over and I said, “All right, now you’re not going to tell anyone?” “No, no, no.” I said, “Every Jewish man when he turns 21 gets a factory. "Now you don’t know what it makes, "could be ballpoint pens, could be brassieres, "but no matter what you do for the rest of your life, "you always make a terrific living. "You have an actual factory that’s working, "so you could be a writer or something, "but still you have a factory. "And when you die, the factory goes back into the pool "of factories, which is distributed "by some of these philanthropic organisations "like the UJA.” He was, “Yeah.”

• I have made it a point in my work, in my monologue, to talk about the Jewish experience. It is the honeymoon for, well, I mean, as a culture, as a people, we are doing better than ever before, considering we started from the dumps, I might say, in my lifetime still. That’s why it pains me when, I had a young lady on my staff, and she never heard of the Holocaust till she saw it on NBC, a series. This is to me, heartbreaking. Not because that we should keep living this horror every day, but that people should know what happened. It’s terribly important. But just like Richard Pryor, whose work I respect enormously, talks about the Black experience. He doesn’t say, “This is the Black,” he talks about himself as a Black man. And I talk about myself often as a Jewish man. My formative adult experiences very much lie, my undergraduate experience at a small, a very fine liberal arts college in Western New York, called Alfred University, where I was the victim of anti-Semitism. 1958-62 discriminating fraternities, fist fights, insults. And I played Shylock in “The Merchant of Venice,” no small act of courage. I wrote a routine about that, it’s actually true. I mean, obviously the thing is a fantasy, a nightmare, but I go “Has not a Jew eyes?” And have this palsy shake. cause I was only 19, and I had to seem older. “Has not a Jew hands, organs, tenses, "dimensions, affections, passions, fed with the same food, "hurt by the same weapons, "warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer "as a Christian is.” And they went, “No! "Jew boy, Jew,” and they stormed the stage, with dogs and everything, ran all over the campus. I finally got shelter in the ethics professor’s house, after questioning. The idea is that I liked being visible that way. I always dreamed that the perfect pinnacle of a career like mine of comedy, often with some good sense to it, and some depth, always trying to be funny, I’m not lecturing. that if I could go to Utah, and be myself, and not pretend to be someone from Utah, and be Robert Klein, urban Jew, if you wish, and be myself and present my show, that that would be great.

• I was in Georgia for two weeks, stayed with a lovely family in Georgia, Mr. and Mrs. Jew hater, very nice. Yeah, they gave me the guest rope, it was very nice. My first night in North Carolina, as a joke, as a joke, I come out, I go, “Good evening ladies and gentlemen, "how many of you have actually seen a Jew before?” A guy in the back goes “A live one?” They got stuff down South they have nowhere else in the world. I’m in a Burger King in Tennessee, I’m standing online behind an Evangelist. And I knew it was an Evangelist cause I could hear him ordering. “Can I get a cheeseburger?” Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Evangelists, I have nothing against Baptists, I just don’t think they hold them underwater long enough. But they come up to me after the show, they think New York City is the next planet after Neptune. They come up to me, like something in a museum. It’s like, “Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, "hey hey, hey, hey. "What’s it like in New York?” So I shoot them, and I say, “That’s what it’s like in New York.” “Get away from me, go milk something, "get away, would you please?” I was in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina, the cover charge was a dollar. Yeah, that’s to keep the riff raff out. I shouldn’t just focus on the South, I was in the Midwest, I was in Carbondale, Illinois, just 50 miles outside of Skokie, for you Neo-Nazi fans. And I see this place “Authentic Jew Deli,” Meanwhile Jew is spelled J-o-o-o-o, all right. I walk in there, I look at the menu, kosher calves liver with bacon. Okay, fine.

• I’ve emphasised the difference between Jews and Gentiles because I know it’s a very effective tool for my act. Because a person who’s as desperate in his feelings of being a refugee, and always had to escape from everywhere because he was harassed and hounded wherever he went never feels quite accepted. And because he doesn’t feel accepted, there’s no question about it that it affects his whole personality structure. And because of the way it affects his personality, he definitely behaves differently than a Gentile does. If you take two people with equal income, a Jew and a Gentile, they’ll do totally different things with their money. A Gentile will immediately go fishing, a Jew will buy a Mercedes. A Gentile will go hunting, a Jew will never go hunting, cause nobody will see his outfit.

• I was working in Oklahoma City, and all week there, and the comic, which is a fine place, I think audiences are essentially the same anyway all over the world. Lights go down, and people are the same. But the comic on before me was very vulgar, really graphically profane, and not funny. I mean it was just, he was literally scaring people under the tables. It was very awkward for me, I wouldn’t even be in the room when he was on. Still, you do your job, and I was doing my best work, and enjoying the week, as I always would anyway. Now it so happens, I was talking to two fellas after the show, two guys, 45, 50 years old. Big belt buckles, the boots, cowboy boots, and they’re waiting for their wives outside the bathroom door. And they, one of them smiled at me and called me over, and I went over and said, “You know, you’re very funny.” And now it turns out, by the way, the fellow who was on before me had very curly black hair, and a hooked nose, but was not Jewish, but he had those physical characteristics. And so I’m talking to this fellow after the show, he said, “You’re very funny, and you’re not like "that filthy Jew comic who was on before you.” And you know, I was shaking his hand at the time, and you’re kind of caught there like this, and in the middle of the hand, and his friend sensed some change in me, and his friend said to me, “Are you a Jew?” And I just said “Yes.” And the first guy, in a stunning display of thinking on his feet said, “Well, you’re one of the good ones.” And all I could do, frankly, was laugh, because these are not bad people anyway. And I wanted to, what was irking me, was I wanted to agree with him. “Yeah, I hate the other guy, too, "but why do you have to throw the thing on it there? "He is filthy, and he’s not funny, and he’s an annoying guy.” But it was like the triple whammy there, all I could just do was just, and then their wives came out of the bedroom, “Oh, hi.” And then you’re just going to, “I got another show.” But I love that, “Oh, you’re one of the good ones.” Now it turns out he’s right, but that’s not the point.

• So many Jewish comedians have contributed to, and developed comedy on television. In recent times, Seinfeld, Sasha Barron Cohen, Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” But when I made “Next Time Dear God,” some of the best sketches with Jewish themes were on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.” Here are some of them I showed.

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• Lou Goldman, how’s it look out there?

• What? What? How does it look out there? What’s so hard? I’m indoors, I’m wearing a sweater, what do you think, it’s hot out? Use your head. Bob, didn’t you go out today? What were you doing all day, watching the baseball game? That’s so important? What are you coming to me for? Open your window for God’s sakes. Let’s take a look at the map. Great, I got to look at the map now. Here’s the forecast for my family, in Miami Beach my sister Rose. Rose Darling, is going to be hot there all the week, don’t be a cheapskate, put the air conditioning on. You could drop dead in her living room, the plastic slip covers sticking to the back of your leg. In Brooklyn where I live, Monday and Tuesday the forecast is you can’t complain. Wednesday will be feh. Thursday and Friday, don’t be such a big shot, take a jacket. Now tomorrow, tomorrow, what? Tomorrow it’s going to rain, because all I know is my ankle is swollen and my hip hurts. That damn doctor never took the pin out, Dr. Sherman. He charged me a fortune, these doctors, they suck you dry. $150, and I’m sleeping in the hallway. And my son, Lester, with his shiksa wife, Booby, she comes in and like, “If you want to know the weather, open your window!”

• So what makes up this Jewish sensibility? What lies behind such material? Why has Jewish comedic art flourished in such a way? How can you tell jokes in the face of adversity? Here’s some more reflections, and a few more jokes.

• We’re about 2.7% of the American population, and we produce 60-70% of people in the humour industry, writers, comedians, producers, directors. Let me give you one possible reason for it, is that for all of our sense of security in this country, I think we Jews still feel that we’re on the outside looking in. And somehow the majority of Americans think that our vantage point is somehow more acute, more truthful, that we’re on the outside, we can see the forest, we are not blinded by the trees. Whether this is true or not anymore, I don’t know. But clearly there has been an acceptance of Jews in the entertainment industry, very much like there have been acceptance of Jews in the intellectual life of America. And, in a sense, I think comedians are all failed intellectuals, or at least they’re, I should call them, they’re suffering savants, who would like to have what they say be very important, but they don’t have the discipline, if you will, to write great works of scholarship. But there is, every Jewish comedian, if you ask him carefully, has a view of life, is a professor, has some sort of deep resonance to his humour.

• I’m from a very liberal Jewish family, My parents believe in the 10 commandments, but they believe you can pick five, we’re very liberal. Very liberal Rabbi, Rabbi O'Donnell. I went up to him one time and I said, “Rabbi O'Donnell, how come Jews aren’t allowed to eat pork?” And he looked at me and said, “We’re not?”

• So everybody’s there at this wedding, my whole family, my mother’s there, my mother, typical Jewish mother. Really, one time my mother was on jury duty, they sent her home. She insisted she was guilty.

• Now actually it was a mixed marriage, as I said before, a million times, I’m Jewish, and my husband was a Southern Baptist. Oh no, I think my mom handled it real well. “He’s a Nazi.”

• Let me explain this to you, you go to a bridal shower in my family, the behaviour is completely different. They open up the gifts, they’re screaming, they’re shouting, they’re yelling, they’re like, “Aaah!” “Give her the receipt, she can return it.” You know, they’re animals. My Aunt Sylvia, my Aunt Sylvia sits in the back judging every item, every gift, she’s like the Critic’s Choice back there. She’s like, “Is that something she needs?”

• I laugh because there’s no way out besides laughter, you can’t just sit there in misery all the time, even in concentration camps, Jews were humorous. It came out now the the histories of Jewish behaviour in concentration camps, and there’s stories of plays, of dramas, of comedies, because before you know it, the only thing you can do is laugh at your predicament, because there’s no other escape, The only alternative is to go crazy altogether. There’s a Jewish saying, “If you’re hungry, sing, "If you’re hurt, laugh.” The tradition of the Jews is so heavily saturated with learning, and the love of learning, and the respect for learning, and therefore for words, that all of this comes into a richness, a tapestry of observations about people.

• A lot of people get very frightened when negative stereotypes become the real definition of Jewish humour, rather than a broader and richer thing. That does not mean, by the way, that Jewish humour is not critical of the community. On the contrary, the best of good, rich, full bodied Jewish humour is as critical of the stupidity of our community, and stands by the right of the Jewish community to be as stupid as any other community. It’s a basic human right for people to be stupid and make mistakes. And Jewish humour, like all good humour of all good people, points to the foibles, and frailties of being a human being. And that’s why I can’t find any etymological connection between the word humour and human, all I know is without a good sense of humour, you’re a little bit less human.

• And almost finally, I do have my own favourite piece from “Next time Dear God.” It occurred whilst we were filming on the Lower East Side, and it happened spontaneously, when my cameraman and I were scouting the area. He disappeared for a moment, then beckoned me into the Silver Monuments Funeral Parlour. I went in to discover a family of Jewish undertakers who were much amused by what we were doing. I asked them if they wanted to tell me their favourite joke. Here it is.

• Mrs. Cohen loses her husband, the undertaker, everything is dead 'cause we’re in the business. So the undertaker comes, “Mrs. Cohen, "how do you want your husband buried? "The Orthodox way, which is in the ground, "or do you want him cremated? "You know, that’s the modern way.” She says, “I tell you the truth, "we’re old people but we’re modern, "let him be cremated, because if that’s the modern way.” He says, “All right Mrs. Cohen, we’ll cremate him.” A day later, the undertaker comes with the ashes of Mr. Hymie Cohen, and he brings it into Mrs. Cohen. She says, put it on the mantle piece, someday when it rains I like to talk to my Hymie, and tell him what a life he gave to me. So she puts his ashes on the mantle piece. And then a couple of weeks later, it starts to rain. She goes, “Hymie, now we could talk. "When you were living Hymie, I wanted a mink coat, "When you were living, you never gave it to me. "Now that you’re dead, Hymie, I have the mink coat. "Hymie, I have another thing to tell you. "While you were living you didn’t spend a penny. "I wanted that condominium "like my girlfriends had in Florida. "While you were living, you never gave it to me. "Now that you’re dead, Hymie, "I have the condominium. "Hymie, I wanted that beautiful car, "you never wanted to get us a car. "Now that you’re dead Hymie, I bought the car. And then she says, "Hymie, "there’s one last thing I wanted to tell you. "You remember that blow job you wanted "while you were living?” And she pours the ashes on the desk, and she goes, “You got it now.”

• That will go never go away.

• That’ll never go.

• “Hymie, remember that blow job you wanted?” And she blows the ashes off the desk, you got it now, Hymie.

• It’s the repetition that gets me. I hope you’ve enjoyed these excerpts and outtakes, perhaps you’ve agreed to some of the views and comments expressed despite they’re coming from an earlier generation. Perhaps you agree that next time God should choose someone else. Nevertheless, the success of Jewish comedians in the US in my opinion remains remarkable. And Jewish humour America still seems to be there for us to share in its haunted smile. At the end of our interview, I asked Milton Berle if he would say goodbye to our audience, as who better to end this presentation. So if there are any of you left watching, and as Milton said, “If you’re still awake,” happy to answer questions afterwards.

• Right now, this is Milton Berle ladies and gentlemen, signing off, speaking to Rex here, on behalf of “A Night of Jewish Humour.” And all I can say is, L'Chaim! I am now for the very few that are watching that know what l'chaim means, it means life. In fact, I got an uncle doing right l'chaim right now in Sing-Sing, so long.

• Enough already.

• Rex, thank you so much, that was absolutely outstanding. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

• Did you?

• I’m sure the rest of our participants had a really good laugh. And it’s amazing what humour comes out of real life circumstances.

• Indeed, indeed. I wasn’t sure whether it would survive these years, but there’s something eternal about some of those jokes, and they still make me laugh, and I thought it might be fun to share them.

• Oh, thank you for sharing it. Are there any questions? I’m sure there are.

• [Laura] Yes, there are a few.

• [Shirley] Good thanks, Laura.

Q&A and Comments:

• [Laura] A lot of really nice comments, and people thanking you for a wonderful presentation.

Q: The first question comes from Irv, who wants to know if you think there are differences between US and Canadian Jewish humour?

A: - I haven’t the faintest idea what Canadian Jewish humour is like. It’s surely pretty much the same, I would’ve thought, but perhaps our caller can tell us what that is.

• [Laura] Martin wants to know if you have any comment on Groucho, Groucho Marx.

• Oh, genius, comic genius. I love Leo Rosten’s story, and I mean Grouch’s one liners, and the whole of the Marx brothers output was just tremendous. And they represent a wonderful combination of so-called Jewish characteristics. The schnorrer, the wide man, the wide boy, the clown, the Marx brothers, I’m sure there’ve been many academic treatises on it. I mean they are, they’re terrific, and I love what they’ve done, and I think quintessentially Jewish in many ways, love them.

Q: - [Laura] The next question is from Anne, who wants to know what about George Burn?

A: - Yes, great George Burns, wonderful timing, comic timing, George Burns, yeah. I think I may have considered him, and wanted to include him, but there were so many people. I loved his work with Gracie, iconic, very funny. And I think there’s something about when you watch a lot of these great comedians, you’re aware of just how important timing is. And they have a fantastic sense of when to say something, when not to say it, as well as the absurdities they capture. But it’s a fantastic ability some of these people have, and the very best have that ability, just to know when to say it, when not to say it, and Burns had tremendous comic timing.

Q: - [Laura] Joy wants to know if you know anything about Israeli humour.

• Not a lot, people have said there isn’t much there. Of course, there’s lots there. I think I did explore a bit of it there, but it didn’t, I mean, from what I remember it didn’t grab me in the same way that of course American does, and we’re American-Jewish humour. Of course, we’re so connected here in the UK. There is Israeli humour, of course there is, some of our viewers can tell us, what they’ve heard there. Can you imagine the jokes in that society, the need for humour. There’s always a need for humour in the most desperate of circumstances. It helps keep us alive, and makes us more human, as Moshe said.

Q: - [Laura] Thank you. Geeta is asking when you made the documentary.

A: - 1990, it was for Arena, BBC’s Arena. A lot of people kept the film, as sort of in their collection. And occasionally I get people writing to me saying is it possible to get a copy? There isn’t really. It was only broadcast twice, but I have shown the film at some festivals, and I have to say people have much enjoyed it. As much as I enjoyed doing this compilation, and doing this lecture, 'cause it brought it all back to me. And some jokes in the film, some scenes, I didn’t think survived the amount of time passed, but others did, and I think I showed that tonight. Plus also, outtakes, which I found, which I’ve never shown before, and that was rather wonderful, like Bel Kaufman, Sholem Aleichem’s granddaughter. It was very nice, very rich for me, going over this material and presenting it.

Q: - [Laura] And also how can people see the film from which you showed all those wonderful clips?

A: - They can’t, unfortunately, I mean to broadcast this film again you’d have to pay for all sorts of rights, and so on. I mean, I can show clips of this during, with Lockdown, because it is an educational forum, et cetera. I mean, it’d be wonderful to show it again, but a broadcaster, whoever, would have to deal with copyright issues, and therefore creating a DVD would have the same problem. So it’s one of those, I suppose slightly rare things that people have kept, and collect. And if you can pick it up somewhere, that’s all I can suggest.

Q: - [Laura] Thank you. Peter is saying that “Today Maureen Leonad said "that humour could be finished with cancel culture. "What are your thoughts with these old Jewish jokes?”

A: - Ah, interesting question. Well, I wonder if any of the audience found some of them, a little bit too near the knuckle, or particularly, say during the antisemitism sequences. I don’t know, cancel culture, yeah, interesting to see who would object to what they’ve seen tonight, or felt it was going too far. I’d be interested, because we are of course enormously aware now of the impact of racism, and the language that accompanies that, excuse me. But I wonder about that, and I’m intrigued. I think it’s for our audience to respond. Shirley, did you find anything you felt went too far?

• You know what, I’m just thinking, I’m wondering if the comedians are going to be afraid to say things, because they’re going to get taken out, and I think this is all going to unfold in the next couple of months. It’s very contentious.

• It is, it is, but I think you see satire is crucial in a free society.

• [Shirley] Absolutely.

• And freedom of expression, when I made a film about freedom of expression, I think the limits of on freedom of expression are very much a reflection of what stage, what state a society is in. I’ve come to the position that, frankly, everyone should have the right to be able to speak what they feel, and satirise what they feel, et cetera. I think the limits are to do with violence. I think that’s, but you see, because there are so many sensitivities this can limit freedom of expression, and frankly diminish all of us, and it’s a very important debate. I’ve explored that. In fact, in a film I made on freedom of expression, I interviewed the Holocaust denier David Irving, and a lot of people felt very unhappy about that. But I thought it was important to do that, because what are the limits? And it’s better to have, as I did, explore Irving’s views. But of course there are many who would say, why should you give this creature a platform, et cetera, et cetera. So this was part of the debate, and I’m not sure about tonight, I don’t think we were that contentious, but it’s a very important one, perhaps, Shirley, for another occasion.

• Absolutely. No, I would like to take you up on that, so we’ll talk offline. What about incitement?

• Incitement.

• [Shirley] Um-hm.

• You’re talking about the freedom of expression debate there.

• Yeah, yeah.

• I think it’s a very difficult thing to prove. It’s a very difficult thing, it’s a very difficult terrain, this. What is incitement, what is a person’s right to express themselves? But of course, I think today we’re much more sensitive, and the impact of social media.

• I was going to ask and say that, yeah.

• Is crucial, is crucial. And I think, rather than getting into an in-depth discussion about that now, I think we should explore that on some other time.

• Another time, absolutely. Thank you.

• [Laura] Do you have time for a couple more questions, Rex?

• Yes, I do.

• [Laura] Great.

• Are there still people out there?

• [Laura] Yes, there’s still about 800 people out there.

• 800 people?

• There were 1.3, there were 1.3 thousand devices tuned in. So imagine that there are two or three people watching.

• [Rex] They’re still awake?

• [Shirley] They’re still awake, and they still there. We’re still here.

• [Rex] Great.

Q: - [Laura] Barbara wants to know who your favourite comedian is?

• Favourite comedian, wow, that’s difficult, isn’t it? You mean now, or then, I wonder?

• [Shirley] Maybe one of each.

A: - [Rex] Well I thought Milton Berle and Jackie Mason were just fantastic, of course Jackie Mason passed away recently. Just extraordinary timing, brilliant characterizations, using the stereotypes, but using them cleverly and funny, very, very funny. Today, I think Larry David is terrific, and Seinfeld. So I probably, like so many others, I think they’re very, very good.

• [Laura] A few people have written in wondering what your thoughts are on Woody Allen.

• Well, a great comedian, I remember trying to approach him and couldn’t get him, which is why, if you remember from the start of my presentation, I did this caption, you know, which I had this idea of saying all the people who weren’t going to appear in the film. I just couldn’t get him any more than I could get Mel Brooks. I mean the comic genius Woody Allen, mentally controversial with his private life, and personal life and so on. But so funny, I wonder if people have read his short stories. His shorter books, terribly funny, I mean, just marvellous. A very, very clever, and interesting man.

Q: - [Laura] Someone is asking if a style of British Jewish humour ever developed, and if not, why?

A: - I think there’s British Jewish humour, David Baddiel, and others, there are. There are people around, of course there are. And I think it’s there, but of course it’s not, it hasn’t had the impact that it has in America, which is phenomenal, which I tried to talk about tonight. Simply phenomenal. I mean the range of contributions that the Jews have made of America, in a sense almost reflecting what America is, or wants to be. And it is that outside of them, the being an outsider, and always looking in, always wanting to be part of it, yet not quite part of it, and that’s a perhaps a deeper question that emerges. But there is British Jewish humour, and I’m sure it’s there.

• [Laura] And we’ll take one last question, which is from Susan, who wants to know if you are working on any new projects.

• I’m thinking about new projects. Lockdown isn’t easy, but it’s not over yet for me, and let’s see.

• [Laura] Great, well thank you so much for your time, and for an amazing and funny discussion on humour, and I’ll hand it back over to Wendy.

• Thank you very much.

• Yeah Rex, thank you, that was absolutely fabulous. Yeah, I was actually hysterical, and a lot of humour just comes out of real life experiences, you know? My dad contracted Covid, and unbeknown to me, he had taken a sleeping pill in the middle of the night, and he got up in the middle of the night and passed out. And I found him on the floor, and I was in a flat panic. And I phoned of course 999, and I phoned Hatzalah, and I could recount my experience that night, which was not so funny at the time, but now, after 24 hours, we could turn it into hilarious comedy. All well that ends well, if you see the funny of it.

• Absolutely, out of pain.

• Out of pain, and a sleeping pill. Yes, so absolutely. So on that note, I look forward to chatting to you offline, getting you back with us. Really, you were fantastic, I’m so happy that you’re part of our faculty. And on behalf of all of us at Lockdown University, I want to say thank you very much.

• Thank you very much, much obliged

• So goodnight to you, and to everybody else. Thank you Lauren. Thanks, bye-bye.

• [Rex] Bye.