No Joke (34 page)

16
.
Givat halfon eina ona
[Hill Halfon doesn't answer], written by Assi Dayan and Naftali Alter, directed by Assi Dayan (1976).

17
. Ibid.

18
. Limor Shifman,
Televised Humor and Social Cleavages in Israel
[Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Magnes of the Hebrew University, 2008), 111. See especially
chapter 4
.

19
. Ofra Nevo and Jacob Levine, “Jewish Humor Strikes Again: The Outburst of Humor in Israel during the Gulf War,”
Western Folklore
53, no. 2 (April 1994): 145.

20
. Ofra Nevo, “The Psychological Contribution of Humor in Israel during the Gulf War” [Hebrew],
Israel Journal of Psychology and Related Sciences
1994 (4): 41–50. .

21
. Franz Kafka, diary entry, October 24, 1911, in
Diaries, 1910–1913
, trans. Joseph Kresh (New York, Schocken, 1948), 111.

22
. Amir Gutfreund,
Our Holocaust
, trans. Jessica Cohen (New Milford, CT: Toby Press, 2006), 3.

23
. Ibid., 4.

Conclusion

  
1
. Vladimir Karbusicky,
Jewish Anecdotes from Prague
, trans. David R. Beveridge (Prague: V Ráji, 2005), 14–15.

  
2
. Ibid., 11.

  
3
. Ibid., 96–97.

  
4
. Sigmund Freud,
Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious
, trans. and ed. James Strachey (New York: W. W. Norton, 1960), 131.

  
5
. Henri Bergson, “Laughter,” in
Comedy
, intro. and ed. Wylie Sypher (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1956), 84.

  
6
. Saul Bellow, “Op-Ed: Papuans and Zulus,”
New York Times
, March 10, 1994.

  
7
.
Angel Wagenstein,
Isaac's Torah
, trans. (from Bulgarian) Elizabeth Frank and Deliana Simeonova (New York: Handsel Books, 2008); Adam Biro,
Two Jews on a Train
, trans. (from French) Catherine Tihanyi (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001); Joseph Skibell,
A Curable Romantic
(Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, 2010).

  
8
. Howard Jacobson,
The Finkler Question
(London: Bloomsbury, 2010), 115.

  
9
. Ibid., 138–39.

10
. Michael Brenner, “When Humor was Still at Home in Germany” [German], in
Humor
, ed. Gisela Dachs (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2004), 13. To Heine, Liebermann, Lubitsch, and Tucholsky, Brenner adds the caricatures of Thomas The-odor Heine, reviews of Alfred Kerr, revues of Friedrich Hollaender, literary parodies of Robert Neumann, political lyrics of Erich Mühsam and Walter Mehring, critical writings of Karl Kraus, reportage of Egon Erwin Kisch, aphorisms of Peter Altenberg, cabaret numbers of Fritz Grünbaum, Anton Kuh, Mynona, Roda Roda, Peter Hammerschlag, and Fritz Kalmar—as well as the studies of jokes by Freud and Reik.

Index

Abaleh, kah oti l'luna park
(Vilozhny),
212
–
15

Abbott, Bud: Abbott and Costello,
192
,
201

Abraham,
11
,
22
,
65
,
94
–
95
,
114
–
15
,
185

absurdities,
28
,
82
–
83
,
89
,
99
,
130
,
145
,
206
,
208
,
210

accents,
86
,
89
,
121
,
125
,
144
,
164

accommodation, Jewish,
147
,
178
,
190
,
204
.
See also
passivity

Adams, Joey (Joseph Abramowitz),
123

Adler, Hermann,
13

“Afn Pripetchik” (Warshawski),
61
–
62

aggression,
47
,
86
,
111
,
137
,
175
,
251n6
; anti-Israel,
240
,
242
; anti-Jewish,
49
,
163
,
239
; Arab,
219
; Israeli,
184

aggressive humor,
30
,
39
,
50
,
136
,
175
,
195
. See also
Judenwitz

Agnon, S. Y. (Shai),
18
,
88
,
188
–
94
,
197
; “Agunot,”
188
;
A Guest for the Night
,
192
,
263n9
;
In the Heart of Seas
,
189
–
92
;
Only Yesterday
,
18

agunah,
188

aliyah
(immigration to Israel),
136
,
184
,
191

Allen, Woody,
104
,
130
–
31
,
134
,
136
,
237

All in the Family
,
235
–
36

Alterman, Natan,
197

ambiguity,
42
,
51
,
79
,
87
,
119
,
133
,
203
,
255
–
56n20

American humor,
5
,
12
,
17
,
28
,
96
,
103
–
4
,
117
–
18
,
129
,
131
,
134
,
142
,
144
,
206
,
238

American Jews,
103
,
117
–
18
,
127
–
31
,
232
,
237

anachronism,
94
,
96
,
189

anekdoty
,
158
,
165
,
260n11

anti-Gentile humor,
92
,
136
–
39

anti-Jewish humor,
89
,
105
,
114
,
164

anti-Israel politics,
207
,
239

anti-Semitism,
17
,
35
,
37
,
49
,
61
,
89
,
96
,
131
,
135
–
36
,
145
,
232
–
33
,
241
–
43
,
251n6
; Christian,
9
,
16
; in Europe,
4
–
5
,
35
,
143
,
189
,
209
; joking and,
2
,
5
,
114
; in the Soviet Union,
156
–
57
,
163
–
64
; in the United States,
17
,
127

Arabic language,
5
,
20
,
194
,
198
,
210

Arabs,
117
,
127
,
166
,
182
,
192
,
194
,
204
–
10
,
219
,
240
,
243

Ashamed Jews,
240
–
42

Ashkenazim,
199
–
200
,
209
,
211

assimilation,
50
,
54
,
60
,
107
,
113
,
131
,
157
–
58

Association of Jewish Writers and Journalists (Warsaw),
143

audiences:
54
,
64
,
79
,
103
,
106
,
144
–
45
,
174
–
75
,
179
–
81
,
211
,
213
; academic,
26
; considerations of,
10
,
229
; Jewish,
7
,
94
,
96
,
125
–
26
,
155
,
218
,
233
–
34

Auschwitz,
151
,
213
–
14
,
218
–
19
,
221
,
224
,
238
,
241

Awake and Sing!
(Odets),
86

Baal Shem Tov (Israel ben Eliezer),
69

Baba Buba,
209
–
10

Babel, Isaac,
27
–
28
,
161
,
172
–
76
; “Di Grasso,”
172
–
76
; “Gedali,”
27

badkhen
(wedding jester),
13
,
67

Banai, Gavriel “Gavri,”
199
,
201
.
See also
Hagashash hahiver

baptism,
29
,
38
,
48
,
50
,
57
.
See also
conversion to Christianity

Bar Kokhba,
146

bar mitzvahs,
106
,
128
,
211

“Baths of Lucca, The” (Heine),
40
–
44
,
59

Beavis and Butt-Head
,
234
–
36

Becker, Jurek,
176
–
79
;
Jacob the Liar
,
176
–
77

Beer, Haim,
217

Begin, Menahem,
202

Bellow, Saul,
98
,
115
–
17
,
131
–
32
,
212
,
235
,
237
,
246
–
47
,
256n29
;
The Adventures of Augie March
,
132

Ben Amotz, Dan,
197

benefits of joking,
28
,
65
,
102
,
115
,
141
,
178
,
214
,
242
–
43
; physical,
24
–
25
,
28
,
102

Ben-Gurion, David,
188
,
195
–
96
,
198

Benny, Jack (Benjamin Kubelsky),
130

Berg, Gertrude: as Molly Goldberg,
130
,
239

Bergner, Yosl,
59

Bergson, Henri,
230

Beria, Lavrenty Pavlovich,
165
–
66

Berle (Berlinger), Milton,
123

Berlin,
12
,
29
,
94
,
167
,
176

Bernstein, Ignatz,
83
,
85

Bettauer, Hugo:
The City without Jews
,
145

Bialik, Haim Nahman,
197

Bible,
13
,
18
,
20
,
22
–
23
,
38
,
43
,
65
,
76
,
85
,
94
–
95
,
137
,
168
,
170
,
184
–
85
,
190
,
195
,
238
,
257n3
.
See also names of individual books
; Torah

Biro, Adam,
238

Bishop, Joey (Joseph Abraham Gottlieb),
123

bitul Torah,
234
–
35

Bloch, Chaim,
79

Bolshevism,
12
,
27
,
157
,
161
,
169

Borat
,
232
–
33

Börne, Ludwig,
29
,
50
,
91

Borscht Belt,
17
,
122
–
30
,
147
,
233

bourgeois comedy,
45
,
70
–
71

Brenner, Michael,
242
,
246

Brenner, Yosef Haim,
64

British humor,
107
,
111
–
13
,
117
,
239
–
42

British Mandate,
194

Broadway,
66
,
126
,
243

Brooks, Mel (Melvin Kaminsky),
63
,
123
,
179
–
81
,
232
;
Blazing Saddles
,
232
;
The Producers
,
179
–
81

Brown, Nacio Herb,
231

Bruce (Schneider), Lenny,
25
,
123
,
130
,
137
–
38

Buber, Martin,
51
,
53

Bunker, Archie,
235
–
36