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A couple of weeks ago, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, and Billy Crystal sat on the stage of the Paley Center for Media in Los Angeles to salute Sid Caesar.
For an hour and a half they reminisced and told one hilarious story after another recounting personal experiences they had with the master of comedy who died in February.
In this segment posted by the Paley Center, Mel Brooks tells about an incident at Columbia Pictures, where he was employed as a $1000 a week writer, and where he was trying to convince Caesar to make a move from television to motion pictures.
The story Brooks tells is how he got revenge at the Columbia Pictures executives when they fired a colleague of his by simply removing his nameplate from his office door. How did Brooks get back at them? Watch and laugh along with us.
Enjoy!
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(A tip of the kippah to Esther Kustanowitz for bringing the live streamed event to our attention.)
We're all familiar with the original "Who's on First" skit made famous by Abbott and Costello. Last month we posted a remake of it featuring Buddy Hackett and Harvey Korman.
We don't know how many other versions are floating around the Internet, but we were glad to find a version we hadn't seen before with Billy Crystal, Jerry Seinfeld, and Jimmy Fallon.
In this version, the players with the names "Who," "What," and "I Don't Know" make personal appearances as their names are mentioned. The audience at Fallon's Late Night program was roaring with laughter and we hope you will, too.
Enjoy!
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Today our joke to start the week comes from the same source that we've used for the past few weeks -- the Camp Hazak program for adults that took place at the Hudson Valley Resort in Kerhonkson, New York a few weeks ago.
There must be something about the mountain air in the Catskills that brings the jokes out in Jews who are vacationing there. Maybe it's the legacy of the many stand-up comedians who worked the playhouses, nightclubs, and casinos of the great hotels (and the not-so-great hotels also) that are now mostly gone.
Our jokester today is Irwin Kahn, a retired teacher who has appeared before on Jewish Humor Central. Here's the setup: This wonderful Jewish couple is married for 37 years and the wife says "We've had a wonderful marriage...true love that can never fade. But...I want to ask you a question. Should I pass away before you, would you ever marry again?" And then...
Enjoy!
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Rodney Dangerfield (1921-2004) was a fixture on the standup comedy circuit during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. His appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show, the Dean Martin Show and all the late night shows solidified his place in the world of comedy.
Born Jacob Rodney Cohen on Long Island, Dangerfield (he took the name from a character in a skit on the Jack Benny Show) had a career that went beyond standup comedy to the movies and to his own comedy club, Dangerfield's, in Manhattan.
We found a video clip of Dangerfield at the peak of his popularity in 1978. In five minutes, he fires off a barrage of one-liners to the delight of the audience.
Enjoy!
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Now we've seen everything. Robots are routinely used in medicine and in manufacturing, but for writing a Torah scroll? That's the latest application that robots have been enlisted for.
As Steve Lipman wrote in The Jewish Week,
While the exhibition closes Aug. 3, the robot, reprogrammed with the
help of an Israeli graphic designer, will be on display the rest of the
year. The robot writes the sefer Torah exactingly slowly, from right to
left, 10 hours a day.
A human scribe takes a year or more to complete a scroll.
“While the Sofer [Torah scribe] guarantees the sanctity of the
Scripture, the installation highlights its industrial reproducibility,”
the website of the Jewish Museum (jmberlin.de) states.
The finished product of the robot, fashioned by a writing arm attached
to a small nib, will not be kosher according to traditional Jewish law;
it will not be acceptable for use in a synagogue, since it is not being
penned by a human hand, and is on a 260-foot-long roll of paper, not on
parchment.
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The year was 1967, and comedian Woody Allen and conservative intellectual William F. Buckley Jr. both had interview shows on TV.
Allen invited Buckley to be his guest and Buckley accepted. The result was a funny exchange between a brilliant liberal comedian and a brilliant conservative thinker.
In the video below, Allen and Buckley share the stage while members of the studio audience ask them questions. Their responses are thoughtful, funny, witty, and surprisingly relevant to our world 47 years later.
The topics they touch on include wars between Israel and the Arabs, presidential politics, conservatism vs. liberalism, and the length of miniskirts. It's refreshing to look back to a day when political opponents could be friendly, respectful, and charming.
Enjoy!
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A few years ago we came across Andrew Klavan's funny satiric piece on how to achieve peace in the Middle East but were reluctant to repost it because we generally don't run political humor videos.
But considering what's happening now in and around Israel, we just couldn't resist bringing this video to the attention of our readers, those who have already seen it and many more who we suspect will be viewing it for the first time. It's been hard to find anything funny or humorous about the current situation in Israel, but we think this one is really on target.
For those of you who are old enough to remember listening to the morning radio program Klavan and Finch on WNEW-1130AM in New York from 1952 to 1968, Andrew Klavan is the son of the show's co-host, Gene Klavan. He was born Jewish, but became an agnostic after his Bar Mitzvah and later converted to Christianity.
Andrew is a novelist who writes mysteries and psychological thrillers, and also posts biting satire in his blog Klavan on the Culture, featureed by PJ Media. This video is one of his best. And remember, it's only satire (or is it?)
Enjoy!
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Our favorite Yiddish chefs, Rukhl Schaechter and Eve Yochnowitz from the Jewish Daily Forward are back with their two recipes for homemade noodles with cottage cheese, one with fried onions and one without.
We've been publishing most of their videos featuring Yiddish-flecked banter while they cook traditional dishes.
Since their Est Gezunterheit series started four years ago, we've published 21 of their recipes and mini-glossaries of funny-sounding Yiddish words connected to the recipes. (Look for Est Gezunterheit in the Keywords list in the left column to catch up on any that you've missed.)
Here are some of the Yiddish words that we picked up during this episode:
Leffel = tablespoon
Leffeleh = teaspoon
Grate = ready
Gringer = easier
Bashits = sprinkle
Katchets ois = roll out
Loksh = noodle
Zeedendick = boiling
Tzeekleiben = sticking
Tsforech = cottage cheese
Smeteneh = sour cream
Enjoy!
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It's another Monday, and time for another Joke to Start the Week.
Today's jokester is Alan Sharkis, a 74-year-old retired teacher whom we met a few weeks ago at the annual Camp Hazak week in the Catskills.
The camp, which was held at the newly refurbished Hudson Valley Resort in Kerhonkson, New York (formerly The Granit), attracted about 140 seniors, mostly from Hazak groups at Conservative synagogues from up and down the east coast.
Here's the setup: Shloimie walks into a pet shop and he's looking for something unusual. And he tells the man behind the counter "I don't want a dog, I don't want a cat. I'm looking for something unusual." The pet shop owner says "I have just the right thing for you." And then...
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StandWithUs is an international, non-profit organization dedicated to
informing the public about Israel and to combating the extremism and
anti-Semitism that often distorts the issues.
Its core belief is that knowledge
of the facts will correct common prejudices about the Arab-Israeli
conflict, and will promote discussions and policies that can help
promote peace in the region.
Through print materials, speakers,
programs, conferences, missions to Israel, campaigns, and internet
resources, it ensures that the story of Israel's achievements and ongoing
challenges is told on campuses and in communities, the media,
libraries, and churches around the world.
Based in Los Angeles, StandWithUs has offices and
chapters in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Davis, Denver, Detroit, Chicago, Seattle, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Canada, France, the UK, Australia, and Israel.
This month the organization asked people to submit photos showing their support for Israel. In
just one week it received over 400 photos from countries all over the
world, including the United States, Czech Republic, Australia, the
United Kingdom, El Salvador, Colombia, Germany, Paraguay, Canada,
Nigeria and of course, Israel, just to name a few.
StandWithUs is still soliciting photos like the ones shown above and in the video below. They can be submitted to
social@standwithus.com to be featured in its Facebook album.
Am Israel Chai.
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(A tip of the kippah to Judith Berger for bringing the Stand With Us website to our attention.)
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