Jewish Humor Central is a daily publication to start your day with news of the Jewish world that's likely to produce a knowing smile and some Yiddishe nachas. It's also a collection of sources of Jewish humor--anything that brings a grin, chuckle, laugh, guffaw, or just a warm feeling to readers.
Our posts include jokes, satire, books, music, films, videos, food, Unbelievable But True, and In the News. Some are new, and some are classics. We post every morning, Sunday through Friday. Enjoy!
In 1955, Rock 'n Roll was coming into its heyday, making it the perfect target for spoofing by Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, and Howard Morris on Caesar's Hour. And spoof it they did. The funny threesome went at it with great enthusiasm as they parodied The Crew Cuts, the Chords, The Four Lads, and many other groups that were popular before the Beatles invasion.
In this video, the boys sing You Are So Rare and Flippin' Over You and perform a frenzied dance number to the delight of their studio audience.
Enjoy!
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We lost one of the great Jewish comedians last week with the passing of Don Rickles at age 90.
Although he became well known as an insult comic,
his pudgy, balding appearance and pugnacious style led to few leading
roles in film or television.
His prominent film roles included Run Silent, Run Deep (1958) and Kelly's Heroes (1970), and beginning in 1976 he enjoyed a two-year run starring in the sitcom C.P.O. Sharkey.
He received widespread exposure as a popular guest on numerous talk shows, including The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Late Show with David Letterman, and later voiced Mr. Potato Head in the Toy Story films. He won a Primetime Emmy Award for the 2007 documentary Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project.
Today we're remembering Don Rickles as a "roaster" of celebrities on The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast, an NBC television special show hosted by entertainer Dean Martin from 1974 to 1984. For a series of 54 specials and shows, Martin would periodically "roast" a celebrity. These roasts were patterned after the roasts held at the New York Friars' Club.
The format would have the celebrity guest seated on a dais, and one by
one the guest of honor was affectionately chided or insulted about his
career by his fellow celebrity friends.
In 1978, 39 years ago, Rickles turned in a hilarious performance on the Dean Martin Celebrity Hour roasting Frank Sinatra. The guests included Ronald Reagan, Red Buttons, Flip Wilson, Redd Foxx, George Burns, Milton Berle, Jonathan Winters, Peter Falk, Ruth Buzzi, and Orson Welles.
Those were the days before political correctness set in. As one YouTube commenter said, it was humor from an era when you could rib other cultures and everybody was
fine with it, because people had enough self esteem to have fun.
Enjoy!
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It's another Throwback Thursday, and today we're going back 54 years to October 1963. Groucho Marx was the mystery guest on What's My Line, and as usual, he stole the show with his unique comic style. As we watched the episode we found it hard to believe that panelists Bennet Cerf, Dorothy Kilgallen, Tony Randall, and Arlene Francis didn't recognize his voice or smell the smoke from his ubiquitous cigar. But Groucho managed to get a laugh out of every question he was asked, and even managed to insert the word Passover into the discussion, which is why we chose to run the episode this week. Enjoy! A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS: THE
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Today's Throwback Thursday episode takes us back 62 years to 1955, when Sid Caesar moved his funny skits to Caesar's Hour.
The show replaced Your Show of Shows, and featured Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, and newcomer Nanette Fabray.
The staging of this sketch is a take off of the type
utilized on television shows of the era like "Your Hit Parade".
Using
the terminology of the era, Sid plays "the listener".
Retaining most of
his first rate writing staff, this show also broke ground for the
addition of a fledgling comedy writer by the name of Woody Allen.
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Alan Zweibel is a funny guy. He's been writing comedy since graduating from college, when he started writing for stand-up
comedians who paid him seven dollars a joke. He later compiled over
1,100 of them into a portfolio which he showed to producer Lorne Michaels who then hired Zweibel to be one of the original writers of a new show called Saturday Night Live. During his 5 years at Saturday Night Live (1975–1980), Zweibel wrote many memorable sketches, including the Samurai for John Belushi, and helped to create the characters of Roseanne Roseannadanna and Emily Litella, both portrayed by Gilda Radner.
As an in-joke, Richard Feder of Fort Lee, New Jersey, a name and
hometown often associated with the Roseannadanna character, was
Zweibel's real life brother-in-law and did live in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
Today's post comes from a book that he wrote -- The Other Shulman – a novel that won the 2006 Thurber Prize for American Humor.
In an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, Zweibel read a funny excerpt from the book in which the Shulman character, on the verge of failing a college poetry class, plagiarizes the lyrics from Simon and Garfunkel's mega-hit, The Boxer, and reads it as poetry in a class taught by an ancient, clueless professor.
After watching the video, we felt an urge to watch Simon and Garfunkel singing The Boxer. You'll find it, from their 1981 concert in Central Park, just below the Zweibel video.
Enjoy!
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Today's Throwback Thursday video takes us back 66 years to 1951 when Victor Borge was featured on many TV variety shows with his funny piano comedy. In this clip, Borge shows how he teaches people with different occupations to play the piano. First a secretary, then a poker player, doctor, shoeshine boy, and sea captain.
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Today is another Throwback Thursday and we're riding the nostalgia train back to September 1959 for a clip from Episode 1 in the third season of the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, a spinoff from I Love Lucy.
In this episode, in order to get Milton Berle to perform at a
benefit at Little Ricky's school, Lucy uses Ricky's name to spark his
attention. When Ricky catches her, Lucy must act in secret and decides
to visit Mr. Berle's
office.
At the office, she overhears Milton's agent saying that Mr.
Berle needs a secluded place to work on his new book. After discussion,
Milton's agent suggest he write his new book at Lucy's farmhouse. Later,
when Fred catches a "mysterious man" visiting Lucy while Ricky is at
work, Ricky becomes furious.
Enjoy!
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This Throwback Thursday takes us back 82 years to one of the most famous comedy scenes of all time, the ocean liner stateroom scene from the Marx Brothers' film A Night at the Opera.
It was developed with participation of silent comedy great Buster Keaton, who took inspiration from his own film, The Cameraman.
The 1935 film also starred Kitty Carlisle and Allan Jones. It was the first film the Marx Brothers made for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer after their departure from Paramount Pictures, and the first after Zeppo left the act. The film was adapted by George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind, and Al Boasberg from a story by James Kevin McGuinness. It was directed by Sam Wood. Enjoy! A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:
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It's Throwback Thursday again and we're going back 32 years to get another dose of Rodney Dangerfield explaining why he "don't get no respect."
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.
Enjoy!
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Red Buttons, the comedian who became known at celebrity roasts for his "never got a dinner" speech, appeared on a Chabad telethon in 2009.
He had the audience laughing when he performed a variation on the speech, listing famous Jews since the beginning of time who never did a show for Chabad. At the Telethon, he was introduced by Jan Murray, whom we profiled yesterday as one of the great Jewish Comedians.
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In 1997 Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks published a book and CD titled The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000. The 2000 Year Old Man skit was originally created in 1961 at Brooks' beachfront house in Fire Island. Brooks had just undergone surgery for gout.
Because of his post-surgical discomfort, Brooks quipped, "I feel like a
2000-year-old man," which led Reiner to begin questioning him about
what it's like to be a 2000-year-old man and to describe history as
Brooks saw it.
To promote the book and CD, the duo made an appearance on Jay Leno's Tonight Show. They performed an updated version of the skit and then went on to explain how they got the famous campfire flatulence scene in Blazing Saddles past the censors.
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The Typewriter is a novelty instrumental piece written by Leroy Anderson in 1950, and first performed by the Boston Pops.
Its name refers to the fact that its performance requires a typewriter, which is used on stage: keystrokes, the typewriter bell, and the carriage return
mechanism provide a major component of the piece, although Anderson
demonstrated that a musical gourd could be used instead of a carriage
return.
The typewriter is modified so that only two keys work; although many listeners have suspected that stenographers are enlisted to "play" the typewriter, Anderson reported that only professional drummers have sufficient wrist flexibility. It has been called one of "the wittiest and most clever pieces in the orchestral repertoire".
The piece was featured in the Jerry Lewis film Who's Minding the Store (1963). Lewis didn't have to worry about keys, bell, or carriage return. He typed the whole piece in the air. Enjoy!
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Mel Brooks is famous for producing, directing, acting, and doing stand-up comedy, but we don't usually think of him as a singer or impersonator. Back in 1970 Mel appeared on The Dick Cavett Show doing impressions of Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Frank Sinatra. The Sinatra bit was an impersonation of Frank singing America the Beautiful. So let's set the clock back 47 years to see Mel in his younger days doing a few celebrity impressions.
Enjoy!
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We love Throwback Thursdays because they give us an opportunity to revisit some of the funniest comedy skits from the days when talented performers like Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca could take the time to create a story line and follow it to its conclusion. One of these classic comedy skits was a satiric spoof of movies involving newspaper reporters and criminals. In this Newspaper Movie that we found on YouTube, Sid and Imogene are reporters and the bad guys include Carl Reiner and Howard Morris. Unlike today's' Saturday Night Live skits, it's 12 minutes long, but we think it's worth watching. We hope you'll enjoy it, too. It originally was aired on Your Show of Shows on November 22, 1952. Yes, it's hard to believe that it was 65 years ago. A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:
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For today's Throwback Thursday comedy special, we go back fifty years for a Joan Rivers standup comedy stint on The Hollywood Palace. The date was February 5, 1966, and Joan's performance was a preview of the themes that she would use for the next 40 plus years of standup comedy. Enjoy! A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:
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The late, great comedian Sid Caesar, was a master at pantomime, and used it to great acclaim on his TV shows, Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour.
We are fortunate that an anonymous poster found some vintage clips of Caesar in some of his most famous routines, including this 7-minute solo sketch of a woman getting dressed.
Enjoy!
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The Goldbergs was a comedy-drama broadcast from 1929 to 1946 on American
radio, and from 1949 to 1956 on American television. It was adapted into
a 1948 play, Me and Molly; a 1950 film, The Goldbergs; and a 1973
Broadway musical, Molly. The program was devised by writer-actress
Gertrude Berg in 1928 and sold to the NBC radio network the following
year. It was a domestic comedy featuring the home life of a Jewish
family, supposedly located at 1038 East Tremont Avenue in the Bronx. In
addition to writing the scripts and directing each episode, Berg starred
as bighearted, lovingly meddlesome, and somewhat stereotypical Jewish
matriarch Molly Goldberg. The show began as a portrait of Jewish
tenement life before later evoking such growing pains as moving into a
more suburban setting and struggling with assimilation while sustaining
their roots. The Goldbergs began as a weekly 15-minute program
called The Rise of the Goldbergs on November 20, 1929, going daily in
1931. The series moved to CBS in 1936 with the title shortened to The
Goldbergs. Like other 15-minute comedies of the day, such as Amos 'n'
Andy, Lum and Abner, Easy Aces, Vic and Sade and Myrt and Marge, The
Goldbergs was a serial with running storylines. Berg's usual
introduction—in character as Molly, hollering, "Yoo-hoo! Is
anybody...?"—became a catchphrase. Let's get into the time machine and go back 64 years to 1952 for a taste of this classic series. In this 15 minute episode, Molly's cousin Simon offers Molly the use of his house in Florida for a week. The week becomes four weeks so Molly generously offers the extra weeks to her extended family. Amid all the planning, complications develop that jeopardize the trip. Enjoy! (A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:
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Mal
Z. Lawrence probably holds the record for most stand-up comedy routines
performed in Catskills hotels. When the hotels started to disappear,
Mal simply moved his shtick to the casino hotels of Atlantic City and
the playhouses of Century Village and other residential communities in
Florida.
And
as old as the jokes are, and no matter how many times the audiences
heard them, they still laugh their heads off when Mal strides onto the
stage and starts his delivery.
We featured Mal back in 2010
doing a few minutes of his routine on a stage in Florida and in a 2013 performance in Los Angeles. We think it's
time to bring him back in a longer version of his act for our readers
who have been asking for more of him and for our newer and younger
readers who are not familiar with his humor. This video is a 25 minute performance on stage in Atlantic City.
The
secret of Mal's popularity is his uncanny sense of timing, irony, and
exaggeration. The subjects covered in this routine include hotels and
buses in Atlantic City, and the bountiful food of the Catskill hotels.
Enjoy!
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We hope you had a joyful month of holidays. Now that Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot are behind us, we're back to our usual mix of jokes and funny happenings around the world.
Mondays are reserved for a Joke to Start the Week, Fridays for a Shabbat-related post, and Thursdays for reaching back in time for a classic comedy post. The other days? Whatever we think is funny or nachas-producing. On this Throwback Thursday we're reaching back to an episode of The Johnny Carson Show when Johnny interviewed Alan King and Alan reminisced about the time his son had difficulty learning the Haftorah for his Bar Mitzvah. Enjoy! (A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:
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Today's Throwback Thursday episode goes way back 50 years to 1966, when Buddy Hackett was a regular guest on The Dean Martin Show In this episode Buddy tells Dean how he found out that his wife Sherry was expecting a baby. In typical Hackett fashion the story includes late night activities, a snowstorm, a police officer, a mackinaw, a pair of boots, a pizza pie, and a balloon. You just have to hear him tell the story to put all these elements together, and it's worth it because in the end you'll get a good laugh out of it. Enjoy! (A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:
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Just Published: The Kustanowitz Kronikle - 35 Years of Purim Parody
Every Purim for the past 35 years we have published a Purim parody edition of The Kustanowitz Kronikle, covering virtually every aspect of Jewish life, and including parodies of hundreds of popular movies. This year we decided to retire the series and capture all the fun in a book that's just been published and is available at Amazon.com. It has every Purim issue of The Kustanowitz Kronikle from 1988 through 2022 in a full-color, full-size paperback book with hilarious headline stories and parody movie picks. Here are a few examples: TRUMP, NETANYAHU SWAP ROLES, COUNTRIES; NEW TALMUD VOLUME "VOTIN" FOUND IN IRAQ; JOINS "FRESSIN", "NAPPIN", TANTZEN","PATCHEN"; "JUDAICARE" PROGRAM PLANNED TO ENSURE THAT ALL JEWS HAVE SYNAGOGUE MEMBERSHIP; RABBIS CREATE TALMUD AMERICANI; NEW LAWS EXTEND HALACHA TO THANKSGIVING AND JULY 4; JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS WORLDWIDE UNITE TO STOP GLOBAL WARMING; FOCUS ON REDUCING HOT AIR; RABBIS TO REQUIRE SHECHITA FOR MANY FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
Jewish Humor Central Staff
Publisher and Editor-in-Chief:
Al Kustanowitz Food and Wine Editor:
Aviva Weinberg Israel Food and Wine Consultant Penina Kustanowitz Reporter and Photographer:
Meyer Berkowitz Reporter Phyllis Flancbaum
Now You Can Book Program and Lecture Dates for 2025 and 2026 in Person and Via ZOOM
Now is the time to book our Jewish humor programs and lectures for your 2025 and 2026 events in person and via ZOOM anywhere in the world. Book any of our 22 popular programs including "The Great Jewish Comedians", “Israel is a Funny Country”, and "Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places." Click above for details and videos. To book a program with Al, e-mail: dan@hudakonhollywood.com
"Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places" is now available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle editions
This book presents 150 anecdotes and associated video clips that reveal the myriad ways that Jewish culture, religion, humor, music, song, and dance have found expression in parts of the world that, at first glance, might not seem supportive of Jewish Life. It includes 50 videos of Hava Nagila being performed from Texas to Thailand, from India to Iran, and from Buenos Aires to British Columbia. Also highlighted are 34 international versions of Hevenu Shalom Aleichem, Adon Olam, Abanibi, and Tumbalalaika. Whether you’re reading the print version and typing in the video URLs or reading the e-book version and clicking on the links, you’ll have access to 150 video clips totaling more than 10 hours of video. Enjoy!
"Israel is a Funny Country" is now available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle editions
This book explores the multifaceted nature of humor in Israel, some of which is intentional and some of which is unintentional. Either way, the quirks of Israeli life contribute to making that life interesting and fulfilling. In the pages of this volume, we take a look at humorous slices of Israeli life, Israeli comedy, satire and parody, funny TV commercials, unusual stories about food, surprising rabbinic bans on daily activities, simchas as they can only be celebrated in Israel, and endearing aspects of Israeli culture. There are more than 120 anecdotes and links to video clips totaling more than six hours of video. We hope that these anecdotes and video clips give you a new and different insight into life in Israel, and encourage you to join in the fun by planning a visit to the land flowing with milk and honey.
Now is the time to book our Jewish Humor Shows and Lectures in person or on ZOOM.
Bring Al's Jewish humor lectures and comedy programs with the funniest videos on the Internet to your community and your synagogue, club, JCC, organization or private event in person or via ZOOM. We're taking reservations now for 2025 and 2026 dates in your community. Click above for details. To book a program with Al, e-mail: dan@hudakonhollywood.com.
Now Open: The Jewish Humor Central Gift Shop
Jewish Humor Central logo merchandise is now available. Click on the image above to see the complete collection -- More than 100 items from tote bags, baseball caps, mugs, aprons, drinkware, T-shirts and sweatshirts, to pajamas and underwear.
The Best of Jewish Humor Central - Now Available in eBook and Paperback at Amazon.com
The Best of Jewish Humor Central - More than 400 video clips, including music and comedy videos for all the Jewish holidays. View them on Your PC, Mac, Kindle Fire, iPad, iPhone, iTouch, Android Tablet and Smartphone. Click on the image above to peek inside and download a free sample. And now, a paperback edition for anyone who prefers a traditional book and doesn't mind typing the URLs instead of clicking on them.
About the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief
A long-term devotee of Jewish humor, Al Kustanowitz has been collecting and sharing it even before there was an internet. In 2009, after a 36-year career at IBM managing new technology projects, he founded Jewish Humor Central (jewishhumorcentral.com. Through the blog he brings a daily dose of fun and positive energy to readers who would otherwise start the day reading news that is often drab, dreary, and depressing (subscribing is free). He has published 12 books on humor based on his more than 4,000 blog postings, each of which includes a video clip and his commentary.
He has presented more than 100 programs in South Florida and the Northeast on topics that include the great comedians and entertainers of the 20th century, funniest moments in film and television, flash mobs around the world, and composers and lyricists of the Great American Songbook.
He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from the City University of New York and taught computer science courses at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the International Association of Yiddish Clubs.
You can contact Al via email at akustan@gmail.com.
Jewish Action Podcast episode 2
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Listen to the episode here Host Rabbi Gil Student is joined by Rabbi
Yisrael Motzen (Ner Tamid; Assistant to the OU EVPs; Director, Kol Echad)
to unpack tw...
Attacks
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Dry Bones Golden Oldies in the fond memory of Yaakov Kirschen (Dry Bones).
Brought to you by Sali, the LSW. This cartoon is from 2009. It is not very
"p...
Thoughts on the Haggadah by Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum
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[image: Story 375601404]
We just recently were able to find the latest version of my fathers, Rabbi
Eli Teitelbaum Z”L, thoughts on the Haggadah and conve...
Hamantaschen: The Symbolism behind Purim Cookies
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Purim is a celebration of masquerade, Mishloach Manot, Hamantaschen and
book of Esther reading. Every Jewish holiday focuses on a special dish and
the tria...
Thank you for your support!
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Thank you very much for supporting our work at The Muqata. We appreciate
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Boarding School Massachusetts
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Every fall the Massachusetts Health Connector provides information
concerning the public higher education institutions and designed to prevent
offenders ...
A chat with some protesters…
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Originally posted on don of all trades:
Hi protesters, it’s me, Don. Do you remember me? No? I’m a police officer.
We’ve met before. Excuse me? Did you say...
Jerusalem Walking Tours for Sukkot
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It is about time that I brought back my “Jerusalem: Meet Jerusalem” walking
tour series. And while I am nearing completion on a few new ones that I
hope to...
Trayf of the Week: Bacon Jam
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Just when you thought it was safe to eat your bagels in mixed company,
comes this devilish concoction. Next time a Goyishe friend offers you a
shmear, mak...
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