The Jews are Coming - Noah is Sued by Gilgamesh Lawyer (Parody)

In 2014 Israeli satire on TV took a bold step forward with the airing of a new series of sketches called HaYehudim Ba'im (The Jews Are Coming).
Written by Natalie Marcus and Asaf Beiser, the show asks questions about everything, from the Bible to Ben Gurion to the Ashkenazi leadership. Their approach is to  go into the texts and make you think. They say that they give all their subjects a critical look, but they're not attacking, just giving the story a fresh, modern look.

The series ran for three seasons on Israeli TV, all in Hebrew. Some of the half-hour episodes were divided into video clips and published on YouTube with English subtitles. We found a few new ones and we'll continue to share them with you. Today we're posting a parody that reimagines the scene where Noah tells his sons that God spoke to him and told him to build an ark to survive the flood that is coming to destroy all mankind.

In the parody, Noah is served with a summons by a lawyer representing Gilgamesh of Mesopotamia, the fifth king of the city of Uruk and author of the best seller Epic of Gilgamesh. Noah is being sued for copyright infringement because his flood story is the same as that detailed in the Gilgamesh book.

This video clip, like all the others in the series, may offend some readers who are not open to satirical interpretations of the scriptures and satirical views of Jewish life through the ages, but we believe that there's a place for humor everywhere and we hope you'll find the satire amusing.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

Biblical Philology Meets Gilbert and Sullivan in a Funny Pirates of Penzance Parody

Philology is the study of a language's grammar, history and literary tradition. Biblical philology focuses on the historical development of language as it appears in the Bible. 

Sounds like a boring, arcane pursuit to anyone not already immersed in it in the world of academia. But every field has its own sense of humor, and even biblical philology can be a very funny subject when combined with the comedic style of Gilbert and Sullivan, whose works include The Pirates of Penzance.

Joshua Tyra, a PhD student in Old Testament and ancient Near Eastern history, archaeology and languages at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, saw parallels in Gilbert and Sullivan's song I am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General, and adapted the song to biblical philology using his talents as a composer, musical theater director, arranger, and piano accompanist.

The result is a hilarious romp through the world of biblical and linguistic scholarship set to Gilbert and Sullivan cadences.

We hope you enjoy this delightful biblical and linguistic excursion, followed with a video clip of the original song from The Pirates of Penzance.

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)  





(A tip of the kippah to Dan Mosenkis for bringing this video to our attention.)