Mel Brooks Receives an Honorary Oscar Award and Tribute From Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane

On January 9 an Honorary Oscar statuette was presented to Mel Brooks at the Academy's 14th Governors Awards ceremony in Los Angeles.

At the ceremony, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick honored the iconic producer, writer, and actor with some comedy and song created just for him.

Here is their tribute to Mel Brooks, followed by Brooks receiving the Oscar and giving his acceptance comments.

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.

   

   

(A tip of the kippah to Esther Kustanowitz for bringing these videos to our attention)

Throwback Thursday at the Oscars: Norma Shearer and Carl Laemmle - Jewish Winners in 1930

With all the glitz and glamour associated with the Academy Awards coming up on February 9, we're going back 90 years to take a look at the laid back awards announcement that was made in awarding the Oscars for best performances in 1930. 

It was a year that saw two Jewish nominees walk away with the coveted gold statuette. Norma Shearer received the Oscar for her Best Actress performance in The Divorcee. And Producer Carl Laemmle, the founder of Universal Pictures, took home the award for All Quiet on the Western Front as Best Picture.

As P.J. Grisar wrote in The Forward,

Norma Shearer, a Canadian-American actress who converted to Judaism in 1927 to marry MGM mogul Irving Thalberg, holds the distinction of being not only the first Jewish woman to win an Oscar, but the first performer overall. (Writers Benjamin Glazer, Ben Hecht, Joseph W. Farnham, né Frohman, and director Lewis Milestone, né Lieb Milstein, were the first Jewish winners in the first Oscars ceremony.)

Oscar winner producer Carl Laemmle was born in 1867 to a Jewish family in Laupheim, in the German Kingdom of Württemberg. In 1906, Laemmle quit his job and started one of the first motion picture theaters in Chicago.

Laemmle remained connected to his home town of Laupheim throughout his life, providing financial support to it and also by sponsoring hundreds of Jews from Laupheim and Württemberg to emigrate from Nazi Germany to the United States in the 1930s, paying both emigration and immigration fees, thus saving them from the Holocaust.

Let's go back to 1930 and watch these two members of the entertainment world receive their awards. 

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

#Throwback Thursday    #TBT

Oscars, Shmoscars! Here Are Our Purim Picks of the Best Movies of 2016

Happy Purim to all of our Jewish Humor Central readers.  We hope you enjoy this special Purim spoof from the Purim 2017 issue of The Kustanowitz Kronikle.  You can download the PDF by clicking HERE.  Print it and share it at your Purim Seudah.

There are the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards (Oscars).  But who needs them when the best awards of all are the Silver Graggers.  Jewish Humor Central is proud to present the movie awards from our sister publication, The Kustanowitz Kronikle.

The Silver Graggers are different from the Golden Globes and the Oscars in that there are multiple winners for Best Picture, the only award we give.

This year the Kustanowitz kids have been hard at work, deliberating which films released in 2016 merited consideration for this prestigious award.  Today we are announcing the winners of the annual competition.  Here are the best films of 2016, with a brief description of each one.

FENCES:  When word spreads that Conservative Jews have been driving to a local Orthodox shul on Shabbat, the Orthodox congregants build an electrified fence in hopes of making their shul great again.

LA LA LAND: The heartwarming story of an overworked Jewish mother who finds solace and refuge in an alternative universe where Pesach cleaning and kitniyot are optional. 

LA LA BANNED: The ban on Orthodox women rabbis expands to include kol isha.
 
MA MA LAND: A new theme park made entirely of guilt, chicken soup and medical school applications.

BAD MOMS: Tired of having four sets of dishes and buying aluminum foil in bulk to cover their countertops, a group of mothers in a suburban Jewish community decide not to make Pesach this year.

HIDDEN FIGURES: A near-riot ensues when a congregation president refuses to release the results of the members’ vote on renewing the rabbi’s contract.

DEADPOOL: In this tense crime drama, after too many complaints about the water temperature, the mikveh lady takes matters into her own hands. 

MANISCHEWITZ BY THE SEA: A kosher cruise goes horribly wrong when the ship fails to dock before Shabbat and the kitchen runs out of wine.

ARRIVAL: An anxious grandmother spends the heart-wrenching 18 minutes after lighting candles looking at the driveway, waiting for her family to get home in time for Shabbat.

MOONLIGHT: Eager to end Shabbat, one man mistakenly counts the moon as three stars and shocks the world with a Havdalah that’s six minutes early.

SING: The wacky adventures of a rebbetzin, Beis Yaakov girl, and koala, trying to organize the first women-only singing competition in Israel.

FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM: A shochet goes on a magical journey to find and shecht a kosher unicorn.

SING STREET: A music school opens down the block from an Orthodox shul and draws some local kids into a life of co-ed musical theater.

ROGUE ONE: A brave local rabbi tells his congregation that it’s time to start ignoring the second day of Yom Tov already, and that it’s OK for everyone to eat kitniyot on Pesach.

MOANATEVKA: The long-awaited animated "Fiddler on the Roof" with music and lyrics from Lin-Manuel Miranda
.
PASSENGERS: Chaos erupts on an El Al flight when nobody can figure out the right direction to face while davening Shacharit.

THE ACCOUNTANT: A mother recalls her third favorite child, after the doctor and the lawyer.​

Wishing you a happy and joyous Purim. May the laughter of Purim resound throughout your home on Purim and all year long.

Oscars, Shmoscars! Here Are Our Purim Picks Of The Best Movies Of 2015

 
Happy Purim to all of our Jewish Humor Central readers.  We hope you enjoy this special Purim spoof from the Purim 2016 issue of The Kustanowitz Kronikle.  You can download the PDF by clicking HERE.  Print it and share it at your Purim Seudah.

There are the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards (Oscars).  But who needs them when the best awards of all are the Silver Graggers.  Jewish Humor Central is proud to present the movie awards from our sister publication, The Kustanowitz Kronikle.

The Silver Graggers are different from the Golden Globes and the Oscars in that there are multiple winners for Best Picture, the only award we give.

This year the Kustanowitz kids have been hard at work, deliberating which films released in 2015 merited consideration for this prestigious award.  Today we are announcing the winners of the annual competition.  Here are the best films of 2015, with a brief description of each one.

THE BIG SHORT:  A non-Jewish man has second thoughts about conversion once he learns the part about circumcision.

SPOTLIGHT: The local Jewish paper investigates synagogue shondas, including the rising cost of High Holiday tickets and having kiddush without chulent. 

THE DANISH GIRL: A conniving baker deceitfully convinces an entire community that her pastries are actually kosher.

THE HATEFUL EIGHT: Chaos erupts when clueless parents accidentally go all eight nights of Hanukkah without purchasing a single gift for their kids.

ROOM:  After eating too much over a three-day Yom Tov, a man is forced to bring all of his pants back to the tailor.

THE COVENANT: A secular man is attacked and nearly killed by a beard. But after a while, he embraces both the facial hair and the religious devotion that it indicates.

INSIDE OUT: When a man can’t find the bread he hid for Bedikat Chametz, he loses his mind and nearly destroys the house trying to figure out where it went.

TERMINATOR: GENESIS: A cyborg travels back in time to the Garden of Eden to find the and kill the snake that started the human race on its path to destruction.

BROOKLYN: All of the presidential candidates make a pilgrimage to Boro Park to seek the blessing and endorsement of the Bobover, Gerer, Satmar, Vizhnitz, Munkacz, Spinka, Klausenburger, Skverer, and Puppa rebbes.

FANTASTIC FOUR: From laughing at infertility to sitting on idols, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah had stories to tell. Don't miss this new biblical epic exploring the world of the Four Matriarchs.

BRIDGE OF SPIES: When vicious rumors spread, a local rabbi sends two of his trusted congregants to see if the townspeople are indeed using non-kosher bread for the Tashlich ceremony on Rosh Hashanah.

THE WEDDING RINGER:  When a local couple gets engaged, members of the community battle over which of their cousins is the best diamond dealer on 47th Street.

FURIOUS 7: An Israeli is beside himself when he learns that a springtime trip to America will mean one extra day of eating matzah.

THE PEANUTS MOVIE: An animated film about legumes desperately trying to be accepted on Passover.
ANT-MAN:  A romantic comedy featuring JDate’s tallest subscriber. 

THE NIGHT BEFORE:  Erev Passover, three lifelong friends pursue invitations to the ultimate chametz party. 

Wishing you a happy and joyous Purim. May the laughter of Purim resound throughout your home on Purim and all year long.

The Great Jewish Comedians: Groucho Marx Gets an Honorary Oscar

Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian and film and television star. 

He was known as a master of quick wit and is widely considered one of the best comedians of the modern era. His rapid-fire, often impromptu delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers and imitators.

His Wikipedia entry reports that he made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born. He also had a successful solo career, most notably as the host of the radio and television game show You Bet Your Life.


His distinctive appearance, carried over from his days in vaudeville, included quirks such as an exaggerated stooped posture, glasses, cigar, and a thick greasepaint mustache and eyebrows. These exaggerated features resulted in the creation of one of the world's most ubiquitous and recognizable novelty disguises, known as "Groucho glasses": a one-piece mask consisting of horn-rimmed glasses, large plastic nose, bushy eyebrows and mustache.


In this video clip, Jack Lemmon presents Groucho Marx with an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of his brilliant creativity and for the unequaled achievements of the Marx Brothers in the art of motion picture comedy at the 46th Academy Awards in 1974.

Enjoy!

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"Frozen Chosen" - Purim Parody of Oscar-Winning Song "Let it Go"

With all the attention being given to the Oscar-winning animated movie Frozen and its Oscar-winning original song Let it Go, we were sure that Purimshpiels across the country would use it as the focus of a retelling of the Purim story.

We didn't have to wait long. Just a few days ago Anshe Emet Synagogue of Chicago posted their version of the song in a Purim music video and we're glad to give them more exposure by sharing it with you.

Just in case you're not familiar with the original song (probably because you don't have daughters or granddaughters who have seen the movie five times already), we're including the Let it Go video clip from the movie below the parody version.

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.)      

Here's the original from the movie: