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!
Showing posts with label Saturday Night Live. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saturday Night Live. Show all posts
In
the U.S. we get our political satire from Saturday Night Live and The
Daily Show. Israelis, who have a lot of politics to parody, have their
own outlet for making fun of the daily comings and goings of politicians
and celebrities. It's a weekly TV show called Eretz Nehederet (Hebrew: ארץ נהדרת, literally "Wonderful Country.")
It's pure satire, featuring references
to current affairs of the past week through parodies of the people
involved, as well as the thoughts of recurring characters. The program
is one of the most watched and influential shows on Israeli television.
Here's a recent sketch mocking the United Nations "Peacekeepers" in Lebanon.
Comedian Adam Sandler, who spent only five years as a cast member of Saturday Night Live, captured the essence of the 50-year-old show in a funny and wistful new song that he sang at the SNL reunion special Sunday night.
Sandler started things out with a joke, singing, “Everyone in this room
has something in common, all of our lives were changed by this show/
Everyone in this room has something else in common, we weren’t allowed
to use the little bathroom in Lorne’s office.” The song — titled “50
Years” — toggled between sincerity and quips, including the line: “50
years of cast members saying ‘I think our cast is the greatest of all
time,’ but we all know the first cast is the best.”
He wrapped things up by running through a string of classic
castmembers, including late comics like Chris Farley, Phil Hartman and
Jan Hooks.
Remember Rick Moranis? The funny guy who made us laugh in Ghostbusters, Little Shop of Horrors, Spaceballs, and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids? He retired from the film industry in 1997.
In 1997, Moranis began a long break from acting to dedicate his time to his two children as a widower.
He has not appeared in a live-action film for over 25 years, although
he provided voice-over work for a few animated films, including Disney'sBrother Bear (2003). He also released comedy albums and made appearances at fan conventions.
In 2020, after a hiatus of nearly 23 years from live-action films, Moranis signed to appear in a new sequel to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, called Shrunk. However, as of 2024, the project has yet to proceed to the filming stage.
Here's a video clip from 1989, when Moranis appeared in a cold open sketch on Saturday Night Live, impersonating legendary comedian Jackie Mason.
Sports announcer Howard Cosell hosted Saturday Night Live on April 13, 1985. Hosts on the show typically were included in comedy skits featuring their roles in the entertainment industry, and this one was no exception.
Cosell, born Howard Cohen in 1918, was best known for his distinctive staccato voice, accent, syntax, and cadence, and they became the basis of a skit portraying Cosell's Bar Mitzvah, where he played the role of his lawyer father, Morris Cosell. His mother was played by comedian Billy Crystal, in one of his funniest roles.
Let's turn the clock back 39 years and join in the fun at the reception hall where the Bar Mitzvah was celebrated.
History is fungible. There is nothing that is fact, nor anything that is
a lie. That is the new fashion on college campuses today. That has been
the case for decades.
And this absurdly hilarious video from Eretz Nehederet, the Israeli comedy TV show that is being called Israel's Saturday Night Live, brings all of the absurdities of the
progressive left universities right into clear focus.
Enjoy!
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If
you're a fan of Jewish Humor Central and happen to be in South Florida this winter, you can see Blogger-in-Chief Al Kustanowitz
present a series of four 90 minute programs at Florida Atlantic
University's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) in Boca Raton, starting on January 18.
The programs, Saturday Night Live: The Funny Years, will be a walk down memory lane through
the first 25 years of Saturday Night Live.
While for 48 years SNL has
had a major impact on pop culture, critics agree that the first 25 years
were by far the funniest and most relevant. The combination of sketch
comedy, featured performers, guest hosts, and mock commercials has been a
winning formula for creating memorable characters that have become
household names.
Each lecture in this 4-week series will profile the cast members, tracing their routes to the show,
watching their auditions and screen tests, and revisiting their most
popular characters in action. So come prepared to laugh out loud at the
genius of those comedy standouts like Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Martin
Short, and Phil Hartman, just to mention a few!
Lectures
1975-1980: The Not Ready
for Prime-Time Players - Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Dan
Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, and Bill Murray.
1980-1985:
The Second SNL Generation Arrives - Eddie Murphy as Buckwheat and
Mister Robinson, Don Novello as Father Guido Sarducci, Joe Piscopo and
Robin Duke as Doug and Wendy Whiner.
1985-1990: The Third SNL
Generation Takes Over - Billy Crystal as Fernando, Martin Short as
Nathan Thurm, Ed Grimley, Jeremy Glick, and Jon Lovitz as Hanukkah
Harry.
1990-2000: To the New Millennium - Phil Hartman, Kevin
Nealon, Mike Myers, Julia Sweeney, Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, Will
Ferrell, Rachel Dratz, Maya Rudolph, and Tina Fey.
The lectures are from 3 pm to 4:30 pm on Thursdays from January 18 through February 8 at FAU's Friedberg Auditorium in the
Lifelong Learning Building. Entrance to the University is at 777 Glades
Road in Boca Raton. Admission at the door is $30 for each lecture and $80 for the series. Members can purchase
series tickets in advance for $60.
So bring your friends and let's meet afterwards to share some laughs at the conclusion of the program.
Here's a sample of what you'll see:
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Even in the midst of tragedy, a dose of humor can serve to clarify and expose hypocrisy and muddled thinking.
It didn't take long for Israeli comedy
writers to create satiric sketches about the hypocrisy of the three college presidents who waffled on answering congressional questions about whether genocide violated the school's principles.
This sketch placed the three professors in the Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft, with headmaster Albus Dumbledore presiding over an inquiry into violation of the Hogwarts Code of Conduct.
It appeared on Eretz Nehederet, the Israeli version of Saturday Night Live, one of the most popular TV programs in Israel.
Harry Potter fans will enjoy this satire. If you haven't read the books or seen the films, we encourage you to step into the magical world.
Enjoy!
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Even in the midst of tragedy, a dose of humor can serve to clarify and expose misguided and biased reporting.
Two weeks after the invasion of Israel by Hamas terrorists, Israeli comedy writers went to work creating satiric sketches about the aftermath, notably about the BBC reporting misinformation related to the faulty rocket that damaged the parking lot next to a hospital.
The sketch appeared on Eretz Nehederet, the Israeli version of Saturday Night Live, one of the most popular TV programs in Israel.
In the Eretz Nehederet sketch, which has gone viral since the
broadcast on Israeli network Keshet 12 on Wednesday evening, Israeli
actor Liat Harlev plays a BBC anchor arbitrarily inventing the number of
fatalities from the attack. “More, more” she urges as the figure on the
chyron jumps from 500 to 750. She then links to Middle East
correspondent Harry Whiteguilt (played by comedian Yuval Semo) who, clad
in a press flak jacket, says he’s reporting from the “illegal colony”
of Tel Aviv and goes on to describe Hamas as “the most credible not
terrorist organization in the world.” Beneath him on the screen a chyron
flashes up saying “We love Hamas.”
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Today our time machine is taking us back to December 1981, when Larry David and Michael Richards were in a sketch about people with Jewish names who aren't Jewish. You probably won't recognize them as they looked 42 years ago (before Seinfeld), but their voices are recognizable.
The sketch was performed in the third and final season of Fridays, ABC's attempt to duplicate the success of NBC's Saturday Night Live, which, at the time, was in its fifth season featuring the original "Not Ready for Prime Time" cast, along with several writers (and SNL band leader at the time, Paul Shaffer) who had been promoted to feature player status, as well as newcomer Harry Shearer.
Like SNL, Fridays featured popular musical guests and, beginning in the second season, celebrity guest hosts, some of whom had appeared on SNL before and after Fridays aired, such as Andy Kaufman, Billy Crystal, William Shatner, Mark Hamill, and George Carlin. (Carlin, who had hosted the very first SNL in 1975, was also Fridays' first official "guest host" in 1981.)
Enjoy!
A
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Today we're going back to 1993 when Mike Myers was performing his Coffee Talk sketches on Saturday Night Live.
In the sketches, Myers plays a stereotypical Jewish middle-aged woman with an exaggerated New York accent who sports long, painted fake nails; much gold jewelry; gaudy sweaters; large dark glasses; and big hair, which she constantly adjusts. This character was a spoof on Myers' real-life mother-in-law at the time, Linda Richman.
In this episode, when Linda brings family friend Helen Hunt on the show, they chat about how Helen is a quarter Jewish and how Holly Hunter had it easy in The Piano since she didn't have to memorize lines.
Enjoy!
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In a Saturday Night Live sketch in 1992, Jerry Seinfeld played a high school history teacher who struggles to get his students to recall basic facts about European history. The teacher eventually gives up, realizing that his students are even ignorant about the existence of Nazis.
In the sketch, Seinfeld is joined by fellow comedians Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, and David Spade.
Enjoy!
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Way back in 1999 when Jerry Seinfeld hosted Saturday Night Live, he gave a rare performance as someone other than himself. He played Lenny Schwartzman, a star basketball player for Yeshiva Academy in the Interfaith Basketball League.
Mary Katherine Gallagher, played by Molly Shannon, has a crush on Lenny and is the only Catholic girl who asks him to go out for a knish.
Enjoy!
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We're still posting
Purim content because today is Shushan Purim, an extra day of
celebrating Purim in cities that were walled from the time of Joshua.
Today the only city that meets this criteria is Jerusalem, and our
relatives and friends in Jerusalem are getting an extra day to
celebrate.
It's rare for Purim to coincide with St. Patrick's Day, but when they do, it presents an opportunity for lots of fun. The last time this happened was in 1984, when Saturday Night Live took advantage of the occurrence to open the show with a funny skit that blended the two holidays and included a cameo appearance of New York's mayor Ed Koch.
Enjoy the skit, and Shabbat shalom!
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It's
hard to believe that it's been 32 years since the death of Gilda
Radner, the brilliant Jewish comedy star of Saturday Night Live. Her
hilarious characters made the show a must see every week. Thanks
to the Internet, we still have some of her landmark sketches available
to watch and laugh. In recent years we've posted some of her character skits including Roseanne Roseannadanna, Emily Litella, Lisa
Loopner, and Baba Wawa. Today we're turning the clock back to 1977 for a classic visit to the room of Judy Miller, Gilda's stand-in for every
little girl who imagines herself the star of her very own show and acts
out every role. Enjoy!
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In 1983, seven years after Gilda Radner joined Saturday Night Live as a member of the Not Ready for Prime Time Players, she made her first appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
In a funny, wide-ranging interview, Gilda reads a hilarious selection from her book, Roseanne Rosanadanna's Hey! Get Back to Work Book.
She explains how she overcame her shyness by getting lost in the characters that she invented and brought to life in the show.
Enjoy!
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Born
in Queens with the name Rikhters to a Yiddish-speaking family, Don Rickles began
doing stand-up comedy performing in hotels in the Catskill Mountains in
New York.
He became known as an insult comedian by responding to his
hecklers. The audience enjoyed these insults more than his prepared
material, and he incorporated them into his act.
In 1984, Rickles hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live and delivered a monologue in which his political incorrectness spared no group from his insults. In less than 10 minutes he managed to cast aspersions on Italians, Irish, Jews, Blacks, Puerto Ricans, Chinese, fat people, and even (with difficulty) Swedes. But always funny in classic Rickles style, and not in a mean spirited way.
Enjoy!
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In 1978 Saturday Night Live ran a spoof of the famous Central Park dance scene between Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse in the 1953 movie The Band Wagon. It featured Gilda Radner and Steve Martin attempting to do the same steps as Astaire and Charisse.
But instead of grace and elegance in the dance, Radner and Martin prance clumsily around the floor and stage of the nightclub set.
If you don't remember the original Astaire-Charisse number, we're including a video clip of the classic dance just below the SNL version.
Enjoy!
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One of Saturday Night Live's most popular recurring features was the Coffee Talk series featuring Mike Myers as his former mother-in-law Linda Richman.
Back in May 1993, SNL started a show with a cold opening skit featuring Myers as Linda getting farklempt because her daughter Robin didn't show up on Mother's Day. She took three calls from Coffee Talk listeners and unleashed a volley of Yiddishisms in the process, while challenging the callers to "talk among yourselves" about two topics.
Enjoy!
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Today we're turning
the clock back 44 years to a classic Saturday Night Live comedy sketch
featuring Gilda Radner and Candice Bergen.
It's a great example of what
can happen in a live show and how a very talented comedian can save the
day.
The sketch is supposed to be a message from the Right to Extreme Stupidity League. The premise is that all Americans deserve the right to extreme stupidity. And Gilda and Candice don't disappoint.
Enjoy!
A
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Today we're turning the clock back 36 years to 1984 when Billy Crystal and Christopher Guest played night watchmen Willie and Frankie on Saturday Night Live.
In the recurring sketch, two good friends have
meandering discussions in a variety of settings that inevitably drift
into detailed anecdotes of grotesquely painful self-abuse. The men each
complete the other's statements, correctly assuming increasingly
outlandish scenarios.
The characters periodically made some version of
the remark "Don't ya hate it when that happens?" as though the pain they
inflicted on themselves was a matter of bad luck.
Enjoy!
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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 2026 and 2027 in Person and Via ZOOM
Now is the time to book our Jewish humor programs and lectures for your 2026 and 2027 events in person and via ZOOM anywhere in the world. Book any of our 26 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@primetimepresenters.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 2026 and 2027 dates in your community. Click above for details. To book a program with Al, e-mail: dan@primetimepresenters.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.
Fuck Your Bagels, Zohran
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Thoughts on the Haggadah by Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum
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[image: Story 375601404]
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Originally posted on don of all trades:
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Just when you thought it was safe to eat your bagels in mixed company,
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