Comedy Flashback: Mel Brooks Reminisces on Dick Cavett Show in 1970

Whenever we need some comic relief, and this week we really need it, we go looking for a video clip of Mel Brooks doing anything. 

We've posted lots of Mel's humor in the last few years, but mostly together with Carl Reiner as the 2,000 Year Old Man and in reminiscences of Sid Caesar and their comedic collaborations.

But Mel keeps on going and going as a producer and director, and last month put in an appearance on The Jimmy Kimmel Show. We'll share some of his shtick from that show with you in the coming weeks, but today we're posting a clip from his appearance on The Dick Cavett Show back in 1970. Yes, that's 44 years ago.

In this segment, part one of three parts, Mel reminisces about the Oscar that he won and where he keeps it (in his mother's Brooklyn apartment) and his days of stand-up comedy in the Borscht Belt resorts in New York's Catskill mountains.

Enjoy!

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The Real Story of Mordecai and Esther - As Told by Satiric Israeli TV Show "The Jews are Coming"

So you think you know the Purim story of Mordecai and Esther?  Think again. 

The new (and controversial) satire now playing on TV sets in Israel, Hayehudim Ba'im (The Jews are Coming), has a different take on what went on behind the scenes. Just like all the other sketches in the series, it's funny and irreverent.

Here's the episode in Hebrew with English subtitles so you can see what really went on when Mordecai told Esther about his plan to save the Jews of Persia by entering her into a beauty contest so she could become Ahasuerus' new queen.  We plan to bring you other episodes as soon as they are released with English subtitles.

Please remember that this is satire, and clever satire at that. The writers are not being disrespectful, they are simply being funny. We find it to be well within the range of satire and parody that most Jews expect and accept on Purim. We're glad to have a taste of the fun of Purim all year long and applaud the creators of this series for finding humor in these situations.

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week - "Clock Shop"

A big shout out to our readers who are making Mondays the days when Jewish Humor Central gets the most views and the most new subscribers. Of course we know the reason --- it's the Joke to Start the Week.

We've been running this feature every Monday for two and a half years. At first we didn't expect to find enough jokes to keep posting one every week. But there seems to be no limit on Jewish jokes, so we'll keep it going as long as we can.

Most of the jokes are video clips from the treasure chest of Old Jews Telling Jokes, but we've also included jokes from other sources and video clips that we recorded ourselves with volunteer joke-tellers at lectures and programs that we've presented at resort hotels and retirement communities.

We'll be doing Jewish humor programs and lectures in Deerfield Beach, Florida in February, and inviting joke-tellers to share some of their favorites with our readers on future Mondays.

Today's joke is an oldie but goodie told by Harold Zapolsky, a 79-year-old retired Physics professor.

Here's the setup: This businessman has been traveling through Europe, and his train stops in Zurich, Switzerland. He knows he's got three hours to make his next connection. So he figures he'll walk around the town for a little bit. So he gets off the train and takes a look at his watch, and then...

Enjoy!

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Comedy Showcase: Indian-Jewish Stand-up Comedian Samson Koletkar in Chinese Restaurant

What better way to show that comedy is ethnically inclusive than to have an Indian Jewish comedian perform in a Chinese restaurant on Christmas day?

That's exactly what Samson Koletkar did in 2013 as a member of the Kung Pao Kosher Comedy cast at a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown.

The show has become a San Francisco institution, having just completed its 22nd season and already promoting its shows for a 23rd season in December 2015. 

Koletkar is the world's only Indian Jewish Stand-up Comedian.  Born and raised in Mumbai, and now living in San Francisco, his comedy is a unique perspective on life as an Indian Jew in the West.

We featured two of his stand-up routines in 2010 and 2013.

In this clip from Kung Pao Kosher Comedy, he focuses on disbelief that he is really Jewish and stereotypical reactions to his unusual ethnic background.

Enjoy!

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Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places: Indonesian Choir Sings "Hinei Ma Tov"

Indonesia is a country of 240 million people, 88% of whom are Muslim. Christian religions make up 9 percent of the population, and Hindu, Buddhist, and Animist about 1 per cent each. At last report there were 20 Jews in the country.

So you can imagine our surprise to find a collection of Hebrew songs performed by a chorus at Indonesia's Padjadjaran University.

Earlier this year we posted a video of the same choir singing Hava Nagila, a song that seems to have been adopted by just about every country on Earth, whether or not they know what the words mean. 

We hope that members of the choir know the meaning of the words of Hinei Ma Tov, which are "How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to sit together." 

Enjoy and Shabbat shalom!

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United Nations Spokesman Explains Its Obsession With Israel (Satire)

In 2010, a website called No Laughing Matter posted a satiric interview with a "spokesman for the United Nations Secretariat."

The interview focused on the UN's obsession with censuring Israel, an obsession that hasn't changed in the four years since it was posted on the internet. 

The website no longer exists, but the funny interview persists on YouTube where we found it and thought you would get a kick out of it.

Enjoy!

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The Jew-Off With Zach Braff and Kate Hudson

 

Jewish actors Zach Braff and Kate Hudson (Goldie Hawn's daughter) squared off on MTV After Hours recently to play a game of Jewish trivia and guessing which other actors are also Jewish.

Nothing deep or intellectual in the questions, but they're fun to look at and listen to. And they get most of the questions right, except the spelling of Mayim Bialik's name.

Enjoy!

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Comedy Showcase: Cory Kahaney on Husbands and Children

A year ago we posted a stand-up comedy routine by Cory Kahaney. She's a veteran of the stand-up comedy circuit and has been on many TV shows. She's also had her own HBO and Comedy Central comedy specials and has appeared at the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal.

Cory won the ‘BACKSTAGE’ Bistro Award for best Comedian in NYC and Manhattan Association of Cabaret Award for 'Outstanding Female Comedian'.

Here's another clip of Cory entertaining a TV audience with anecdotes about her two husbands and two children, 20 years apart.

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week: Strangers on a Train

It's the first Monday of the new year, and like every other Monday, it's time for a joke to start the week.

Dipping into the joke vault of Old Jews Telling Jokes, we come up with a joke told by Max Weisberg, a 67-year-old life insurance consultant.

Here's the setup: These two men were on a train from Hartford to New York City for many years.

They sat down next to each other every morning but they never so much as said "Hello." Finally this little fellow says to this man "You know, we've been on the train for twenty years, every single day,  and we don't even know each other's name." And then...

Enjoy!

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"The Wonder Years" Cast Reunites as Complete Series is Released on DVD

From 1988 to 1993, we were glued to the TV screen every week to see the latest episode of The Wonder Years, the award-winning coming-of-age series starring Fred Savage as Kevin Arnold, Danica McKellar as Winnie Cooper, Josh Saviano as Paul Pfeiffer, and Daniel Stern as the voice of Kevin as an adult.

Although his religion and ethnicity weren't explicitly mentioned in the series, we couldn't help but assume that Kevin was a nice secular Jewish boy. His best friend Paul was clearly Jewish and one of the episodes focused on his Bar Mitzvah.

Jewish actors on the show included Savage, Saviano, Josh Hervey as Kevin Arnold's brother Wayne, Ben Stein as Mr. Cantwell, and David Schwimmer as Kevin's sister's boyfriend.

Now, after sixteen years, the entire series has been released as a set of 26 DVDs containing all 115 episodes, including a recent cast reunion.

What happened to the young actors when they grew up? Fred is an actor and director, Danica became an actress, math scholar and author of math books, and Paul became an attorney.

Here are video clips of a cast reunion on TV news and the Wonder Years Bar Mitzvah episode.

Enjoy!

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A Bissel of Shabbat From Seniors in Melbourne, Australia

The word bissel means "a little bit" in Yiddish. "A Bissel Of..." is a new series of short videos featuring residents of Jewish Care of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, who give us their answers to a range of questions. 

This is the first video in the series themed with questions about Shabbat. Last month we posted another video in the series with the seniors' answers to questions about Chanukah.

We are sure you will enjoy it as much as we do. It is sure to encourage discussion with your friends and family and bring back memories of your own Shabbat experiences. 

Shabbat shalom!

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Making Love to Lox - The Last Jewish Slicer at Zabar's

Happy New Year! On this first day of 2015, many of our readers head for the local appetizing store or supermarket counter to pick up the makings of a New Year's brunch. 

The star of the show is often very thinly sliced Nova smoked salmon or salty belly lox, served with a schmear of cream cheese on a bagel fresh out of the oven.

For residents of Manhattan, the most popular destination is Zabar's, which has been serving lox and other delicacies since 1941 at their location on Broadway and 80th Street. 

Last week, the Jewish Daily Forward ran a piece on Len Berk, who they call the last Jewish lox slicer at Zabar's. The 86-year-old Berk took up lox slicing as a new career after retirement. New York Television Channel 5- FOX News also did a report on Zabar's and Berk.

As Paul Berger wrote in the Forward,

Berk has always had an interest in food, especially Chinese food.

After he sold his CPA business in 1992, he led food tours of China. Then, in 1995, a friend sent him a Zabar’s advertisement for a part-time salmon slicer.

Berk had always sliced his own salmon at home. Slicing fish at Zabar’s seemed like the perfect way to keep busy while doing something he loves. He works Thursdays and Fridays, and he always looks forward to it.

Driving the 20 miles to Zabar’s from his home in Pelham, New York, makes him feel like he is “in the middle of what’s going on today,” Berk said.

He begins a typical day at Zabar’s by cutting away the crusty parts of the fish to reveal the undersurface. “I love running my hand across it,” he said. “It’s a very sensual experience.”

Enjoy the FOX News video below!

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If Jewish Mothers Wrote "Baby, It's Cold Outside"

One of the most often played songs during the winter holiday season is Frank Loesser's classic, Baby, It's Cold Outside. The song was included in a 1949 film titled Neptune's Daughter and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. 

The following year Loesser wrote the music and lyrics for Guys and Dolls.

Jon Wolf and Matt Campana wondered how the song would sound if the lyrics were written by a Jewish mother. So they created a parody with animation that addresses that question head-on.

We hope you'll enjoy the parody, and if you don't remember the original, we're posting a video clip of it as sung by Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme.


2014 has been a wonderful year for us at Jewish Humor Central. We hope it's been a great one for you, too. Enjoy today's video, and don't forget to dress warmly. We wish you a happy new year, and we'll see you in 2015!

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The Real Story of the Binding of Isaac - As Told by Satiric Israeli TV Show "The Jews are Coming"

So you think you know the story of the binding of Isaac?  Think again. 
The new (and controversial) satire now playing on TV sets in Israel, Hayehudim Ba'im (The Jews are Coming), has a different take on what went on behind the scenes. Just like all the other sketches in the series, it's funny and irreverent.
 
Here's the episode in Hebrew with English subtitles so you can see what really went on when Abraham and Isaac journeyed to Mount Moriah to fulfill God's command to Abraham about offering his son Isaac as a sacrifice.  We plan to bring you other episodes as soon as they are released with English subtitles.

Please remember that this is satire, and clever satire at that. The writers are not being disrespectful, they are simply being funny. We find it to be well within the range of satire and parody that most Jews expect and accept on Purim. We're glad to have a taste of the fun of Purim all year long and applaud the creators of this series for finding humor in these situations.
 
Enjoy!
 
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A Joke to Start the Week - "My Son, the President"

It's the last Monday of the old year, but it's no different from any other Monday in that we still need a joke to get the week started. 

So let's dip into the Old Jews Telling Jokes barrel and pull out an oldie but goodie. This one is told today by 68-year-old Dennis Spiegelman, a dealer in antiques and collectibles.

Here's the setup: It's 2016, and a Jew has been elected president. And he calls his mother and says "Ma, I'm the President of the United States. Are you coming to the inauguration?" And then...

Enjoy!

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Comedy Flashback: Robert Klein Goes to the Dentist and Takes Us With Him

Robert Klein has kept us laughing for more than 40 years, and at 72 he's still going strong as a stand-up comedian and actor.

Most recently he narrated the documentary tribute to the Borscht Belt, When Comedy Went to School.

Klein's stand-up skits are still floating around the Internet, and we recently found one from 1979 where he turns a description of a trip to the dentist into a barrage of sound effects guaranteed to put us right into the dentist's chair. 

Maybe painful, but still funny.

Enjoy!

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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.

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

Holiday Satire: Jews Explain Christmas and Christians Explain Hanukkah

We're in the middle of a big holiday week, with yesterday being the eighth and last day of Chanukah, and Christmas starting and ending today. So today we're posting a pair of satire videos produced by Buzzfeed, those same folks who gave us the funny video of non-Jews trying Jewish food for the first time.

It's a matched set, Christmas Explained by Jews and Hanukkah Explained by Christians. It's all in good fun. 

We hope you're enjoying the holiday season, whichever holiday you're celebrating. It reminds us of the old joke about an EL AL plane landing in Tel Aviv in late December.

The pilot has asked all passengers to remain in their seats until the plane arrives at the gate. Just before arriving at the gate, the pilot gets on the intercom again and announces "Thank you for flying EL AL. To all the passengers who are standing in the aisles, we wish you a Happy Chanukah. To the passengers who remained in their seats, we wish you a Merry Christmas!"

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Christmas Explained by Jews



Hanukkah Explained by Christians

The Gat Brothers, Breslov Hasidim, Sing Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer"

The Gat Brothers have come a long way from jamming on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem and playing in the Mamilla Mall, and achieving high scores and fame on Israel TV's Kochav haBa (Rising Star) talent show. 

Their story and their musical expression started long before their Jerusalem street appearances. They grew up in the largely secular resort city of Eilat and became observant 17 years ago.

As Dalit Halevi and Tova Dvorin wrote in Arutz Sheva earlier this year,

Aryeh told a Toronto daily that he and his brother, prior to becoming observant, spent their days dancing and singing on the streets of Eilat. Impressed passersby took video footage of them and uploaded in onto YouTube.

The staff of The Next Star found the videos and were impressed, and the rest is history. The brothers came on stage with guitars in hand and shocked the judges with a rendition of Paul Simon's "Sounds of Silence." Instead of becoming a gimmick - an act on a music competition television show by brothers who do not own a television themselves - audiences were hooked to the brothers' heartfelt connection to their music and easygoing manner.

Aryeh stressed during the interview that participation in the program was approved by the brothers' rabbis, and there was no mission to deliver a message to the public. Rather, the two performed on the show from a desire to express themselves artistically and use their talents to make a livelihood.

We found a video clip of the Gat Brothers rehearsing their renditon of Simon and Garfunkel's hit The Boxer and thought you'd like to see them in action again.

Enjoy!

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Our Last Chanukah Video for 2014 - Ari Goldwag Sings "Chanukah Lights"

Rabbi Ari Goldwag is a prolific writer, lecturer, singer and musician who lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel. 

Just in time for Chanukah, he has released a new music video, Chanukah Lights, that puts the traditional Chanukah story of lighting the menorah in a contemporary framework. 

In this video, Ari is rushing to the airport to catch a plane home for the holiday.

When he finds that his flight and many others have been canceled, he takes to the city streets with his rolling suitcase and sees a menorah already lit. Anxious to fulfill the mitzvah of candle lighting, he wanders the streets until he sees a shop owner putting a bag full of empty Perrier bottles in a recycling container.

He quickly trades his suitcase for the bag of bottles and continues walking until he finds a street vendor selling odds and ends including plain white candles. The modern miracle? Just enough bottles to hold nine candles and candles just the right size to fit in the bottle necks.

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week - "Minister and Rabbi in Car Crash"

Even though we're in the middle of Hanukkah, it's still a Monday. And we wouldn't want to disappoint our readers who anxiously await a new joke on Mondays. We have two more Chanukah music videos to share, but we'll wait until tomorrow to post them so you joke lovers can have your weekly dose.

Once again we pick a joke from the Old Jews Telling Jokes collection. Today's joke teller is Larry Lerner, an 81-year-old retired Superior Court Judge. 

Here's the setup: Two cars are driving on a highway at 90 degree angles to each other coming to an intersection, both going 45 to 50 miles an hour. As they hit the intersection, the cars smash into each other. And then...

Enjoy!

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Mendy Pellin and the Jewbellish Crew in "Taking Off" (for Jewish Holidays) Parody of "Shake it Off"

Hasidic comedian (and rabbi) Mendy Pellin and the Jewbellish crew are in high gear for a boisterous parody of Taylor Swift's pop hit "Shake it Off." 

Just a couple of days ago we joined in the fun of posting another parody of this song by the a cappella group Six13. But this version came in after Hanukkah started and we thought you'd like to see a different take on it.

In this version, Mendy, dressed as the Loopholer Rebbe, leads his Chasidim out of the office where they work, to take the day (or week) off from work because it's a Jewish holiday.

As the Jewish online newspaper The Algemeiner reports:

Menachem Weinstein, the video’s lead singer, is the creative director at the all-boys Jewish Educational Trade School (JETS) in Los Angeles. I’m Taking Off features all JETS students, including the young boy who raps in Yiddish about fooling his boss, losing his job and  then having to work at the Jewish-owned electronics store B&H.

“We sort of want to show the world that Hassidic Jews are not those close-minded, sad, closed people,” Weinstein said. “We wanna show the world Hassidic Jews can have fun and we’re fun.”

The boss and co-workers are understandably not pleased with this display of chutzpah in taking off on a holiday on which work is permitted. While in our working days we took off our share of religious holidays like Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot, but we never took the same privilege with Purim or Chanukah.

We hope this video is only in the spirit of satire and parody and not an attempt to portray Chanukah as a holiday that demands taking off from work.

Enjoy!

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Six 13 a Cappella Group Sings "Chanukah" - "Shake It Off" Parody

We still have a few days to go before Chanukah 2014 is history, so we'll bring you a few more of the best new Chanukah videos that have shown up on the Internet. Today's song by Six13 doesn't have a unique name -- it's Chanukah, but it's a take off on Taylor Swift's popular Shake It Off.

Six13 is a six-man vocal band that brings an unprecedented style of Jewish music to the stage, with songs ranging from hip-hop dance tracks to rock anthems. The members of the New York City-based group sound like a full band – while using nothing but their voices. 

Six13 has recorded five award-winning albums, whose songs have been played all over Jewish radio and been chosen to appear on nine different “best of” compilation albums. The group has over 20,000 CDs in circulation, and are among the top Jewish music artists on iTunes. 

They have received distinctions and accolades from Jewish organizations like the National Council of Young Israel and Moment Magazine, and awards from musical organizations like the Harmony Sweepstakes and the Contemporary A Cappella Society of America. 

They have been featured on the Chabad Telethon, Fox, ABC, in the Huffington Post, Jewish Week and NY Daily News, and were chosen three years running from hundreds of groups, both Jewish and secular, as finalists in the casting process for NBC’s hit prime-time television series The Sing-Off. The group has also become a viral internet sensation, with over 1.5 million views on YouTube.

Enjoy!

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Hanukkah Traces in Unexpected Places: "A Hanukkah Wish" Sung by a Texas High School Chorus

Most of the Hanukkah music videos that we get and share with you fit into two neat categories.

Either they're musical or a cappella performances of the top five traditional songs (Maoz Tzur, Mi Yemalel, Chanukah oh Chanukah, I Have a Little Draydel, or S'vivon, Sov Sov Sov) or they're parodies of popular secular hit songs on the Billboard Top Hits list.

It's not often that we find a new warm ballad composed especially for Hanukkah. But there is a new Chanukah song that's circulating among the non-day school world of high school choral groups, even in schools where there are no or very few Jewish students. And it's not writtten in a minor key. It's just a tender heartfelt message of family and tradition. 

A Hanukkah Wish, written by Andy Beck, incorporates a contemporary setting of the traditional Hebrew “Maoz Tzur” just before a dramatic modulation to the final refrain.

This version was recorded last Thursday in the Dallas, Texas suburb of Prosper as sung by the Prosper High School Varsity Mixed Choir. We hope you enjoy it.

(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.) 
 

Naomi Less Rocks Chanukah with "Eight Lights"

Naomi Less is an internationally renowned, multi-skilled musician, facilitator and educator – who both performs and creates tailor-made trainings and educational experiences for all ages. 

In February 2013 we featured her performing a modern twist on Lecha Dodi to show that "Ain't No Mountain High Enough " to keep us from welcoming Shabbat.

Now, just in time for Chanukah, she has released a new music video called Eight Lights. As we continue our selections of the best new Chanukah videos, we wanted to share it with you.

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.)