Categories
Humor Jewish

Jewish Humor

Poking fun of religious groups through stereotypes can be very funny. Sometimes it can be very not-funny.

Last night I saw the Second City show “Jewsical the Musical” in Novi, Michigan (outside of Detroit). Jewsical claims to be a “hilarious blend of classic Second City sketches and songs, along with new material all providing an irreverent and comic look at Jewish life and culture, certain to resonate with audiences young and old. Scenes include a peek at the first Kosher Thai fusion restaurant; a visit to the video rental store that turns into a diatribe on Hollywood’s famous anti-Semites; and an ode to J-date.”

Admittedly I only some some of these sketches and songs as I felt compelled to leave the theater early. None of the material — trite Jewish stereotypes and cliches — was offensive; just not funny. The acts were amateurish and the schtick got very old very quickly. The only skit that was remotely funny was the J-Date parody (Webmaster, webmaster make me a match to the tune of “Matchmaker, Matchmaker” from “Fiddler on the Roof”).

Suffering through the first half of the production, I couldn’t help but contrast this show to Jewtopia which I saw on Broadway a year-and-a-half ago. Jewtopia successfully pokes fun at Jewish sterotypes without being trite. It comes off as a fresh form of laughing at oneself for the Jews in the audience and a way for the non-Jews to laugh as well without feeing self-conscience. Jewsical seems overly staged and the jokes forced.

Jon Stewart was able to poke fun at the pandering Presidential candidates who all spoke at AIPAC using just about every Jewish stereotype in the book without his jokes coming off as forced as the humor in Jewsical. Here’s the video clip of Stewart from “The Daily Show”.

Categories
Humor

Crib Talkers

My 2-year-old twins Jonah and Talya Miller were supposed to take a nap one afternoon. After I put them in their cribs, instead of falling asleep they started talking to each other. I wondered what the conversation was about so I hid a video camera in their room. Funny stuff!

digg this

(c) Rabbi Jason Miller | http://blog.rabbijason.com | Twitter: @RabbiJason | facebook.com/rabbijasonmiller
Categories
Holidays Humor Jewish

Seder Sidekick

The guys at Bangitout.com (Seth and Isaac Galena) have published a Passover Seder Sidekick. It is 46 pages, contains many song parodies, and is available online at the Bangitout website.

One of my favorite Passover related videos on YouTube is an instructional video in Japanese teaching how to cut a matzah perfectly in half. Check it out:

Of course, there’s also the creative JibJab “Matzah” video created by Smooth-E (Eric Schwartz). And I would be remiss if I didn’t recommend the cute video of Rabbi Paul Freedman and his wife Nina rapping from their Jerusalem apartment about Passover to the tune of Snoop Dogg’s “Gin ‘n Juice”.

Wishing everyone a chag sameach – a joyous Passover holiday!

(c) Rabbi Jason Miller | http://blog.rabbijason.com | Twitter: @RabbiJason | facebook.com/rabbijasonmiller
Categories
Christianity Holidays Humor Jewish

Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee - Jewish CommunityMany Jews have made it a family tradition to eat Chinese food on Christmas. Of course, this is the case because there aren’t any other restaurants open on Christmas except for Chinese and Japanese restaurants. Well, according to the JTA Blog it turns out that presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee shares this Christmas tradition with the Jews. And this might just be the only tradition that Huckabee shares with Jewish people. JTA picked up on the story from the end of a MSNBC report about Huckabee and religion:

“The only thing that I know that for sure we’re going to do that we have always done is we’ll go to our church Christmas Eve service,” Huckabee said. “It’s a huge community-wide celebration, and we do that every year. And then we have an unusual tradition that after the Christmas Eve service we go out and eat Chinese food. Don’t ask me why.”

Asked if the tradition is intended to help him better relate to the Jewish community, Huckabee said, “No, it’s Chinese food.”

He was unaware of the Jewish Christmas tradition.

Well, if you were also unaware of this widespread Jewish Christmas tradition, you should check out Brandon Harris Walker’s hillarious music video “Chinese Food on Christmas” (below).

(c) Rabbi Jason Miller | http://blog.rabbijason.com | Twitter: @RabbiJason | facebook.com/rabbijasonmiller
Categories
Antisemitism Humor Jewish Kosher

Hanukkah Ham

Ham for HanukkahEveryone is talking about the faux pas at Balducci’s, the “food lover’s market” in New York City. Last week, blogger Nancy Kay Shapiro saw that Balducci’s had labeled its hams with pricing signs advertising “Delicious for Chanukah” and returned the next day with her camera in hand. Just about every newspaper in the country picked up the story leading the Greenwich Village gourmet food store to issue an apology on its website.

Personally, I think this is a forgivable error by a store employee who didn’t know better and not an offensive act toward the Jewish people during Hanukkah as some are labeling it. I can’t imagine any Jews were actually misled by this erroneous signage and ate treif on Hanukkah as a result.

In fact, I’m sure erroneous labeling like this happens quite often and religious groups should laugh about it rather than taking offense. Here are some of my examples:

Easter Knish by Rabbi Jason MillerNothing says Easter like a hot Knish!

Ramadan Bagel Lox and Shmear Basket by Rabbi Jason MillerRamadan: It’s all about the lox and shmear!

Mormon Booze by Rabbi Jason MillerCelebrate the Sabbath with a bottle of vodka for your favorite Mormon!

(c) Rabbi Jason Miller | http://blog.rabbijason.com | Twitter: @RabbiJason | facebook.com/rabbijasonmiller
Categories
Humor Jewish Movies

Jewish Movie Spoofs

I recently created two Jewish movie posters that spoof actual movies. Both are now on the Bangitout.com website. They spoof the movies “Friday Night Lights” and “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story”. In less than one day each of these has been viewed over 25 times. The RoboCop spoof (“RabbiCop”) I made for Bangitout.com less than a year ago is close to reaching 1,000 views.

Friday Night Lights Rabbi Cop - RoboCop
(c) Rabbi Jason Miller | http://blog.rabbijason.com | Twitter: @RabbiJason | facebook.com/rabbijasonmiller
Categories
Holidays Humor

Macca-Bee Movie

Great movie parody poster at Bangitout.com

(c) Rabbi Jason Miller | http://blog.rabbijason.com | Twitter: @RabbiJason | facebook.com/rabbijasonmiller
Categories
Humor Jewish

The LED Kippah

I just saw that there is now an LED Kippah (yarmulke) that you can buy on the Web. (Update: the website is no longer operational so perhaps it wasn’t a successful idea)

Light Up Kippah - LED Kippah Yarmulke

You can program your own scrolling message. Perhaps donors will contribute money to the congregation for their name to scroll down the rabbi’s kippah?

Think of all the messages I could display on my kippah during services:

  1. Today’s Kiddush sponsored by the Goldberg family
  2. Please keep side conversations to a minimum
  3. Turn off cellphones please
  4. In memory of [yahrzeit name here]
  5. Please don’t be offended by anything said in my sermon
  6. How’s my preaching? Call 800-2-KVETCH
  7. My other head covering’s a Detroit Tigers hat
  8. CNBC Stock Ticker
  9. This LED message was not programmed on Shabbat or Yom Tov
  10. News Headlines crawler from JTA.org
Light Up Kippah - LED Kippah Yarmulke
Screenshot from the L.E.D. Kippah Website
Categories
Humor Passover

Google Chametz Search

A tip of the hat to the guys at bangitout.com for this new Chometz Search engine.Google Chometz Search

(c) Rabbi Jason Miller | http://blog.rabbijason.com | Twitter: @RabbiJason | facebook.com/rabbijasonmiller
Categories
Humor Technology

Google’s April Fools Joke

Google spent some time with their April Fool’s joke this year. They announced a free broadband high-speed internet service available to anyone. Read a little further and you see it connects through your toilet and that TiSP stands Toilet Internet Service Provider.

TiSP: Going with the flow

TiSP Kit

Google TiSP (BETA) is a fully functional, end-to-end system that provides in-home wireless access by connecting your commode-based TiSP wireless router to one of thousands of TiSP Access Nodes via fiber-optic cable strung through your local municipal sewage lines.
(c) Rabbi Jason Miller | http://blog.rabbijason.com | Twitter: @RabbiJason | facebook.com/rabbijasonmiller