Thirteen comedians reflect on the power and perils of self-deprecation in the age of Trump.
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Politicians and people on Twitter arecurrently debatingthe use of the term concentration camps, while Jews roll their eyes.
Havent we been talking about the Holocaust in questionable tastesincethe Holocaust?
Jews have always been the first to poke fun at our bleak history.
So who better to make a Jew joke than an actual Jew?
I love being Jewish my grandparents came from Russia.
Theres a connection and theres so much history to it.
Im fascinated by it.
So its a funny sort of balance I have with it, and an interesting dance.
I have a visceral reaction to it; I cant stand it.
If you cant break free, then youre not changing the narrative.
And you gotta be able to look at yourself and call yourself out.
We have to be on the right side of prejudice and racism.
When kids are being locked up at the border, the Jews should be the first people screaming!
How can you do this?
You gotta shout.
If youre a Jew, you gotta shout this shit down.
At worst, its damaging to the discourse.
So Im very careful not to let the audience off the hook by playing into these stereotypes.
Im talking about the Holocaust onstage, you know?
Youre not going to fucking tell me what to do.
But its important for it to come from the right place.
It takes 15 to 20 years to know what the fuck youre doing up there.
Youre saying, Im this kind of Jew.No youre not; you havent lived your life yet!
And you have a responsibility.
Are they laughing for the right reason?
I do a bit about buying gifts for my mother when she was old.
So Ive never eaten it.
So its a way of getting to something more than My mother is so critical.
My parents didnt buy a Ford or a German car!
It was constant boycotting!
Thats my point of view.
I would go, Yeah, I dont want to go on a train.
Im not going on that train!
Its going to Baltimore?
But it was something to think about.
This is a true story.
I can see him going twice.
And Im conscious of the fact that it could be gratuitous.
When I was a kid, people would joke about Jews being made into lampshades.
Theres nothing funny about that to me, so I cant joke about that.
it’s possible for you to see how it could be misused.
Ive always been concerned about hack comedy and not being a hack.
But I cant stop.
That experience of the Jewish writer being upset was such a good thing to happen to me.
I could see it from his point of view.
He didnt want Jews to be shown as being weak.
But I always think about it.
Thats how I see it.
I think thats always going to be dangerous.
Liza Treyger
When youre a young comic, everyone is guilty of being so bad.
If youre doing anything thats been done 100 times, its bad.
You gotta stop doing it.
A lot of comics are like, PC culture!
Thats why theyre not laughing.
I think it applies to this.
A lot of times if youre self-deprecating in any way, you have to be fully okay with it.
Im sure its uncomfortable to see someone do anything that isnt coming from an empowering, fun place.
I just assume no one likes me.
Theres a theory where whatever youre the minority of is what youre going to cling to more.
When I went to Iowa State, there were so few Jews that I really identified with being Jewish.
I was the first Jew theyd ever met.
And I was like, No, Im a fucking Jew.
There are so many more men in comedy, so my femininity becomes my identifier.
Do I feel weird when Im in small towns?
What trigger me right away are Republicans.
I dont want to be around Republicans.
I dont know, but I dont like it.
Sarah Squirm
I think I come across as an abrasive, loud Jewish woman.
Its like sandpaper to peoples ears.
What is this mutant with an aggressively horrible affectation?Its kind of a brutal Jewness.
It does reinforce a lot of stereotypes, which is what is interesting and fun for me.
Its exploding the stereotype.
Im not just presenting it as is.
Im mutilating it and mangling it until it almost doesnt exist anymore.
Its like:Why does this even matter?
Why is there hate or discomfort?Its using the absurd to take apart the reasons why we care.
There is so much violence with being brought up Jewish.
Since I was 6 years old, I was sent to Jewish after-school programs.
We watched Holocaust videos from day one.
And I think thats always been a part of me.
[What I do is] reclaim it: Take the body horror and own it.
Do whatever you want with it.
It was a funny way of addressing all these things that stand-up is naturally about.
[Now] it has taken on a different feeling.
She doesnt want to do that.
It just doesnt feel the same.
Its not this funny little shorthand.
And it bums audiences out to be hard on yourself right now.
The last two or three years have been eye-opening in a lot of ways.
It became this scary experience for me as a kid.
The lights came on and it was like,What?
Marcia Belsky
Fiddler on the Roofis dark humor.
Thats why I feel like there are so many Jews who do comedy.
We accept that darkness.
When I see another Jew doing the dark stuff, I like it.
All of us had the Holocaust drilled into our heads as kids.
So I dont really think,Am I making offensive jokes?Because Jews make the most offensive jokes.
Nobody hates Jews more than Jews.
And thats how it is.
But I actually hate when Jews do the self-deprecating negative Jewish stereotypes for the sake of a laugh.
I attempt to buck Jewish stereotypes with my jokes.
Listen, my name is Noah Gardenswartz; Im very Jewish.
But Im also six-foot-four, 230 pounds, and I have a deep voice.
What I look like onstage never matches the audiences stereotypical idea of what a Jew is anyway.
When I was 21, I was the only person I knew with a Roth IRA.
Sometimes people get touchy with Holocaust jokes.
The people that called me out for Jew jokes are not Jewish.
Theyre like, How dare you, you anti-Semite!
And Im like, How dare you tell me that I cant make a joke about my own people?
Mel Brooks already did it, and it was perfect.
Anything else is imitation Mel Brooks, or worse: Jackie Mason.
That was the first stand-up show I ever saw: Jackie Mason.
My biggest comedy inspirations are all Jews, or mostly Jews.
Jessica Kirson
Jewish crowds are my favorite crowds, by far.
We laugh at ourselves humor is so connected to who we are.
We have to laugh.
Weve learned to laugh in our community.
To laugh at pain.
And its always fun for me.
I feel like Im at home.
I do characters, and people love the Jewish characters.
I do it in a way where even if I say, Are there no Jewish people here?
and people say yes, I can be like, Let me teach you a couple things about us.
I do it in a way where Im educating them, like theyre dumb and they dont know anything.
I do it in a way where Im very proud of it.
Sometimes Ill say to a black person, Its okay, they hate us too.
They just need our money; its a little different.
Judaism is most powerful when youre younger.
What resonates with me is looking up stories about the golem.
Im like,No, no, thats not true, but I do actually have horns.
That makes me feel powerful.
The annoying and neurotic Jew stereotype has been normalized throughSeinfeldandCurb Your Enthusiasm, but those creators have been secular.
The characters are not representative of Jews theyre representative of Jewswho are on those shows.
Im neurotic, it can very quickly turn the fork in the road to all the bad stereotypes.
Its frustrating that were celebrated in this very singular light and painted into that corner at the same time.
I pride myself on being a strong Jewish person, and thats not something you see all the time.
A lot of Jews grow up secular.
Not necessarily that they have to have a religious experience, but it is more of a cultural experience.
But now, with anti-Semitism, theyre having to face it more.
And if anything, Ive leaned into it.
I certainly dont have to besinging Shalom Aleichem onstage when I come out thats wild.
But Im just like,Fuck it.
Were going to be louder.
Im not going to be silenced again.
You cant help but compare history.
And I look at the Nazis then, and I look at them now.
And the Nazis have gotten much worse.
The ones were dealing with now, I mean, theyre virgins, its safe to assume.
Theyre in these khakis.
The Naziswerein Hugo Boss tailored suits; this was a classy fucking affair.
These guys in Charlottesville have wrinkled haircuts and terrible polos.
Some of them have Ralph Lauren polos, which means they dont even know how to boycott properly.
Thank you for supporting a Jewish designer, born Ralph Lifshitz, you fucking moron.
Were in a different power position now too.
Im excited for the next Holocaust.
You want a fight?
Youre going to get one now.
Because were not the meek little Jews we were in Poland anymore.
We got a little bit of kesef, we have our voice now, and were ready to go.
