When Jews Were Funny
Comedy
•
1h 28m
Directed by Alan Zweig • Documentary • With Shecky Green, Howie Mandel, Shelley Berman, Gilbert Gottfried, David Steinberg, David Brenner, Marc Maron • 2013 • 89 minutes
Insightful and often hilarious, When Jews Were Funny surveys the history of Jewish comedy, from the early days of Borsht belt to the present, ultimately exploring not just ethnicity in the entertainment industry, but also the entire unruly question of what it means to be Jewish.
Popular comedians from the past and present provide an abundance of surprising opinions and witty humor. Veterans of the 1940s and 50s deny that their comedy reflected anything of Jewish culture. For younger comics, their biggest influences are family members, fathers, aunts and yentas. Many bemoan the loss of Yiddish, while arguing about the quintessential Jewish joke.
Perhaps the movie's real subject isn't so much comedy but what it means to be Jewish. It's an impossible question to answer...but it's also one well worth exploring, especially in a movie as funny and heartfelt as this one.
"An entertaining and enjoyable examination of comedy, identity and what it means to be Jewish today." —Screen Daily
Up Next in Comedy
-
Never Too Late for Love
Directed by Gianni di Gregorio • Drama • With Gianni di Gregorio, Stefania Sandrelli • 2023 • 91 minutes
Italian actor-director Gianni Di Gregorio (CITIZENS OF THE WORLD, THE SALT OF LIFE) returns to filmmaking with NEVER TOO LATE FOR LOVE, a tender and lighthearted romantic comedy set against t...
-
My Fuhrer
Directed by Dani Levy • Drama • With Ulrich Mühe, Sylvester Groth • 2009 • 92 minutes
The bastard love child of Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator and Mel Brooks’ The Producers, My Führer is a wildly provocative and laugh-out-loud satire about Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich.
December 1944: ...
-
Ham on Rye
Directed by Tyler Taormina • Drama • With Haley Bodell, Audrey Boos, Danny Tamberelli • 2020 • 85 minutes
Ham on Rye, a coming-of-age comedy centered on the nervous excitement of youth and the strange horror of entering adulthood uses an expansive ensemble of over one hundred performers, includi...
