Shticky Situation

Is Jewish humor dead? By most measures, we dominate the world of American comedy as much as we ever have. Turn on the TV and you're likely to see a Jew telling jokes on Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, Friends, Will & Grace and on reruns of The Larry Sanders Show, Seinfeld, Mad About You, and The Nanny. Jeffrey Ross, a young comic who has been called "the new face of the Friars Club," performed last New Year's Eve on MTV's Pajama Party, using the same routine that he did on Christmas Eve in front of an all-Jewish crowd. "Today," says Ross, "this kind of stuff works for everybody. It's universal." More than ever, the humor of Jews is playing just as strongly to the Nielsens as it is to the Nussbaums.

But to what degree are Jewish humorists today doing what one would call Jewish comedy? Much of our thinking about Jewish humor comes from Freud, who claimed that what made a joke a Jewish joke was self-deprecation. Jews were outsiders who, anticipating attack, launched preemptive strikes against themselves in an effort to feel an increased sense of power. Many have drawn the unwarranted conclusion from Freud's observations that Jewish humor is nothing more than humor of the dispossessed—the kind of wisecracking that comes from being outside looking in. While Freud may have overstated his case, Jewish humor certainly has always been intimately connected with outsider status. But these jokes don't seem to work now that we're by and large on the inside. "The time is at hand when the wearing of prayer shawl and skullcap will not bar a man from the White House," begins an old gag. "Unless, of course, the man is Jewish." It's been a long time since this joke was funny, and with Joe Lieberman a serious contender for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, it no longer even makes sense. Once the hurdles of history are removed, what’s so funny about being Jewish?

The most popular of our current jesters—Adam Sandler, Jerry Seinfeld, and Ben Stiller—are not outsiders. Sure, they deliver classic one-liners and aren't afraid to take a pratfall, but they all play quintessential insiders at ease in their surroundings. These are men who fit in, guys who always get the girl. They play vaguely Jewish characters that are not nerdy, aren't especially nebbishy, and are certainly not outcasts. We don't laugh at them. We laugh with them.