Introduction by Professor Sarah Bunin Benor

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In the fall semester of 2022, the final project in "Jewish Language in the 21st Century" focused on language in Jewish comedy. In pairs, the students were asked to contribute to our class’s online multimedia exhibit about language in Jewish comedy. The goals of the exhibit are to make people think in new ways about how language is used in comedy and to raise awareness about the diversity of contemporary Jews and Jewish languages. The exhibit addresses how comedians learned particular languages and accents and how comedians and audiences determine when language imitation is acceptable vs. offensive.

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The assignment

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Select a comedian who does standup comedy, sketch comedy, or comedic music videos. The comedian should use language in diverse ways, such as code switching for different characters or performances, using loanwords, and doing accents to imitate other types of Jews. You will analyze two of their videos and the comments under those videos, interview the comedian about their language use, and interview a Jewish American about the videos. You will then write up and arrange this research on a webpage as part of our class exhibit.

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The students did a fantastic job. Click on the name or image of a comedian above to see video clips of them performing and being interviewed, as well as the students' analysis of their comedy and experiences and others' reactions.

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Diversity

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The comedians we selected represent some of the diversity of North American Jews today. They include:

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• a Hasid who incorporates Hasidic Yiddish into his song parodies

• an American-born comedian with Iranian, African American, Egyptian, and Mizrahi Jewish heritage who speaks fluent Farsi

• a secular Canadian who performs in Yiddish

• a lesbian who imitates her New York Jewish mother

• an American immigrant to Israel who pokes fun at his Hebrew learning

• a Black woman who converted to Judaism and imitates her Jewish relatives

• an Ashkenazi man who imitates many accents

• and an Israeli-American man who highlights differences between Ashkenazim and Sephardim.

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Special thanks to these talented comedians for taking time out of their busy schedules to help the students with their assignment.

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Themes

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Several themes emerged from the interviews with comedians and respondents and the students' analysis of comedy videos and viewers' comments.

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Language use: English with elements of other languages

The comedians use elements of several languages that reflect their diverse backgrounds and experiences, including Israeli Hebrew, Liturgical Hebrew, Hasidic Yiddish, Secular Yiddish, and Farsi. The words, accents, grammatical features, and full sentences they selected from these languages reflect some of the diverse Jewish American ethnolinguistic repertoire - the features that Jews in North America use within their English that distinguish them from their non-Jewish neighbors and from each other. Much of this language use is conscious, especially the loanwords and full sentences from other languages. However, the comedians did not go into detail about the linguistic features they change when imitating others' phonology and intonation, demonstrating that these features are less salient. Even so, the students analyze features like post-vocalic /r/ deletion, backed vowels, and sing-song intonation, as they are central to the comedians' imitations.

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Language ideologies

Another focus of the students' analysis is "language ideologies," which refers to individuals' views about how language is and should be used by different types of people, especially their associations and evaluations of particular ways of speaking. Comedians' decisions to highlight particular linguistic features in imitations demonstrate their ideologies that certain groups - New York Jews, Israelis, Sephardim, etc. - speak in certain ways. And their framing of these imitations highlights their associations with these ways of speaking, such as familiar, shady, or deliberate. This reflects not only the comedians' views but also their expectations of their audiences' views. If jokes didn't tap into common language ideologies, especially links between certain linguistic features and certain types of people, they would not be funny. At the same time, jokes help to perpetuate language ideologies.

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Comedy as education

As Benji Lovitt said, "Comedians are like modern-day philosophers." They break down concepts and make people view the world in new ways, which leads to new conversations. Several of the comedians the students interviewed highlighted their role as educators. They squash stereotypes by highlighting features of groups that audiences were not previously familiar with, perhaps contributing to the formation of new language ideologies. They make audiences aware of new dimensions of diversity, including groups and the cultural practices associated with them, including language. For example, Modi's audience gains new understanding of the recitation of Hebrew blessings by Sephardim and Ashkenazim.

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Different audiences will get different jokes

In general, the comedians tailored their language use to particular audiences. Some translated or explained non-English words that non-Jewish audience members would not understand. They left some Yiddish-origin words untranslated, such as "shlep" (travel a long distance) and "tchotchke" (trinket) as these are commonly understood by non-Jewish Americans. However, they also left some less common words untranslated, such as "prutsa" (Hebrew for "prostitute"), "am echad" (Hebrew for "one nation"), and "geshribn" (Yiddish for "written"). And some even used full sentences in another language, such as Modi's Hebrew blessings and Mendy Pellin's Hasidic Yiddish rap. The comedians felt that these words and excerpts added flavor to their comedy and that the audience not knowing them would not affect their broader comprehension of the jokes. This leads to multiple layers of understanding. Audience members who know all of the words used will understand the routine at a deeper level than those who do not. For example, someone who knows the Yiddish word "tzimmes" will understand that Modi's line "Hoige bas Tzimmes" was a parody, rather than another name in his list of Ashkenazi names. Similarly, in YidLife Crisis' videos, Yiddish speakers will laugh at certain points because of incongruencies between the Yiddish dialogue and the English subtitles - jokes the creators inserted intentionally.

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Funny or offensive?

Uniformly, the comedians felt that their comedy was funny and not offensive. Not one had ill intent. Even when they were imitating particular groups or individuals, they never intended to mock them, only to highlight difference in ways the audience would find funny. Some pointed out that there is a fine line between acceptable and offensive because shock value is an important part of comedy. As one comedian said, "If you're offended, that's your problem." Indeed, most of the respondents the students interviewed - Jewish Americans of diverse backgrounds from college age to grandparent age - agreed that the comedy clips they were shown were funny and not offensive. They pointed to the importance of group membership: if the comedian was a member of a group or adjacent to it because of family relationships, it is acceptable to imitate marked accents. For example, both Elon Gold and Judy Gold (no relation) imitated their New York Ashkenazi parents and Tehran Von Ghasri imitated his Persian father, and nobody found those portrayals offensive. Both Golds, as well as Sunda Croonquist and Benji Lovitt, also imitated Israelis. Nobody expressed concern about these portrayals, as Israelis are not seen as a minoritized group. Some YouTube commenters criticized some of the comedy as not funny, but few took offense at the accent imitations. Only one of the respondents the students interviewed felt offended by some of the imitations. Overall, the comedy was seen as funny and enriching. A takeaway message is that comedians are among the most perceptive observers and linguistically talented people.

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