Benji Lovitt:
A Fish Out of Water in the Holy Land
Exhibit by Ryan Sinderbrand and Adam Bloodgood
Introduction
Benji Lovitt is a comedian and educator based in Tel Aviv, Israel. Starting off as an “average Jewish kid” in Dallas, Texas, Lovitt made aliyah in 2006, after which he became a professional comedian. In his comedy, Lovitt often draws from his childhood experiences with Jewish culture, such as the limited Hebrew he learned at Jewish summer camps and his excitement when meeting members of the Tzofim Caravan. As an educator, Lovitt explores Israeli history through its humor. Through self-deprecating anecdotal vignettes, Lovitt’s standup material offers insight into his unique experience of moving to Israel as an English-speaking American.
Lovitt describes the unimportance of language learned at Jewish summer camp
Analysis of video
In this video, Lovitt performs his routine to a Jewish audience. Since the audience is Jewish, Lovitt is able to relate to them very easily through his jokes. The majority of the audience can personally connect with Lovitt’s jokes, making his comedy even more funny to them. For instance, at the beginning of the video, he says, “Graduates of Jewish summer camps clap your hands.” There is an immediate, loud reaction from the crowd, meaning that a large portion of the audience can relate to the main topic of his act.
Lovitt uses many Hebrew phrases to help make his comedy more relatable to the audience. One example of this is when he says “Shabbat Shalom” when imitating a conversation with a security guard at an Israeli airport. His argument is that Jewish summer camps only teach specific phrases like this that are not useful in everyday interactions in Israel, and uses this example to demonstrate a comedic situation where this occurs. Using certain Hebrew loanwords in Camp Hebraized English and contrasting them with Israeli Hebrew is a very effective way to make the audience feel more connected to the jokes. When he makes fun of an Israeli for comedic effect, it is really self-deprecating. He's pointing out his own lack of Hebrew skill despite his fluency in Camp Hebraized English. This proves how the topic of language is an important comedic element throughout his routines.
Analysis of comments
Since there were no comments made on this video, we looked at the comment sections of his other videos posted on youtube. One comment we found was “!בנגי בנגי בנגי,” meaning Benji Benji Benji! This is interesting as the comment is made in Hebrew, proving how Lovitt’s use of Hebrew words and phrases greatly helps him connect more directly to his audience/fans. The person who commented this may be fluent in Hebrew, and deeply appreciated his use of another language in his comedy act. If Lovitt decided to only use English, the audience may not have felt as engaged as they were.
Lovitt discusses Israel's conflict with Gaza
Analysis of video
In this video, Lovitt uses current events relating to Jews to create a comedic effect. By talking about a serious topic such as the Ayatollah of Iran, he is able to add some light to it by making humorous remarks. For instance, after saying the Ayatollah wants to flatten Tel Aviv, he says, “Go for it. If that’s what it takes to rebuild my apartment.” This shows how he is able to make fun of such serious topics by relating to the audience and putting a comedic spin on it.
Lovitt also uses words from different languages to make his comedy more relatable to the audience. For example, he says, “Let the Jihad begin.” Jihad is an Arabic word that he uses as a comedic strategy to make the audience feel more connected to what he is saying. He also says, “I would like a mirpeset.” Mirpeset is a Hebrew word for balcony, which helps the Jewish audience relate to his jokes on a higher level. He also uses the word l'horid, meaning to "flatten" Tel Aviv. This seems to be a situational code-switch in which he changes the language he speaks due to the specific Israeli setting he is in. By using words and phrases like these from different languages, it makes his comedy more engaging and understandable to the people listening.
Analysis of comments
Two comments that were made were “Your AMAZING!! I seriously laughed so hard, I almost fell out of my chair,” and “Great Video! I was legit crying.” These comments show how much the audience truly enjoyed his comedy. This is likely due in part to his use of different languages and poking fun at current events that everyone is aware of. These strategies truly made the audience appreciate his act and fully understand all of his jokes.
Respondent interview
Greg Sinderbrand’s Jewish lineage makes him an excellent candidate for our exhibit. His firsthand experience with Yiddish speakers (or understanders, in the case of his mother) has provided him with unique experiences of language contact. Greg’s interview responses offer a sample opinion of Lovitt’s comedy from within the Jewish community.
Mr. Sinderbrand believes that Lovitt’s language use in his comedy is “fairly lighthearted.” He acknowledges that the architecture of these jokes is structured to specifically appeal to fellow Jews who can relate to the cultural differences highlighted in Lovitt’s standup.
Regarding the accents used for impersonations, Greg believes that context is vital, i.e., poking fun at a group in a way that they can laugh along with, as opposed to using jokes to solidify negative stereotypes or spread hate.
Comedian interview
Can you give me a little bit of background on yourself — where you grew up, and your connection to Judaism before you moved to Israel?
To me, growing up, I was an average Jewish kid, but maybe I wasn’t. When you’re growing up in your little bubble, that’s all you know. My family wasn’t particularly religious, but they were traditional. You know, we’d go to synagogue and celebrate the holidays. I know when you’re a parent you want to do the best to raise your kid, but I feel like, looking back, I feel like much of my life experiences and who I am came from my friends and peer group. It’s, you know, the nature versus nurture thing. A lot of my Jewish identity came from my environment. I spent a year in Israel when I was 18 — remained active in the Jewish community in college —it was always a big part of my life. I guess it was just a lot of friends and Jewish summer camp and friends I met along the way.
Lovitt talks about how his childhood surroundings shaped his Jewish identity
So how did you go from summer camp Hebrew to fluent?
The truth is, Hebrew school, if you’re familiar with it, doesn't have a reputation of being high-quality learning, so my mom sent me to a private tutor to get some supplementary Jewish education, including some Hebrew. You know, I learned a few words from camp. I surely learned some, when I was there [Israel] for the year. Like they say, when you’re a bad [sports] team, it’s very easy to become a good team, but from good to championship, that’s a hard jump to make. It’s not hard to learn some, but complete fluency — which I am not at — that’s the hard part.
Lovitt explains the challenge of becoming fluent in a language
You are an educator, not just a comedian. How do you think that humor helps you bring other people into the [Israeli] community?
Comedy is a great tool to get a point across; when you make people laugh, it’s hard to hate someone that’s making you laugh. And it’s a great way to illustrate a point. If you’re watching political humor you agree with. I mean, look, if you’re watching political humor you don’t agree with you’re probably not going to care for it… But if you’re a parent and you’re watching a comedian talk about parenting or kids… comedians have an insightful way of making a point in a fun, non-threatening way. Many people say comedians are like modern-day philosophers. Comedy is like math, and many people have said it. It’s a formula — it’s a way to look at the world. Compare this to that — it’s often very philosophical. It’s a way of making everyday situations relatable or making people look at things a different way.
Most of your impersonations that I’ve seen online tend to be of Hebrew speakers. Is that mostly just a byproduct of moving to Israel?
Yeah. When I make fun of, you know… I’m either imitating Israelis or myself. I joke so much about my world, you know, the fish out of water phenomenon. If you’re an American and you move to Japan — all the Japanese are like this, and you’re like this. Borat, why is Borat funny? Because we’re comparing him to Americans. I’ve always found it interesting that in America, we often have a foreign character in comedy we make fun of. Why is Austin Powers funny? Here’s America, we suddenly get this guy, he’s not only British, but he’s from the ‘60s, or you know, transplanting into modern times. He wouldn’t be funny in Britain in the ‘60s, he’d be normal. What’s interesting is it says as much about us, like Borat. Even though we’re laughing at him, he’s also revealing a lot about us.
You were mentioning how audiences are so different in Israel and how a lot of things that bother us in here in the States don’t bother them there. Have any of your impersonations doing Hebrew or anything like that ever bothered anyone [in Israel]?
No. If there’s a crowd of ten thousand people, and one person gets offended – how could that person not look around and say, “I’m the only one in ten thousand people, what does that say about me?” I don’t know how someone wouldn’t think that.
On that note, is there ever a time when it’s not appropriate for a comedian to impersonate another type of accent or person?
Sure. Context matters. And intent. I don’t know what the joke is about. Is the joke mean-spirited? Are you impersonating a Nazi? That wouldn’t be funny, and it’s not so much about the German accent. It’s hard to make a conclusion without knowing the joke. Am I berating someone? Am I imitating an Asian person and talking about the “China virus?” It depends on what I’m saying. Is it good-natured, or is there something mean-spirited behind it? Does it involve stereotypes? It’s certainly possible, but you’d have to know the joke. You can’t say if something’s offensive or not without knowing the joke.
Implications
Most of Lovitt’s impersonations are of Hebrew-speaking Israelis. When performing for an English-speaking audience, he performs these characters — such as the El Al security guard — using “marked” English. Without context, these jokes could be read as instances of racialized othering (Chun 2004, 264). However, as Lovitt discussed in our interview, he believes context is key in a joke like this. When Lovitt performs his impersonations, he uses marked language in the context of self-deprecating anecdotes, in turn placing the other individual above himself in the punchline. While this tactful subversion is indicative of good intentions, the setup for this kind of joke relies on the audience’s ability to initially laugh at the contrasting ethnolinguistic repertoire of the character being impersonated (Benor 2016, 174). However, Lovitt’s subversion demonstrates a language ideology that places him as a monolingual English speaker at a disadvantage, often framing himself as naive and ignorant.
When we asked Lovitt if his humor has ever offended anyone, he simply said, “No.” It is worth noting that the majority of his audience is Jewish and based in Israel. Although Lovitt was born in the United States, since making aliyah in 2006, he now uses his experience as a primarily English-speaking, Hebrew-proficient immigrant to connect with his audience, whether they be from Israel or abroad. Perhaps his lack of controversy in the Jewish community can be explained on a deeper level. Throughout the diaspora, there is a long, rich Jewish tradition of grappling with antisemitism by laughing at it (Zinoman 2022, par. 4). When large waves of Jews from Eastern and Central Europe flooded into America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, they were quickly initiated into the American brand of racial humor. Confronted with the antisemitic tone of these representations, Jewish entertainers decided that they would be better at making fun of themselves than anyone else (Yue 2014, par. 2). Although Lovitt has been welcomed in the Holy Land, he is still a self-proclaimed fish out of water, and his use of self-deprecating humor continues the tradition of the American Jewish entertainers that came before him.
It has been said that Jewish humor is used as a defense mechanism (Horowitz 2017, par. 2), but this is not always the case for Lovitt. It is apparent that Lovvitt loves his Jewish culture. Lovitt demonstrates this in his work as an educator. Using his craft, Lovitt helps welcome newcomers and visitors to Israel by exploring the history of Israel through its comedy. His unique and refreshing approach to comedy offers Jewish audiences a safe space to laugh at themselves while engaging with their community.
In conclusion, our analysis helps give us a better understanding of Lovitt’s use of Hebrew in his comedy. By studying video clips of his performances in conjunction with his interview responses, we can better understand the nuances of the language ideologies and intentions embedded in his work. These findings are supported by Greg Sinderbrand’s response to Lovitt’s comedy. As a Jewish community member, Sinderbrand’s input offers us a valuable sample opinion from the inside.
Benji Lovitt’s comedy brings joy to many people in the Jewish community of Israel and beyond, and it all started at Jewish summer camp.
Bibliography
Benor, Sarah Bunin. 2016. “Jews of Color: Performing Black Jewishness through the Creative Use of Two Ethnolinguistic Repertoires.” In Raciolinguistics: How Language Shapes Our Ideas About Race. H. Samy Alim, John R. Rickford, and Arnetha F. Ball, eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 171-184. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190625696.003.0010.
Chun, Elaine W. 2004. “Ideologies of Legitimate Mockery: Margaret Cho’s Revoicings of Mock Asian.” Pragmatics, 14 (2-3), 263-289. https://uosc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01USC_INST/273cgt/cdi_proquest_miscellaneous_85613259.
Horowitz, Mark. 2017. “Why Are Jews Funny?” The New York Times, 1 Dec. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/01/books/review/jewish-comedy-serious-history-jeremy-dauber.html.
Yue, Julie, et al. 2014. “Getting to the Roots of Jewish Comedy.” The National Endowment for the Humanities, September/October. https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/septemberoctober/statement/getting-the-roots-jewish-comedy.
Zinoman, Jason. 2022. “Is It Funny for the Jews?” The New York Times, 17 Feb. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/17/arts/television/comedy-jewish-identity.html