Elon Gold:
Judaism, Accents, and Tikkun Olam
Exhibit by Jae Sung Park and Tiger Xie
Introduction
Elon Gold, the middle child of three brothers, grew up in the Bronx, a borough of New York City. He went to Jewish grade school and high school and completed his Bachelor's degree at Boston University. Throughout his life, he has kept practicing Jewish rituals and traditions such as kashrut and Shabbat, which he learned from his parents since he was born. Elon doesn’t speak any Jewish language except knowing a few Yiddish words which he got to know when his parents, who speak Yiddish fluently, scolded him. Elon is an incredibly gifted comedian who has become a household name through his focus on Jewish humor and language accents. His comedy skits are based on poking fun at Judaism, impersonating Israelis, and perfecting language accents from different parts of the world. For instance, his Russian, English, French, and Israeli impersonations are great. Gold notes that people from different languages have a weird relationship with one letter in the English language. For instance, the English tend to over- or under-enunciate the letter ‘t,’ the Russians add the letter ‘y,’ and the Israelis add the letter ‘m’ to every word. This can be seen in the three videos of Elon Gold that have been selected for analysis in this paper. The whole process of comedy is feedback. When audiences don’t laugh, you might reword or rephrase for the next show.
Although some young Jews are hesitant to use distinctive Jewish language among broad audiences, Gold identifies himself explicitly as a Jew because of his frequent involvement in Jewish tradition, in which he learned numerous invaluable lessons and philosophies of living a Jewish life. For example, he said that the whole purpose of being Jewish is to help and heal others. In terms of comedy, the purpose and goal of comedy is to coexist, be tolerant, and be inclusive of other people and races. We are touched by his perspectives on Judaism, which includes Jews helping to heal the unfinished world by God. Indeed, distinctive Jewish features like being forbidden to eat double bacon cheeseburgers strengthen his bond with the Jewish society, just like eating rice and noodles make us identify with our home countries. These values resonate with us, and we can’t agree with him more.
Elon Gold emulates the accents of different nations and notes similarities and differences
Analysis of video
In Elon Gold’s video “Elon Gold Stand up Comedy Accents and Languages,” he imitates a multitude of accents from different nationalities with an element of exaggeration of distinguishing factors of the accent for comedic effect. The opening of the comedic act starts off with the English accent, where he notes the varying phonetic usage of the letter “t”. Elon notes the lack of pronunciation of the “t” in the accent such as when the British people say “letter,” which is a glottal stop at the letter “t’s.” Through this, Elon contrasts British glottalization with American flapping. To demonstrate the characteristics of the British accent, he does emphasize the syllables through the slow repetition of certain words, creating not only a comedic effect but an effective replication. The Russian accent is also emulated and is distinguished in a way where the letter “y” is pronounced frequently, which Elon demonstrates by exclaiming, “Dis traffyic is unbelievyable!” By over-exaggerating the distinguishing characteristics of the accent, he is able to not only provide an uncanny resemblance to the actual accent but also procure laughter.
Another method that is employed to humorously portray accents is by comparing them to actions. For instance, Elon notes that the French accent is comparable to that of an annoyed individual and demonstrates this by speaking with a tone of annoyance coupled with his version of the accent, which produces a humorous, yet accurate imitation. In another instance, Elon Gold compares Spanish accents to that of speaking in a “sexy” manner, which he does by noting that he will make love with “all the women in the room… and two of the men.”
As the comedy act progresses, Elon Gold continues to poke fun at languages such as Russian, which he compares to that of speaking English backward. Through his mockery of the language, he accurately imitates what the language would sound like, which the audience recognizes and laughs at. He also disagrees with the common notion that Japanese is an attractive language to listen to, as he rebuts it by yelling Japanese words, imitating what Japanese cooks shout to customers. This routine exposes language ideologies surrounding several languages, such as perceptions of Japanese as aggressive.
Analysis of comments
One of the comments noted that “Is Australia and R going to get a mention? It goes missing at the end of words with an R but turns up after words that end in vowels. Pamela Anderson.” This demonstrates that varieties of languages often omit certain sounds, not only the British accent that Gold imitated. Another comment, by aztrek traps, states, “Another one mistaking Japan and Korean accent,” which expresses disapproval by the user. This reveals how comedy can be controversial as the imitation of accents done incorrectly can be deemed offensive as is the case with this user.
Despite these comments, Elon has received a lot of praise for the accents that he imitated perfectly, as one such comment by Marwar states, “His imitation of the Russian language is GOLD! Elon GOLD! Lol.” This demonstrates that accurate portrayal of accents does produce a positive audience reaction. This points to the notion that the line of offense is crossed when there is an inaccurate imitation.
Elon Gold explains his reverence for the Israeli community and also pokes fun at their distinguishing features.
Analysis of video
In Elon Gold’s video “Elon Gold on Israelis,” he notes the distinguishing characteristics of the Israelis. In fact, he begins with their mannerisms and tone: “they are always upbeat but sound annoyed.” To provide an example, he replicates their accent by speaking in an “annoyed” manner where certain syllables are heightened in pitch. This replication is what provides the humor. In fact, the facial expressions of the Israeli when they are talking are noted as “eyebrows furrowing,” which contributes to Gold’s claim that Israelis talk like they are annoyed and yields a confusing interpretation of their tones. Another distinguishing aspect of Israeli speech includes how statements are often followed by a “no?” Gold provides the example by stating, “You know, you did a very funny show. No?” while emulating the Israeli tone and accent for a comedic, yet accurate, portrayal. Repetition is also mentioned to be a notable factor in Israeli speech: “Elon, Elon, Elon, Elon, Elon, listen to me. Listen to me. Listen to me.” He says this in a sped-up and aggressive manner, which perfectly imitates their speech, also providing a comedic effect for the audience.
To further add to his list of generalized characteristics of the Israelis, he notes that Israeli women talk similarly to Arnold Schwarznegger, which he displays by talking like Arnold, providing even more ingenious comedic effect for his audience. Another notable characteristic of Israeli men is that they have a feminine twist when pronouncing the “s”. To provide even more comedic effect, he talks in a female voice when he says, “I don’t want thisssss” to emulate the feminine “s” that he talks about.
Analysis of comments
The comments below “Elon Gold on Israelis” are very consistent in that they all think Elon Gold’s emulation of Israelis’ characteristics is accurate. For example, one of the comments stated, “As a Canadian living in Israel for the last 18 years. He has it spot on! I am exhausted from holding a conversation with them. Since when does every sentence need an explanation with LAMA? And does Shalom have so many syllables? Sha a a loooom! And yes they do not know what to do with the S at the end of their word. As an English teacher for adults...so true!” This demonstrates that even though Gold doesn’t speak any Jewish language proficiently, he did preparation necessary to pronounce these “foreign language words” correctly. He even received recognition from native Israelis, who claim, “As an Israeli, I can confirm the accent is on point.” and “Lived in Israel for 30+ years. Kids grew up there. My daughter still has the lispy "S"!” Their comments testify that Mr. Gold is truly a talented comedian that is able to expertly imitate languages and accents.
Elon Gold: A Commercial for Judaism
Analysis of video
In Elon Gold’s premier of his standup comedy act “A Commercial For Judaism,” he projects several aspects of the Jewish experience in the creative way of “commercializing,” infused with humorous tactics. Elon first claims that Judaism is “the only religion that doesn’t try to recruit new members,” which he expands upon by explaining how there are a variety of restrictions that must be adhered to which do not align with common desires of society. For instance, Jews must refrain from “eating three of the most delicious foods in the world.” This includes bacon, cheeseburgers, and bacon double cheeseburgers - common delicacies that would serve as an inconvenience to restrict, further detracting from the appeal of conforming to Judaism. In addition, Elon Gold mentions fast days, where one must restrict food intake completely for a certain period of time for religious purposes, to further downplay the appeal of the religion. Not only was religion mentioned as a reason why Elon Gold believed that being a Jew wasn’t particularly desirable, but so were the persecution and stereotypes that they endure. In fact, he mentions the scapegoating and persecution, alluding to the Holocaust initiated by Adolf Hitler, which had resulted in the atrocious deaths of approximately six million Jews. Elon Gold also introduces a modern stereotype of Jews being in control of the media, which he cleverly contradicts with his situation of being a poor comedian desperately competing with others to achieve fame. This use of comparison was delivered in such a way that not only generated laughs from the audience but conveyed the point effectively that this stereotype was merely purported by society.
In Elon Gold’s efforts to demonstrate the hardships that Jews experience, he expresses his envy of wanting to be African American. By referencing how modern white culture also desires to emulate African American culture through the way people text, dress, and talk, he validates his claim as to why being black would be desirable. In fact, Elon provides the example of texting “Yo! Whaddup!” which emulates African American speech, when in reality, is inconsistent with the way he speaks. Elon also provides another instance to support his claim by mentioning how his seventy-year-old father also emulates black speech through text: "Sup son." Elon cleverly mentions how “he talks like an old Jew but texts like he has a three-teardrop tattoo.” This clever rhyme not only effectively delivers his support for this claim but also provides a comedic rhyme. To contrast this, he mentions how his father would talk in a way that does not sound desirable the same way black speech does, such as by using rising intonation and a New York Jewish accent (post-vocalic r-deletion) in "Hello? How are you? It's a pleasure to meet you?"
Analysis of comments
In this video, we see the first and top-liked comment by Avinash Singh, “This is why Jewish humor is perfection.” The commenter applauds Elon Gold for revealing aspects of Jewish culture in a humorous way. However, this comment is corrected by a user by the name of boliussa who stated, “not sure that there is a ‘Jewish humor’, but it’s more an intelligent comedian that is Jewish rather than Jewish humor. There are some very good Jewish comedians, Jackie Mason too.” From this reply, we see this correction where the replier makes the claim that it is not the Jewish aspect that is funny, but rather the comedian himself.
Another commenter, Juddy Vovk, states, “Never disappoints me in getting me to laugh my favorite making comedy but not mocking Judaism.” This statement outlines how Elon Gold expertly incorporates humor into his portrayal of the Jewish culture without offensive remarks. In comedy, the comedian must be cautious to not cross the fine line between mockery and entertainment, which Judy Vovk observes within Elon Gold’s performance.
Respondent interview
The respondent we interviewed is Alex, a Reform Jew who works in a Jewish museum in Virginia and earned a Ph.D. degree. He provides some perspectives on the three videos on Elon Gold. He claimed that he hated the first one (“Elon Gold Stand up Comedy Accents and Languages”) because he was performing to general audiences who have different backgrounds, understanding, and experience with Jewish culture. In this case, he said that Elon is taking a stereotype of Jewish culture, the imitation of Israelis, and spreading it to the audiences. It’s the same situation as how an American who doesn’t have much background in Asian culture would feel about Asian stereotypes; it’s just weird. He said, “If this is entirely for the Jewish audiences, they will have no problem understanding the funny point he is making,” but he does not know "if the person sitting next to me who comes from the midwest will have a clue what he’s talking about.” He didn’t categorize the video as offensive, but just not able to grab the message that Elon Gold is trying to convey. Nevertheless, he praises Elon for having a clever accent in emulating Hebrew in the video “Elon Gold Stand up Comedy Accent and Languages.” He feels it is totally acceptable to imitate a Hebrew accent as long as it doesn’t get too personal or critique a culture that the comedian does not feel confidently acquainted with.
Lastly, his thought on the prospect of the Jewish languages is clear: Yiddish will eventually go extinct while Hebrew will thrive. In Europe, only Jews who are extremely orthodox and have the intention to preserve the culture use Yiddish as a daily communication and vernacular language as this gives them a sense of belonging to the community and connection with the language of their ancestors. Nevertheless, this group couldn’t change the overall trend since their influence and scale are small relative to the whole Jewish society. Hebrew, on the other hand, will certainly continue to act as a crucial role in Jewish studying. It is not only the language of Israel, but it is also being incorporated into pedagogical materials, especially in America. Therefore, the inheritance of Hebrew will keep on because there are multiple ways to retain the language and its constantly active status in modern society.
Comedian interview
Tiger Xie: ... Especially there's the one you walk down the street and never get a second look. And the fact that you didn't wear a ring like you're waiting for your soulmate.
Elon Gold: If I wear a ring, I'm not going to find my soulmate.
Tiger Xie: Is that true?
Elon Gold: No, that's a joke. I have my soulmate. I got very lucky. I found her at sixteen, and we're married for twenty-nine years, almost.
Jae: Wow, that's pretty rare to find.
Elon Gold: Okay. So Jae What about you? What bits did you like?
Jae: I like when you talked about Jews texting in a gangster way.
Elon Gold: Everybody texts gangster. Everybody texts “yo what up”. It's so funny, and it's what everyone wants to be. But it's true. Well, we emulate Black people in many ways, because they're rich in their culture, and they have so much to emulate. They're so diversely talented from music to athletics, and to be great doctors. I admire Black people. I grew up in the Bronx. You got to admire them. That's why it bothers me so much that there's so much strife right now between the Black and Jewish communities, all because of Kanye crazy. But the truth is Blacks and Jews have always bonded together, and we should and always will, hopefully.
Tiger Xe: ... Could you introduce yourself about your background, your educational background, or is there any Jewish language you speak?
Elon Gold: Sure. My name is Elon Musk. No- he's the Elon with the money. I'm the Elon with the funny. Elon Gold from the Bronx. I have two great parents who were teachers. A couple of inner-city schools in the South Bronx. Middle child of the three brothers. Went to Jewish schools. “Yeshiva,” they call them for grade school and high school, and then I went to Boston University. I'm still practicing. I keep kosher. I keep Shabbat. We don't force it down anyone's throat. It's very up to you, but we expose them to everything from rituals, customs, holidays, traditions, and we love it. Tonight, we're having dinner outside here. That’s what we have. What was the question about languages? No, I don't speak any language. I'm an idiot. I'm only smart when it comes to writing comedy. Other than that, I'm a total idiot. I barely speak Hebrew. My parents spoke Yiddish. They talk to each other instead of teaching it to me. This is when they said he's such an idiot. They would say that in Yiddish such as [Yiddish phrase], and I didn't pick up anything really. But I wish I learned that language. What else? Then I started doing comedy. When I was sixteen, I went to the comic strip in New York City, and there were all these comedians who were doing terribly, and I turned to my brother, and I said, "If I do this badly I'm never doing this again because this is humiliating." And then a young unknown Adam Sandler got on the stage pre-shattering it. Nobody knew who he was, but he was already a regular at the club. He was passed. He was not an open micro like all these other terrible guys, and he got up there, and he did great. It's not the crowd. It's the comedian that stunk these guys. So then I get up after him, and I did impressions. So that's an easy easy laugh. Also, I had beginner's luck, and I did great. I just killed it the first time. This is kind of fun. And then I did all through college in Boston. When I was at BU, I would run up and down the East coast, go up to Maine, and New Hampshire, and just perform at clubs, colleges, and anywhere that would have me. Frank's Mexican Restaurant, like anywhere I would go and do stand-up. By the time I got out of college I was a working professional comedian, and then I took it from there, and then it's a thirty-year-long road of a couple of ups and mostly downs because show business is tough. It's mostly rejection.
Jae Sung Park: That's interesting to hear. Hearing about your upbringing in New York, would you dive a little deeper into how you became involved with the Jewish culture?
Elon Gold: There's nothing, I didn't become involved in it. I just was born into it, and then my parents raised me in a way that exposed me to going to synagogue every Shabbat morning, to observing the holidays, having a seder on Passover, eating kosher food, and I took to it, and I liked it. I'm a traditional guy. This is a three-thousand-year-old heritage, and I don't want to be the one to break that lineage, so I like keeping it, and I like showing my kids what we do, and we should celebrate the good and the bad because it's not all fun. There's fast days. There are sad holidays. There are a lot of restrictions that- I've never had a bacon double cheeseburger. Do you know how bad that is? To not have a bacon double cheeseburger. That sucks. Going through life without bacon double cheeseburgers. It teaches you discipline in all facets of life, and it connects you again to a people, to God, to your community in a very significant, meaningful way. But I just stuck with it. My younger and older brothers not so much. They weren't as connected as I was, but I stuck with it.
Tiger Xie: It sounds you do maintain a little Jewish rituals tradition.
Elon Gold: A lot of it, I mean so many again. Customs, rituals, so many holidays. I keep them all because I like it, and I connect to it, and again. It gives life sort of meaning. When you have spirituality, it really enriches your life, and it also humbles you. You know you could come offstage killing at a comedy club, having an amazing set. And you think you're the king of the world, and you realize you know God is The King of…..there's no higher superpower. I'm a speck of dust in the universe. So while I'm here though, I'm trying to fulfill my purpose, which, as corny as it sounds, is to bring a little laughter to the world, raise kids, do what I can to help humanity give back what I can. Not money. I'm still broke. I don't have enough money to give back. I do give to charity. You're supposed to give ten percent. One of the traditions of Judaism is you have to give ten percent of your income, and I follow that. But it's not a good enough amount of money where I can make an impact. But one day, hopefully, I'll be able to give millions of dollars away, because charity is a big thing for me. Two hundred and fifty, and one day I'd love to donate a lot more than I'm donating now to different causes.
Tiger Xie: That's pretty inspiring.
Elon Gold: And not just Jewish causes. Because we're taught. We have to give the global causes to all of humanity. We don't just give to ourselves. Everything that Kanye is saying is a lie, and it's so funny to us. And there's some cabal, a group of people that are controlling Hollywood. If there was a group of Jews controlling Hollywood, wouldn't I have a hit show right now and not be on zoom with two college students?
Jae: That is true.
Elon Gold: Wouldn't I be on set somewhere instead of at home? When is my next job coming in here? Where are these Jews controlling the banks? Because I got almost nothing in my bank account. Where? Where, where are these? How come? I'm missing the meetings. I should be on that zoom meeting with the Jews controlling everything.
Tiger Xie: It’s a lifelong lesson for being a Jew?
Elon Gold: lifelong what? Is that a question or what?
Tiger Xie: It just sounds like you learned a lot.
Elon Gold: You learned a lot. You learned a lot. And the focus is on family, education, on community. The whole point of Judaism is two words, and it's in the Hebrew. It's tikun olam, which means 'heal the world,' and that's really our purpose. You know we're put on this planet to help and heal, and it's- Again, back to the tropes of the whole chosen thing. It's not that we're chosen, and we think we're special, and we're chosen because we're so special. We've chosen to light on the nations, and heal the world and give, and show the word of God to the world, and the word of God is really just about again, it all boils down to another thing which is, treat thy neighbor as you would thyself. It's like- It's all about kindness and empathy and compassion for others. That's really the main teaching of Judaism. Everything else is just like some rituals and customs, but it's really about that. God created the world, but he didn't finish it. This was taught to me by a great brilliant scholar, who is actually also a Simpsons writer. So he was a writer on the Simpsons. He's a comedy writer, but he gives these Torah classes, and I zoom with them every Friday morning. He explained to us. It's other writers and comedians and other people, and he goes.
Elon Gold: You know God created the world, but He didn't finish it. He left it up to us to finish, and to make it perfect, and that's what we're all here for. That's you know. That's our purpose. And then you find your individual purpose and your individual way to contribute.
Tiger Xie: So transitioning to your comedy. Would you share some thoughts on how you use the language in your comedy? When you do the comedy, is it solely for entertainment purposes, or is there any educational or promoting purpose like where you want your audiences to get involved?
Elon Gold: That's a good question. So I just did a special. It's like a mini-special, because it's only a half hour. It's thirty-two minutes, and I did five sets in New York City at the Comedy Cellar. We taped them, and the special's called "Sets in the City" - that's in the city instead of you know the other thing, so Sets in the City. I went and did these five sets in the city. But it's called episode one because we want to do this with a few comedians. Elon Gold's favorite people, and I start talking about who my favorite people are, and I start with: "Jews are my fourth favorite. My own people are the fourth." And then I get into my audiences. "Who do you think is my number one favorite?" And it goes to this whole thing, and people yell out everything. They yell out Russians. They yell out Arabs, and Chinese, they yell out everything. And there's a message behind the whole thing and that is of coexistence, and being against hatred. I said the only groups of people I hate are hate groups, and I'm trying to teach tolerance in the comedy. So in the comedy is a message of tolerance, and I even say in the special don't hate, be tolerated. Sometimes I do comedy that's silly and stupid, and I have a bit of my last special that I where I say, I think squirrels are on cocaine because they can't focus, and they're just the silly bit. There's no point to that bit.
Jae Sung Park: Also another aspect of the comedy that I notice is that you're excellent at emulating accents, or mimicking. Is there a practice you like? How did you get so good at doing that?
Elon Gold: I say thank you for the compliment, but I don't take any credit for that. It's just innate, inborn. It's God-given talent, whatever. I have a tiny bit of talent, I’m not talented in any other way, so God gave me a gift to do, to mimic. But there are many people in the world who have this talent. I don't think I'm so special, and unique. It's like a great singer, you know you're born, and you have this, these amazing vocal cords. You could just sing, but a lot of people can sing very well.
Elon Gold talks about the purpose of Judaism.
Elon Gold: But it's nice to have a talent, and it's nice to harness it and use it to, you know, spread the good word, to pay the mortgage and make people happy.
Tiger Xie: I very wish I get your skill, like your sense of humor.
Elon Gold: You really wish you what?
Tiger Xie: I really wish I possess your sense of humor.
Elon Gold: It's fun to have funny thoughts all the time. But when you ask how do I practice it? I don't sit here and practice doing voices. But I do sit in my office here, and I write, and I do it out loud. Sometimes I just pace back and forth, and I say things out loud, and as I'm saying them, if I'm talking in a different voice, a voice will come out, and I'll just do it. But I don't like sit and do any sort of vocal exercises or anything. It just kind of comes naturally. Part of the writing and preparing process is just rehearsing out loud.
Tiger Xie: Do you go in front of a mirror?
Elon Gold: No, I never look in a mirror, and that's too awkward. But I do just pace and just talk out loud. If people can hear me, they would think I'm nuts and that I'm just talking to myself, but it's really just practicing the stand-up material.
Tiger Xie: Also where would you say the line is drawn when it comes to such a remark of being deemed offensive?
Elon Gold: That's a good question. Comedy right now is at this crossroads where people are nervous. They don't want to offend. I never ever write anything to offend. It is, I don't think there's any comedian whose intention is to offend. Now when we think of something funny, and then other people hear it, and some of them are offended by it just rubs them the wrong way. They just, they take offense, and it's their personal issue. And sometimes when people say, “I was offended by that joke,” my answer to that is: well, that's your problem. I have my own problems. And now you have this problem that you were offended, that you have to cope with and deal with and work out with yourself. But it's not my problem. Don't put your problems on me. I got plenty of problems. And just lead me out of your problem and deal with why you were offended by that. But I don't seek to offend that. I'm sorry you were offended, but I can't help you. I can't help you if you're offended by a joke. Being offended by a joke is crazy unless there's malice behind it. Whether they are offensive or not, it is crazy. You have to look at intention, the intention behind the joke if I come at it with a good heart, and I'm coming from a good place, and I'm saying I love these people, but here's what bothers me about them. They're blah blah blah, and then you do a stereotype. But it's just a funny stereotype, or whatever. Sure that's going to be even again about my own people. Yeah that's gonna offend some Jewish people. I can't believe you just said that about us. But I'm joking, and I'm speaking out of love, I love my people. I'm just pointing out something that we do. That's funny. I don't write to offend. I write to get laughs, and I don't even think about who's going to be offended by this. All of my comedy comes from a good place.
Tiger Xie: The reason I ask is…. I'm not offended by that joke. I don't think Jae is either. It's about how you talk. Like vagina is a place, not a thing. So if someone gets very sensitive about sexual stuff, they might get offended. But that's basically the reason why I asked.
Elon Gold: And then that's a whole other different offenses. When you talk about, you know dirty things, and it's too dirty for me. Okay, then, don't listen to it. Then I'm not the right comedian for you. Go to Jim Gaffigan, who's a brilliant comedian who's perfectly clean. Don't listen to Chris Rock, don't listen to Bilbur, me, or anyone that's gonna talk about sex, which is a part of life. And again I talk about what I know. You know you write what you know. If you're a writer, write what you know. Yeah. And also Neil Brennan, who's a good friend of mine who created Chapelle's show, and me, Dave, and Neil. We all started together years ago, and Neil said to me, Write what you care about, and that's interesting. That was an awakening for me to write what I care about. So what do I care about? I care about my family. I care about being married and my wife, but I'm going to make fun of it because that's what I do. That's my job. I care about my people. I care about other people. I'm going to make fun of other people. I write what I care about, and I care about racism and antisemitism and homophobia. I'm going to write about that. I care about that. That is a huge issue in our society where so many people are ignorant in those ways, and I'm going to make fun of those people for being ignorant. So yeah, you write what you care about.
Jae Sung Park: Is there any other feedback that you received as a comedian that allow you to develop the master of the craft?
Elon Gold: Feedback from other comedians or others like…?
Jae: In general.
Elon Gold: The whole process of comedy is feedback. So Steve Martin once famously said, "I don't know what's funny. The audience tells me what is," and that's true. Sometimes I'll be sitting here writing something. I'll be like this is hilarious, and then I'll go on stage that night, and just nothing, and I'll either give up on it and go, "They were right. I just thought it was funny, and I was wrong," or I'll go, "No, no, this is funny. Just reword it." And then the next night it gets a laugh. So the process is all feedback. I don't really care about specific personal opinions, like if someone tells me, “I don't think that's a good joke.” It'll be, "Well, four hundred people last night just cracked up and applauded at it. So that's just your opinion, and you know, whatever, good luck with yourself," so I don't care about that feedback. The feedback I care about is from comedians that I love and respect. When Chris Rock once said to me you got a funny special. I was just blown away because he's like the best. In my opinion, there's nobody better than him right now. Him and Chapelle are the two best right now, and I was just floored by that, because he's the best. So so feedback like that is very important to me, and you sort of take any compliment with you as you're dealing with so much rejection again on a daily basis. There's rejection, and sometimes nightly, when the audience rejects you whatever. But you know, just when you think, I'm the worst comedian ever, you go, "No, no, no, Chris Rock. Chris Rock likes me. Why am I? So why am I being so hard on myself?" Feedback is important. When you're in your twenties, you have to make two very crucial decisions that will shape how your life's going to be: what you do, and who you do, because you're going to be spending your days doing what you do, and your nights trying to do who you do. And if you choose one of them incorrectly, you know you're gonna just…. let's say you have a miserable job you can be like, Oh, well, at least I get to home to a great wife, you know, or let's say you have a miserable wife like Well, all right, at least I'm not with her all day, and I'm at work. But if you have both of those things, then you're complete twenty-four/seven. You're going to be happy. You're passionate about your career and your work, and you're passionate about your life, you know.
Elon Gold talks about what he cares about and how he incorporates it into his comedy. He also mentions the line as to which he believes can deem the material offensive.
Implications
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Language Contact
There are many particular language ideologies associated with Jewish languages. First, there are particular ways that can be identified with how a certain group speaks the language. Elon Gold in the video clip, ‘Elon Gold on Israelis,’ pointed out that when using English words, Israeli people tend to inter-change where to place singular and plural words. In this case, singular words are used in instances when they should be in the plural form and vice versa. One of the reasons for this disparity is that there are some English words that are in singular form, yet when they are translated into Hebrew, they tend to be in plural form (Benor, 2018). For instance, in English, the term, ‘water’ is depicted in the singular form. However, in the Hebrew form, it has a plural ending, mayim, whereby ‘im’ is a plural ending. In English singular forms tend to describe something that can be both in singular and multiple forms, such as water and people.
Elon Gold observed that people from every language have a weird relationship with one letter. Israelis, he said, take the letter ‘m’ and place it after every other word. For instance, “want the ‘m’ to hi ‘m’ to go in and the ‘m’ to get ‘m’....” It is an indication of the over-reliance on the term ‘ehmm’ for the Israelis when they are communicating (Avineri, 2014). It can be likened to English, or mainly the American term, ‘ahhh,’ which is used by people with whom they are communicating while figuring out what to say. Instead of the Israelis adopting the ‘ahhh’ as the Americans use it, they have slightly modified it to ‘ahhmm’ as a way to think, while they are talking. This similarity partly reflects syncretism as Israelis absorb the characteristic of English and mix it with their own language. Last but not least, the way Jews text message also contains influence from Yiddish: “So how’s everything by you? Oy M G!” The standard grammar in English should be “with”; “by” is an influence from Yiddish bay. The use of "oy" instead of O in OMG also represents Yiddish influence.
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Migration Patterns/Regionalism/loanwords
The concept of migrated regionalism is embodied in Elon’s comedy video along with his explanation in the interview as well. When Jews greet other people, their specific pronunciation of the “are” in “how are you” resembles the accent of an old New York Jewish man with different intonation patterns and they also ignore the post-vocalic /r/ sound. This phenomenon can be seen not just in New York but in many other places around the US, an instance of migrated regionalism (Hary and Benor 2018). Employing loanwords also illustrates the migration pattern of Jews: in the video “A commercial for Judaism,” Elon said, “You gotta schlep to Montreal.” The word “schlep” is a Yiddish-origin word. In Yiddish, שלעפּ, shlep, is usually a transitive verb for carrying (or dragging) something else, while the English word, schlep, is also used as an intransitive verb, for dragging oneself. Elon uses schlep to create the hilarious effect and makes his comedy more Jewishly identifiable. In addition, inserting a Yiddish word in an English sentence demonstrates migration patterns: after generations of migration, Jews settling in America speak fluent English, especially those who were born and raised here. The fact that they occasionally mix a few Yiddish words in their daily communication thus indicates their lineage, origin, as well as culture they assimilated throughout their migration history.
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Language shift
Jewish language varieties face tremendous challenges, which could render the languages endangered. These challenges include intergenerational language transmission, the absolute number of speakers, the proportion of speakers within the total population, trends in existing language domains, response to new domains and media, materials for language education and literacy, and governmental and institutional language policies, including official status and use. Although Yiddish is not endangered because it is widely spoken in Hasidic communities, other Jews often experience Yiddish as endangered because it was not transmitted from generation to generation (Avineri, 2014). This shift can be seen in Elon Gold's family, as he does not speak the Yiddish of his ancestors and only uses loanwords within his English. Even so, he kept and follows many Jewish traditions passed down from the older generation in his daily routine, which have implications on how he lives his life. For instance, we could feel how he lives out the Jewish mission of tikkun olam. He said, “God created the world, but he didn’t finish it. He left it for us to make it perfect.” By promoting tolerance in his comedy, he contributes to that important work.
Bibliography
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Hary, Benjamin, and Sarah Bunin Benor, eds. 2018. Language in Jewish Communities, Past and Present
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Matras, Yaron. (2009). Language contact. Cambridge-New York.
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Hary, Benjamin, and Sarah Bunin Benor, eds. 2018. Jewish English in the United States.
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Fader, Ayala. 2009. Mitzvah Girls: Bringing up the Next Generation of Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn. Princeton University Press. Chapter 4: “Making English Jewish” (87-117).
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Avineri, Netta. 2014. “Yiddish Endangerment as Phenomenological Reality and Discursive Strategy: Crossing into the Past and Crossing out the Present.” Language & Communication.