Here are more than 100 of the best Jewish jokes you'll ever hear, interspersed with perceptive and persuasive insight into what they can tell us about how Jews see themselves, their families, and their friends, and what they think about money, sex, and success. Rabbi Joseph Telushkin is as celebrated for his wit as for his scholarship, and in this immensely entertaining book, he displays both in equal measure. Stimulating, something stinging, and always very, very funny, Jewish Humor offers a classic portrait of the Jewish collective unconscious.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Excellent Humor and the psychology behind it.:
Jewish Humor: What the Best Jewish Jokes Say About the Jews I am usually very hard to make laugh. But the humor in this book had me laughing out loud quite often. Also good description of the psychology behind this humor.
Easy history:
Good light history of Jewish humor. Lots of classical jokes and a plausible narrative on the the roots of this genre. My only disagreement was with the anti-Arab bias that crept through.
A Big Telushkin Fan:
I ordered "Jewish Humor" for three reasons: 1.) The previous Telushkin books I read, "Words that Hurt; Words that Heal," and "Jewish Literacy."
2.) The genius I'd discovered years ago in the old LP classic "Woody Allen, The Night Club Years." If anyone has ever said to you, "I shot a moose once. I was hunting upstate New York,..," then you know what I'm talkng about.
3.) My recent subscription to XM radio, where the non swearing comedy channels are loaded with fabulous, classic comedy... more info
If Jacob Cohen(Rodney Dangerfield)Were a Rabbi...:
I saw Rodney Dangerfield 'allavahshulim'(rest in peace)answer a heckler at Detroit's Ford Auditorium,with:"I remember when I had my first beer."I still use it-but I don't consider it specifically,Jewish.And although Rabbi Telushkin goes into great detail(beginning in the introduction)into why this isn't about ethnic humor in general,my favorite example is a footnote in chapter one(p.29)while Telushkin was being heckled...whoops.."challenged my assertion that early Judaism promoted the parent-child... more info
