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August 6, 1999/24 Av 5759, Vol. 51, No.44
Jewish joke book lacks laughs
TAMI BICKLEY
Staff Writer
A joke is not funny if you have to explain the punch line.
"101 Best Jewish Jokes" (Moment Publications, Washington, D.C. 1999, $12.95 softcover) is an odd little softcover book, in which pages are not numbered, but so-called jokes are. Its title is miselading in that it falls short of what a reader might expect in a true joke book - that the majority of the jokes are actually funny.
Instead, readers will find, ad nauseum, explanations as to why some of the jokes should be considered funny. In other words, it's like the joke-teller saying, "I know you won't think this joke is funny, but allow me to explain why you should think it is."
Hershel Shanks, Moment Magazine editor and compiler of the book's jokes, is not totally at fault for the unfunniness of his book. He explains in the book's introduction that he didn't actually write any of the jokes himself. In some cases, he remembers where he first heard or saw the jokes, but those sources don't know the original authors either. Ultimately, that only means that we disgruntled joke recipients have no one to blame for some of these poor attempts at humor.
Many of the book's jokes are old, not in that we've heard them time and time again, but in that they are so outdated, whatever humor was originally intended, will baffle today's young audiences. Hershel obviously understands this problem, hence his prefaces to the outdated and unfunny jokes, basically labelling them as such.
Other jokes in the book deal with historical tragedies. Usually, the average Jew can enjoy Jewish humor, especially jokes that poke fun at Jewish idiosyncrasies. But no matter how much Jews like to laugh, jokes referring to the Holocaust are, simply put, tasteless.
For example, Joke No. 22, reprinted here including Shanks' preface, is both tasteless and not funny to anyone:
Nazi Germany, horrible as it was, produced its share of jokes. Humor has always been one Jewish way of coping.
At a mass meeting in Berlin, Hitler was haranguing the crowd, shrieking: "And who is responsible for all our troubles?," expecting the crowd to shout, "The Jews."
However, a little Jew shouts back, "The bicycle riders!"
Hitler looks up, astonished. "Why the bicycle riders?" he asks.
"Why the Jews?" replies the Jew.
A handful of jokes in "101 Best Jewish Jokes" are not even Jewish in nature. Others are so Jewish, meaning they depend on one's knowledge of the religion rather than culture, that they would be difficult for many people to understand.
What's even more difficult to understand is why, after realizing some of the jokes were nonsensical, Shanks still included them in the book. The following is an example of such a joke:
The funniest joke I ever heard is a silly one.
In a movie, Groucho Marx is pretending he's a doctor.
He takes the pulse of a sick man, holding the man's wrist and looking at his watch. Finally, Groucho says, "Either my watch has stopped or this man is dead."
It's hilarious, but it makes absolutely no sense. The reason it's so funny is that the more you think about it, the more nonsensical you realize it is.
Groucho Marx may have been an early master of comedy, but that line is hardly his best work.
One of the redeeming qualities of the book is that jokes are divided into categories. There are sections for Israel-related jokes; jokes about Jewish businessmen; jokes that depend on a double entendre; and jokes about Jewish men and women and their stereotypical personalities, which happen to be some of the funniest. This organization by type enables the reader or joke-teller to switch to a different section if he/she doesn't take to the Israeli jokes, or if he/she favors the businessmen section.
Simple illustrations accompany some jokes throughout the book. These sketches have a positive effect in that they can add to a joke's appeal by clarifying it or making the joke seem funnier. A sketch of three older Jewish men sitting on a park bench spices up the corny joke that accompanies it:
A small New York park is filled with benches where elderly Jews gather in the afternoon to shmooze. It's called the Garden of Yidden.
Unfortunately, even illustrations (which are never used in a typical joke-telling situation anyway) are unlikely to elicit laughter among younger generations because they simply won't get the jokes.
Shanks' introductory comment that this book will be "difficult to put down, a little like a bag of potato chips - just one more," will probably not hold true for most readers. This reader, for one, found it difficult to pick back up, after the initial introductory perusal.
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