Can Jews Keep Their Sense of Humor?

As much as fighting Jew-hatred is a deadly serious matter, maintaining our sense of humor as we engage in that fight is an equally serious matter.

This is not simply because laughter helps us maintain our humanity, which is important enough. Laughter is also a source of power. 

None of this feels self-evident. After all, how can anything connected to laughter be that serious? Isn’t the whole purpose of laughter to give us a whimsical break from the drudgery of reality? And who wants to laugh about things that threaten us? Isn’t that kind of frivolity dangerous?

So, where does laughter gets its power?

In the case of the Jews, comedy has a long and rich history.  Perhaps no ethnic group has been as equipped, willing and eager to make America laugh as the Jews. I’ve often argued that Jewish comics have done more than any other Jewish group to create bonds of affection with our fellow Americans.

Funny people are usually more likeable and popular—especially those who can poke fun at themselves. Jewish comics have been poking fun at themselves and others for well over a century, with an incredibly broad diversity of humor, from vaudeville to Borscht Belt to political and social satire to observational humor to squeezing big laughs out of the utterly trivial.

The old cliché of laughter being the best medicine has always contained a deliciously human idea—it feels really, really good to laugh. Jews have been brilliant at milking that medicine.

But in today’s ultra-serious and sobering times, laughter can  trigger a twinge of guilt. Who feels good about cracking up when everything around us is cracking? Who feels like laughing when we must fight the existential danger of climate change or the multiple threats to our democracy or a nasty virus or the evil of antisemitism?

Jew haters would love nothing better than to take our story away from us, to define us on their terms, to lower us into a mud fight. Nothing would make them happier than to see Jews lose their sense of humor. We must, of course, avoid that trap.

And yet, somehow, since time immemorial Jews have found the time and the chutzpah to laugh. Beyond the organic truth that laughter helps us cope with the pains of reality, Jews have also understood the connection between humor and empowerment.

As Monica Osborne writes in her deep dive in this week’s cover story: “Making a joke about something dark or something about which we’re self-conscious puts us in a position to own the story, rather than allowing the story to own us.”

Laughter has helped Jews own our story. I’m sure our comics never set out with that abstract goal in mind, but over the decades, millions of hours of Jewish comedy have empowered the Jews to own their story. All that laughter adds up.

Jew haters would love nothing better than to take our story away from us, to define us on their terms, to lower us into a mud fight. Nothing would make them happier than to see Jews lose their sense of humor. We must, of course, avoid that trap.

The confidence of owning our story while making America laugh has helped us build a fortress of affection that no hater can breach. It’s not a coincidence that despite the eruptions of Jew-hatred and Israel-hatred we’ve seen in recent years, according to the latest Pew survey Jews remain the most popular religious group in America.

We can jeopardize that affection if we morph into a serious, scolding bunch and downplay our funny gene.

Humor is a unique weapon that charms and disarms. It conveys strength and confidence. It can ridicule our enemies. And Jewish comics, these blessed heroes in our endless fight against hate, are seriously good at it.

Even at a time when self-righteous woke mobs are trying to spook comics into silence, lest the comics offend the wrong groups, Jews must continue to make America laugh. This is especially needed when millions of Americans are still feeling  the isolation and mental strain of a staggering pandemic.

We also must lead the way in showing how to take a joke. Not every joke about Jews must harken back to “antisemitic tropes” from the Nazi era. When we go shpilkes over every poke, all we do is look weak. If comics want to play off the stereotype that Jews are successful, my instinct is to think, “Hmm, as far as stereotypes go, is that one so bad? And how will whining help?”

By all means, let’s continue to fight the Jew-haters with everything at our disposal, let’s condemn them and call them out, let’s push back on hate speech, but let’s not lose our sense of humor in the process.

Humor is a unique weapon that charms and disarms. It conveys strength and confidence. It can ridicule our enemies. And Jewish comics, these blessed heroes in our endless fight against hate, are seriously good at it.