JEWISH JOKE

The Jewish joke is as old as Abraham, and like the Jews themselves it has wandered over the world, learned countless new languages, worked with a range of different materials, been performed in front of some pretty hostile crowds, but still retained its own distinctive identity. So what is it that animates the Jewish joke? Why are Jews so often thought of as 'funny'? How old can a joke get? This brilliant and often very funny riff on Jewish jokes explains what marks them apart from other jokes, why they are important to Jewish identity and how they work. Ranging from self-deprecation to anti-Semitism, politics to sex, and with jokes from Jerry Seinfeld as well as Freud and Marx (Groucho mostly), this is both a compendium and a commentary. How do you tell the difference between man and God, the Trinity and the Almighty, a Jewish mother and a Jewish mother-in-law, a good deal and a bad deal? You will find 'double vision' everywhere. Have fun. 200 page paperback.