Eventually, the rottweiler lets go.
Most of us would find the above harsh, simplistic, and offensive.
“If it’s in good taste, I don’t mind.
They make jokes about everybody.”
—Melanie Strug
“I only find Jewish mother humor offensive if it’s bad from a comedy perspective—you know, when it’s something that’s been done to death,” says Amy Borkowsky. “I don’t think I could take one more joke about Jewish moms giving us guilt, making chicken soup, or reminding us to put on a sweater. My mother was a little more original.”
But the issue of stereotyping or, as I call it, ethno-typing was not held to be necessarily objectionable—as many claimed all humor involves some stereotyping. But more, for those comedians, like Amy Borkowsky and Judy Gold, who freely joke about their mothers, their humor, they say, involves truth—the truth that comes from personal experience.
“It would be hard to accuse me of stereotyping, because I present my mother as she actually was. My CDs, my act, and my book all have my mother’s real messages,” says Amy Borkowsky. “I think the best humor comes out of struggle, because there’s nothing funny about everything going right. If you went to a comedy club and the comic opened with, ‘So I just got a gorgeous new girlfriend, lost thirty pounds, and won the Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes,’ they would get resentment, not laughs. Jews have been comedically blessed, because we’ve had plenty of struggles throughout our history. Prejudice and persecution have made Jewish mothers worry obsessively about their kids which then makes the Jewish mother herself one more issue to deal with. And it’s a stroke of good fortune if her kid happens to be a comic.”
“S TEREOTYPES EXIST FOR A REASON. N O ONE EVER WORRIES THEY’RE GOING TO BE JUMPED BY A BUNCH OF Y ESHIVA STUDENTS. A NYONE WHO SAYS HE OR SHE IS NOT AFFECTED BY STEREOTYPES IS LYING. ”
— Mallory Lewis
“A lot of humor is based on stereotypes but obviously we’re all individuals. [Jewish mother jokes] is a journey to determine issues with your own mother,” says Judy Gold, the star of the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway show
Twenty-five Questions for a Jewish Mother
that earned her a Drama Desk nomination. “I find the people who live in a safety net are surrounded by numbness. They can criticize me all they want. [What they don’t] realize is, I’m doing my mother. The basis of humor comes from looking at something in different ways, which is also the basis of Judaism—looking for interpretations. Jewish women are funny because they’ve been through hell, survived, learned, and we constantly challenge the system.”
The Jewish female comedian, not unlike her male counterpart, sees humor as pushing the edge, even if it makes some uncomfortable. While the male has been generally able to get away with more direct language and bawdiness, attacking every arena, the female comic has often focused on those themes of special interest to women, such as family, romantic foibles, and feminism. But this turf is also being expanded as more and more females are pushing the envelope successfully.
C omedians have a responsibility to be subversive. It’s social commentary, bringing awareness in a positive way. It’s sad when we can’t laugh at ourselves. When people take themselves so seriously it bugs the crap out of me.”
—Judy Gold
“You fat •#%)# !” comes out of the mouth of Zora Essman’s daughter Susie in her role as wife of the portly, wimpy agent, Jeff Greene, in
Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Mrs. Essman says: “A lot of my friends resent it … her language. It doesn’t bother me. She’s able to make the switch from the Jewish bitch to the nice woman. I say, ‘Well that’s the way Larry David thinks.’”
But then Zora Essman is a funny Jewish woman. “My children have a very different view of me. I don’t think Susie thinks that of me, but I have great timing. My husband
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