50 | MAY 25 • 2023 ARTS&LIFE BOOKS P eople expect Jews to tell subversive jokes that only seem innocent, that imply disrespect for authority and that might leave a bitter aftertaste. For generations, scholars have tried to explain what Jewishness has to do with producing snarky comedy. Sigmund Freud wrote about it, and Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, professors Jeffrey Dauber and Ruth Wisse, and many more. Now, Professor Jennifer Caplan has added to the scholarly efforts to understand Jewish humor in her new book Funny, You Don’t Look Funny: Judaism and Humor from the Silent Generation to the Millennials (Wayne State University Press, 2023). Perhaps the most widely accepted theory of Jewish humor starts with a downtrodden, disrespected minority in Eastern Europe, able to rebel against the powerful only with veiled hostility. My Aunt Frances located an earlier source: biblical Jews giving Moses a hard time with the sarcastic question, “ Are there no graves in Egypt that you took us out to die in the desert?” (Exodus 14:11) Jewish sarcastic irony started at our beginning. For whatever reasons, as the American entertainment industry grew in Hollywood and New York, Jewish writers produced much of the comedies. Jennifer Caplan adds a significant angle to the enormous collection of scholarship about Jewish humor by focusing on how specific comic works fit into the tasks of the Jewish community in America from the mid-20th century until close to the present. In the early 20th century, immigrants and their children made up the largest share of America’s Jews. They faced the challenge of becoming American enough to survive in their new land. Humor by Jews and about Jews — like humor about other ethnic groups at the time — tended toward cruel mockery of stereotyped immigrants. These comic works exemplify Thomas Hobbes’ “superiority theory” of humor: Laughter comes from recognizing yourself as part of the in-group at the expense of the out-group. THE NEXT GENERATION OF HUMORISTS Caplan’s study begins at the next stage, with humorists who “were too young to fight in World War II. ” She calls these “The Silent Generation, ” who “wish to preserve, and even protect, the Jewish people, ” but by discarding Jewish faith. As a prime example of this tendency, she presents Woody Allen’s 1970 Hassidic Tales, with a Guide to Their Interpretation by the Noted Scholar, a riff off the Tales of the Hasidim by Martin Buber. Allen’s work serves as a Midrash on a serious Jewish text, but a subversive Midrash. In Caplan’s words, Allen presents “sacred text” as a “ridiculous notion. ” The rabbis offer idiotic advice, and the Jews should have known better than to ask them. Allen, Caplan summarizes, believes “Jewish texts are not worth the paper they are printed on … and religion is a burden to its members. ” I do not see that Allen expresses the wish to “protect … the Jewish people. ” Caplan’s next chapter, “Silent No More, ” oddly enough focuses on earlier writers who condemn Americanizing Jews for turning their backs on the Jewish people. American Jews fail when confronted with the needs of fellow Jews in distress. Caplan presents Philip Roth’s 1959 story, Eli, the Fanatic, in this context. Upwardly mobile suburban Jews ask Roth’s protagonist, Eli Peck, a young lawyer in their neighborhood, to prevent an embarrassing threat to their American identity. A Chasidic survivor wants to open a yeshivah in their town for 18 young survivor orphans. What would the Protestants think if they saw Jews dressed in Old World clothing? Spoiler alert: Eli comes to respect the Chasid, and Eli’s community decides Eli needs medical intervention. In this story, Roth shows no affection for Jewish ritual or belief, but he does reveal his “wish to … protect the Jewish people. ” Caplan sees this as typical of the “silent no more” generation. THE COPYCATS Caplan presents the next decade of Jewish comics, the baby boomers, as “The Copycat Generation. ” Jews have become comfortable in America and now feel the need to reevaluate Jewish ritual. Jewish humor in America had generally avoided focusing on Jewish ritual until now, according to Caplan. In a famous skit in 1977, Saturday Night Live presented a fake commercial for a fancy car, “Royal Deluxe II. ” The car gives such a smooth ride that “Rabbi Taklas” can circumcise a baby in the car while riding over rough pavement. The rabbi concludes the segment, exclaiming “That’s a beautiful A review of Funny, You Don’t Look Funny by Jennifer Caplan. An Evolution of Jewish Humor Jennifer Caplan LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER