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

