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as father to Isaac and Ishmael 7
as husband of Sarah 7
as Knight of Faith 8
Lincoln 32
as shlemiel 8
Aleichem, Sholom 135
Allen, Woody
Annie Hall 2
comic timing of 5
Deconstructing Harry 41
as miserabilist 137
problematic character of 7
as realist 56
animals
elephants 169–72
cows 61, 73–4, 148, 154
cows (sacred) 147
parrots 34–37, 38
anti-Semitism
and jokes 38, 105
and self-hatred 39–42, 99
slipperiness of 10, 38, 39
Appelfeld, Aharon 46
assimilation
and adaptability 62–5
and conversion 24–6
and dress 30–31
and language 28–9
and parroting 34–8
and principles 37
and trains 32–3
Austin, J. L. 169
Baddiel, David 25, 177
The Infidel 112
My Family Not the Sitcom 177
Baron Cohen, Sacha 178
Beatty, Paul
The Sellout 155–6
Bellow, Saul 179
Boosler, Elayne 100
Bruce, Lenny 152–4, 157–8, 160, 164, 175
business
bad deals 55–61
good deals 55–61
terms and conditions of 62
Chutzpah
of comedians 23
of Israelis 111–12
of Jews 106–10
C. K., Louis 143, 176
comedians
female 7, 99–104
vs Jews 22–4
male 96–7, 101
stand-ups 96, 157, 175–7
humour’s role in 150, 154
impossibility of 24–6, 28
inevitability of 152–4
DeLillo, Don
Underworld 160, 175
dentists 43, 132–3, 150, 154
as comedians manqué 22–4, 132–3
Derrida, Jacques 170–2
diaspora
America 14–15, 29
desert islands 12–13, 170–1
England 29–31
France 172
India 93–5
Minsk 33
Pale of Settlement 24–5
Pinsk 33
Shtetl 52
doubleness
of identity 12, 15, 165–6
of joking 79, 176–7
of language 145, 169–70
Dunham, Lena 6–7
education
in Hebrew school 58
in medical school 92
in primary school 56–7, 167
in yeshiva 161–2
Ferris, Joshua
To Rise Again at a Decent Hour 132
festivals
Hanukah 112, 153
Passover 161
Rosh Hashanah 35–38
Yom Kippur 13, 32, 37, 158–9, 173
food
apples 83, 130
cake 71, 87, 153
cheesecake 120–1
Chinese cuisine 10–11
Kosher 11, 125, 138–9, 161
Kugel 75
portion sizes 2
restaurants 10, 11, 29, 55, 82–3, 108, 144
soup 9, 55
treyf 29
Freud, Sigmund
family jokes 97–8
Freudian slips 98, 106, 145
Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious 3–4
masochism 13, 43–5
neurosis 66–70, 89
Oedipal Complex 88–90
psychoanalysis 66–7
psychiatrists 65–6, 97
sadism 44–5
unconscious 47
funny
ha ha 2, 167
peculiar 2, 47, 167
ticklishness 166, 174
Gentiles
black 154–6
Chinese 10–11
vs Jews 16–21
white 151
God
vs grandmothers 122–3
laughing 8, 145
vs Man 135, 137–40
not laughing 46
praying to 135–9
vs Rabbis 141–2, 159
Gold, Judy 29–30
Greenblatt, Stephen 119
Grossman, David
A Horse Walks into a Bar 45, 119, 174
guilt 45, 119, 174
and jokes 66–8
and mothers 67–70, 89, 97
and the unconscious 67
Hebrew Scriptures
study of 34–7, 162–3
humour of 8–9
ethics of 110
Heine, Heinrich 145
Holocaust
Hitler 41
Auschwitz 47, 115–16
Nazis 40, 144, 145
survivors of 46
Howe, Irving 179
Israel
Hebrew 112
Israelis 111–19
as Jewish state 111–12
as not so Jewish state 112–13
Palestinians 118–19
Jewish Question (The) 164, 171–2, 174, 176
justice
according to Freud 109
as analogous to wit 142–3
in South Africa 124
Kafka, Franz 8–10, 119
Kashua, Sayed 118–9
Arab Labour 118
Katz, Jonathan 145
Kierkegaard, Søren 8, 146, 149
Ladman, Cathy 99
language
and difference 169–70
Esperanto 169–70
Hebrew 112
Yiddish 28–9, 112, 169–70
laughter
aggression of 44–5
irrepressibility of 47
nervousness of 175
Liebman, Wendy 100
Lipman, Maureen 67
Marx, Groucho
Animal Crackers 165–6
and doubleness 166
principles of 37
as unclubbable 3–4
Mason, Jackie 175
men
as comics 96–7, 100–01
as fathers 86–7, 128
as fathers-in-law 86
as husbands 73–80, 88–9
as rabbis 73–4, 81–3, 127, 131–2, 141–2, 148–9, 158–9, 162–4
as sexists 80–2
as sons 88–9
as sons-in-law 88
morality
of jokes 79–80, 82, 142–3
of rabbis 81–3, 148–9, 158–9, 162–4
of shnorrers 105–10
Morgenbesser, Sydney 169
mothers
and comedians 96–7
and daughters 84, 90–1
and food 69–71, 120–1
and guilt 68–70, 89–91, 96–7
and pride 89–90, 91–3
and sons 85, 87, 89–90, 91–7, 120–1
negatives
blessings 50–4
flipsides 49, 55, 64
kvetching 17–19, 21, 23, 30, 117, 140
positive thinking 51
repetition 6, 63, 116–17, 169, 173
neurosis
and paranoia 133
vs morality 66–70
nervousness 154, 160, 175, 179
Old Jews Telling Jokes 1
Ostjuden
as shlemiels 32
and self-hatred 14–15
on trains 33, 105
Paley, Grace 99
politics
American 62, 116
Israeli 111–19
Soviet 62–4
Pryor, Richard 150, 153
punchlines 2, 4, 44, 102, 117
rabbis
folly of 73–4
hypocrisy of 81–3
vs other clergy 127–8, 131–2
sexual life of 73–4, 80–2
sporting life of 157–9
wisdom of 141–2, 148–9, 162–4
religion
Buddhism 26
Christianity 25–26, 124, 126, 168
Islam 24
Judaism 24, 124, 126, 132–3, 150
Orthodoxy 78
Rivers, Joan 100, 102
Roth, Philip 102
Portnoy’s Complaint 68, 97
Rudner, Rita 100
Sachs, Albie 124
shlemiels
vs shlimazels 9, 32, 167
of Chelm 52
men as examples of 138–40
rabbis as examples of 73–4
God as example of 137–8
Schneider, David 46–47
Schumer, Amy 103–4
Seinfeld, Jerry
Seinfeld 22–4, 43, 1336, 150
sense of humour
absurd 8
gallows 43–8, 53, 68, 115–9
irony 145–6
lack of 119, 174
offended by 101–04
sarcasm 146
and timing 5–6, 143, 170–3
sex
adultery 75–6, 80, 159
and joking 78–80
marriage 73–4, 77–80
as a mitzvah 77–8, 80
sexuality 72–3, 163–4
and perversion 79
shnorrers 105–10
Silverman, Sarah 101, 1025, 151
slips
Freudian 98, 105–06, 145
dependent on 9–10, 145, 149–50
joking as 10, 105, 145
pratfalls 149, 167
social life
fine dining 29
hospitality 69, 121
Instagram 92
Twitter 103–04, 177
Socrates 146
sports
golf 131–2, 158, 168
rowing 157–8
stand-up 157, 160
survival
of Holocaust 40–2, 46–7
of history 43, 48, 52, 120, 172–4
by joking 41, 54
of war 48, 53, 63
switcheroo
as comedy principle 6, 53
as divine principle 7, 54
as historical principle 6, 7, 54
synagogues 12–14, 59–60
tailors 62–5
vs God 137–8
vs psychiatrists 65
as realists 172
timing
comedy as the art of 5–6, 142–3
history 1, 142–3
looking ahead 6–7
nothing changes 63–4, 136
sudden changes 53–4
tsores
persecution 44–5, 120, 155–6
pogroms 43–4
suffering 2, 30, 143, 154–6
as transferable skill 30–1
waiting
for the messiah 54, 63
in a queue 60–1, 64
shaggy dog stories 172
war
endurance of 63, 120
prisoners of 48, 53
Wiesel, Elie 46
women
daughters 90–1
female comics 7, 99–104
mothers 20–1, 49, 68–71, 89–90, 92–8
mothers-in-law 84–7
shiksas 4, 80–2
Zamenhof, L. L. 170
Zohar (The) 7