Jewish tradition is filled with humor. You can trace it all the way back to the Talmud, which used elaborate legal arguments and situations that sometimes seemed really absurd, provoking humorous remarks some see as a method of remembering all of the laws. In essays written about Jewish humor, many writers talk about a variety of traces. But an interesting assumption was actually written by Saul Bellow, who said about the Jewish communities in eastern Europe: “oppressed people tend to be witty.”
Throughout the years Jewish humor has been one of the staples of the religion, allowing members to joke around and question what surrounds them in a witty way.
When Jews began immigrating to America, they were finding it hard to connect to the Americans already here. So many of them used humor in order to gain acceptance. Lenny Bruce once joked how they would react: “He was charming… They said, ‘C’mon! Let’s go watch the Jew be charming!’”
At the time of the large Jewish immigration a large industry began its first footsteps – The entertainment industry. Many Jews found their way into the industry and by doing so gained acceptance in the community. As years past, they became industry leaders like Jerry Seinfeld, and Larry David, and helped serve as a measure of what is “funny.”
