No Joke (35 page)

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Authors: Ruth R. Wisse

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Burns, George (Nathan Birnbaum),
123

Buttons, Red (Aaron Chwatt),
123
–
24

Caesar, Sid,
130

Cahan, Abraham:
The Rise of David Levinsky
,
124

Cambridge, Massachusetts,
11
,
219
–
20

capitalism,
87
,
157
,
240
,
254n12

caricatures,
16
–
17
,
63
,
74
,
265n10
.
See also
stereotypes

Catch-22
(Heller),
132
,
208

Catholicism,
41
,
43
–
44
,
48
,
70
,
131
,
140
,
198
,
226
,
258n11

Catskill Mountains,
122
,
124
,
126
–
28
,
139
,
144

censorship,
187
; Polish,
146
; Russian,
17
,
60
,
84
,
97
,
160
; Soviet-German,
176
–
77

Chagall, Marc,
66
,
162
,
261n13

Chaplin, Charlie,
179

chizbat
,
194
,
197

chosenness, Jewish,
21
–
23
,
33
,
43
,
88
,
99
,
105
,
153
,
228

Christianity,
4
,
9
,
16
,
21
,
29
–
30
,
34
,
42
,
57
,
90
–
92
,
107
,
114
,
118
,
222
,
229
–
30
,
257n3
; Jewish mockery of,
130
,
136
–
39
.
See also
conversion to Christianity
; Protestantism; Catholicism

Chumash lider
,
94
–
95

Churchill, Winston,
226

chutzpah,
121
,
193

Chwolson, Daniel Abramovitch,
92

circumcision,
83
,
91
,
125
,
156
,
169

Coen Brothers:
The Big Lebowski
,
131

Cohen, Sacha Baron,
46
,
232
–
33

Cohen, Ted,
82

comedians,
25
–
26
,
28
,
63
,
76
,
136
,
139
,
220
,
232
; Jewish,
12
,
122
–
24
,
127
–
30
,
144
–
47
,
156
,
185
–
86
,
202
–
3
,
213
–
14
,
217
,
233
–
34
,
236
;
See also names of individual comedians
; professional comedy

Communism,
17
,
149
,
155
–
58
,
163
–
65
,
168
,
172
,
175
–
76
,
222
,
225
–
27
,
240

comprehension of jokes.
See
understanding jokes

concentration camps,
17
,
148
–
49
,
219
,
221
,
224
,
238

contradictions,
21
,
33
,
75
,
99
,
157
,
217

conversion to Christianity,
29
,
37
–
38
,
40
–
44
,
48
,
50
–
51
,
57
,
91
–
92
,
107
,
137
,
212

conversion to Judaism,
108
,
131
,
257n3

Court Jester, The
(Kaye),
231

Costello, Lou: Abbot and Costello,
192
,
201

cuckolds,
98
,
132
,
182

Curb Your Enthusiasm
,
236
–
37

curses,
64
,
78
,
85
–
86
,
158
.
See also
Yiddish cursing

czarism,
17
,
60
,
72
–
73
,
163
–
64
,
230

Daily Telegraph
(London),
12

dangers of joking,
10
–
11
,
25
–
26
,
28
,
102
,
141
,
160
,
178
,
241

Daniel Deronda
(Eliot),
106
–
7

Darwin, Charles,
53

David, Larry (LD),
46
,
130
,
236
,
238
–
39

Davies, Christie,
13
,
250n10

Day of Atonement.
See
Yom Kippur

Dead Sea Scrolls,
255n14

death: as subject of jokes,
222
–
24

death camps.
See
concentration camps
;
gulags

Diaspora,
183
,
185
,
197
,
208
–
9

Dickens, Charles,
107
,
112
;
Oliver Twist
,
107

Diderot, Denis,
70

Diogenes,
49
,
153

displacement: Jewish,
40
,
59
,
67
(
see also
exile
); as joke technique,
2
–
3
,
33

Dosh (Kariel Gardosh),
196

double meanings,
2
,
31
,
226
,
230
,
236

doublespeak,
150
,
167

Druyanov, Alter,
217
–
18

Duck Soup
(Marx Brothers),
230

Dzigan, Shimen,
143
–
47
,
155
–
56
,
185
–
86
,
201
;
The Impact of Jewish Humor
,
143
;
Jolly Paupers
(
Freylekhe kabtsonim
),
146
; “The Last Jew in Poland,”
145

Ecclesiastes, Book of,
181

education,
86
,
157
,
219
; Jewish,
62
; military,
199
–
200
.
See also
literacy

Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N
,
The
(Rosten),
118
–
21

Egypt,
20
,
204
–
5
,
207
,
211

Ehrenburg, Ilya,
160
–
61
;
The Stormy Life of Lasik Roitschwantz
,
160

Eichmann, Adolf,
216

Elazar, Rabbi,
81

Eliot, George,
106
–
7

Elkin, Stanley:
Criers and Kibitzners, Kibitzners and Criers
,
132

England,
17
,
100
,
104
–
13
,
115
,
117
–
18
,
239
–
41

Enlightenment,
20
,
51
,
68
,
70
,
80
,
145
,
209
.
See also
Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment)

Eretz Nehederet
(A wonderful country),
211
–
12

Esther,
23
,
65
,
95
–
96
; Book of (Megillah),
23
,
95
,
105
–
6
,
151
,
209

ethnic humor,
1
–
2
,
5
,
187
,
199
–
200
,
221
,
227

exaggeration,
3
,
27
,
57
,
71
,
115
,
130
,
240

exile, Jewish,
16
,
95
,
99
,
117
,
184
,
189
–
90
,
192
,
197
,
242

Exodus, Book of,
115

expectations, comic,
2
,
6
,
76
,
106
,
116
,
152

fartumlen
,
147

fascism,
17
,
226
,
235

fear, and humor,
50
–
51
,
63
,
117
,
147
,
227

Fiddler on the Roof
,
66
,
103
,
162
,
205
.
See also
Tevye the Dairyman

films,
46
,
65
,
75
,
118
,
124
,
131
,
146
,
179
–
81
,
199
,
203
–
6
,
212
–
15
,
230
–
33
,
240
–
42
.
See also names of individual films

Final Solution,
17
,
147

flusterwitze
(whispered jokes),
178

folk humor,
3
,
13
,
16
,
20
,
67
,
79
,
85
–
88
,
153
–
56
,
187

folklore,
13
,
86
,
154
,
202

Fraiberg, Selma,
63

France,
36
,
68
,
257n3

Freed, Arthur,
231

Freiheit
(Yiddish Communist daily),
92

Freud, Sigmund,
3
,
7
–
13
,
32
–
35
,
42
,
45
,
54
–
55
,
75
,
89
,
133
–
35
,
178
,
228
,
251n6
,
265n10
;
Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious
,
3
,
32
,
89

Friedman, Bruce Jay:
Stern
,
132
,
237

gallows humor,
82
,
141
,
154
,
178
.
See also
ghetto humor
;
Holocaust humor

Gaon of Vilna (Rabbi Elijah ben Solomon),
69

Gashashim.
See
Hagashash hahiver

gematria
,
210

Genesis, Book of,
22
,
94
,
184

German humor,
16
,
18
,
35
,
57
–
59
,
88
,
148
–
52
,
158
,
176
–
242
,
260n2

Germany,
37
,
68
,
100
,
136
,
138
,
144
,
148
,
176
,
179
,
183
,
188
–
89
,
224
,
242

ghetto humor,
17
,
149
–
54
,
177
–
78
,
242
–
43
.
See also
gallows humor
;
Holocaust humor

ghettos,
9
,
17
,
21
,
44
,
49
–
50
,
147
,
149
,
151
–
54
,
161
,
176
–
77
,
242
–
43

“Gimpel the Fool” (Singer),
98
–
99
,
237

God,
19
,
21
–
23
,
41
–
42
,
72
,
78
,
81
,
84
,
94
,
99
,
105
,
114
–
16
,
137
,
151
,
171
,
182
–
84
,
188
–
90
,
193
,
195
,
233
,
249n5
,
258n11

Goebbels, Joseph,
136

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von,
36
,
40
,
48
;
Travels in Italy
,
40

Gogol, Nikolay Vasilyevich,
62
–
63
; “The Nose,”
62

Goldberg, Molly,
130
,
239

Goldfaden, Abraham:
The Two Kuni-Lemls
(
The Fanatic
),
73
–
75

Goldman, Albert,
25

golem,
222

Goodman, John,
131

Gordon-Levitt, Joseph,
231

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