Why Do So Many Jewish People Go into Comedy?

I looked into this burning question — OyVey!

“I know why we laugh. We laugh because it hurts, and it’s the only thing to make it stop hurting.― Robert A. Heinlein

A coworker at my job after finding out I was Jewish said…”It seems there are sooo many Jewish people who go into comedy!”

Yeah yeah I know.

“Do you have any idea why...?” she seemed intrigued.

“Well, maybe it’s because they have a lot of angst and they had to go somewhere with it. Maybe Jews try to make people laugh by using their own pain as fodder.”

I don’t know.

I began researching this topic because I found it fascinating. One of the things I love about being a writer is following my curiosity.

According to the New York Times article Why Are Jews Funny:

“…For most of their history they had a reputation, at least among their gentile neighbors, for being humorless and glum. But in 1978, Time magazine claimed that 80 percent of all stand-up comedians in the United States were Jewish.”

Wow. 80%!?

That seems like a high percentage considering the Jewish population in the U.S is only 2% and 0.227% of the world’s population.

This seemed worthy of exploring more.

Here is a list of some Jewish comedians from past to present.

There is definitely a powerful Jewish presence in American comedy:

The Marx Brothers, The Three Stooges, Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Neil Simon, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Henny Youngman, Jonathan Katz, Jackie Mason, Buddy Hackett, Rodney Dangerfield, Lenny Bruce, Gilda Radner, Andy Kaufman, Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David, Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Andy Samberg, Judd Apatow.

Some of my personal favorite Jewish comedians are Billy Crystal, Don Rickles, George Burns, Sarah Silverman, Lewis Black and Jon Stewart from The Daily Show.

SO, WHY DO SO MANY JEWS GO INTO COMEDY?

There are plenty of theories to explain Jewish humor.

Saul Bellow, American Humorist said: “Jewish humor combined “laughter and trembling.”

Sigmund Freud believed: “Jewish humor was a defense mechanism: a form of sublimated aggression that lets victims of persecution safely cope with their condition.”

Mel Brooks put it bluntly: “If they’re laughing, how can they bludgeon you to death?”

My own theory is that many Jews had Transgenerational Traumas that they had to work through and overcome.

Transgenerational trauma is trauma that is transferred from the first generation of trauma survivors to the second and further generations of offspring of the survivors via complex post-traumaticstress disorder mechanisms. — -Wikipedia

I’ve always wondered if many Jewish comics had some sort of relation to the Holocaust or had a relative who might’ve had a connection to the horrors of WWII.

My bet is that many Jews had to turn their pain into comedy or they might be in deep shit!

They might turn to drugs, alcohol or suicide.

Many did.

But, is comedy something Jews naturally do well?

Jon Lovitz, SNL actor, comedian was asked why the comedy circuit was dominated by Jews. His theory was:

“To be funny, you have to suffer, suffer, suffer. Jews, blacks, we’ve suffered a lot in the past. That makes us funny, I guess.”

Freud made the observation “I do not know whether there are many other instances of a people making fun to such a degree of their own character (as the Jewish people)”.

A different take on it is Ruth Wisse who wrote the book No Joke: Making Jewish Humor.

“Jewish humor made too much of a virtue out of weakness and passivity..”

Yeah that could be. Many Jews are known for their self depreciating humor. Hey, what else can they do except joke about their pain? They can wallow! Trust me I know about wallowing. I come from a line of Jewish wallowers. LOL

Afriend Matt last night added this insightful suggestion about why he thinks so many Jews are in comedy.

He said “…it could have to do with ‘Genetic Narrowing’ of WWII”.

Genetic Narrowing?

Genetic Narrowing, he said, means that in the time of the Nazis many of the more intelligent and educated Jewish people got away. They had the means to move out of the country — quickly. They escaped the inevitable.

Many others died, unfortunately.

Hmm.

He said, “Well…to be a comedian you must be intelligent — You must have some smarts. Comedy is a higher intelligence art form.” (There are dumb ignorant people in comedy but for the most part you have to be smart — to write jokes, deliver them, find your timing etc.)

As a side note I found this line funny from 3 Reasons There Are So Many Jews In Comedy by Gladstone:

“Comedy can be powerful. Humor can undo some deeply held beliefs. Look at Jerry Lewis. How else, but through comedy, could the French be fooled into loving such a greasy Jew?”

LOL

So there is my short exploration of this topic: Why do so many Jews go into comedy.

Here are a few more ideas to ponder in the future. They might make interesting stories too.

What happens when Jews are no longer a persecuted minority? Can a well-armed majority still be funny?

Did Jews got funnier, or were they funny all along and nobody noticed?

THANKS FOR READING! www.michellemonet.com