WHAT'S SO FUNNY? Humor in Israel since 1973

DoronRosenblum

WHAT'S FUNNY? Humor in Israel since 1973 DoronRosenblum A Jewish mother boasts to her neighbor of her son's marvelous qualities: "I have a remarkable son. For example, when he says he's going to...

...All hell broke loose when the actors burst into song: "We are the all right people/ absolutely all right people/ sitting on our asses singing a song/ we're happy, stinking, and warm...
...The humor has turned sour, at times bitter, but it seems impossible to maintain one's sanity and lucidity without it...
...he often describes absurd situations which underscore the sea of hatred and hostility surrounding righteous Israel...
...Nonetheless, no one forgoes these entertaining blows...
...today it is usually worn for protection against the sun by workers, kibbutz-niks, and hikers) who symbolizes the young State of Israel...
...A prize for being humane...
...Once you have answered that, you will have an accurate reflection of diverse moods and outlooks from one end of the spectrum to the other: from the extremist, nationalistic right to the volatile, insolent left...
...In good times, a smile lights up his face — "Yisroe-lik" rides on a tank and vengefully punishes his enemies, builds a new airplane or contrives a new invention...
...Shocking...
...Queen of the Bathtub indicated a trend...
...Ephraim Kishon, Israel's senior humorist, was at the height of his popularity, and Israelis enjoyed reading such bon mots as: "This is the country where the mother learns the mother tongue from her children . . . This is the country where one writes Hebrew, reads English and speaks Yiddish . . . This is a country with free elections but no choices . . . This is a country that lives in constant danger, but its people get ulcers davka from the upstairs neighbors . . . This is a country where people don't expect miracles, but rather they take them into account . . . This is a country that produces less than it consumes, and davka here no one dies of starvation...
...I think I'm terrific," answers the young girl, and they both start doing acrobatics as each one tries to kiss himself...
...They introduce him: "Please meet 'our Arab,' the man needed by the Jewish contractor for the simple dirty work, the one who is forbidden to organize politically, forbidden to voice his protest under an occupation flaunted as the most liberal of occupations...
...When these and other scathing lines were delivered in Queen of the Bathtub, a satirical show written by the young Israeli playwright Hanoch Levin, an unprecedented public furor arose...
...Given the present mood in Israel, one longs to read such Kishonesque aphorisms, full of innocence, free of complexes and infused with love of Israel...
...For example, when he says he's going to sleep — he goes to sleep...
...And perhaps the plant is Kissinger...
...Both must symbolize something...
...Their single common guideline seems to be a desire to escape the catastrophic "Jewish fate," or at least to elude those terrifying demons who persecuted the Jewish minority from time immemorial...
...Indeed, an almost permanent fixture on the show is the parodied figure of Menachem Begin, leader of the nationalistic Herut movement...
...There is a clear division between "constructive" humor and "destructive" humor, with the latter regarded as the province of the young...
...Good old "Yisroelik" has been supplanted by the barbs, blows and contradictions of the satire termed "destructive" (by the "constructiv-ists...
...How should I know...
...Macabre jokes now flourish in the streets, cafes and drawing rooms, those places where the juiciest humor is always found: "Once upon a time Jews would leave their money abroad and come to be buried in Israel...
...At the present, newspaper headlines are distressing and irritating, and a disquieting cloud hangs over the Israeli people...
...they repeatedly assert that this kind of destructive humor is the outcome of a self-hatred very similar to that of "Troublers of Israel" (originally a biblical term referring to troublemakers among the Israelites, e.g., Korach, Datan, and Aviram [Numbers: 16-17...
...During the early years of statehood, most jokes and humorous pieces could be characterized as "laughing through the tears...
...Their political outlook is right-wing, they are overly anxious about the fate of the country, they oppose territorial and political concessions, and their viewpoint is hawkish in the spheres of social affairs, defense, and foreign policy...
...We don't know how to conquer properly...
...These are the people who s?y that striking port workers are "worse than PLO gangs...
...I think I'm pretty, healthy and intelligent...
...What ridicule Kishon dumped on poor little "Hussi," King of Jordan...
...But when this joke was told on the Israeli stage in 1970, it continued on a surprisingly sharp note: "I think," says the second mother, "that with sons like ours — we're allowed to stink...
...Humor has always been part of Israeli society (what would we do without it...
...When right-wing circles renewed their demand to establish a national unity government in answer to Israel's difficult political situation, the show presented a refrain, similar to an advertising jingle, which "marketed" the national unity government as a good, prompt and effective remedy for all ailments — runny nose, impotence, headache...
...These delicate, humorous pieces have lost their vigor and, in joining the struggle, they too have •become instruments for expressing Kishon's political views...
...Later on, the following conversation, between a combat officer and a young girl, occurred...
...The streets become deserted whenever the show is broadcast, and for days afterward offended politicians submit queries to the Knesset, complaining of "satirical imbalance" (when it has been directed against them...
...The question is not which kind of joking amuses more, but rather whom does it irritate less...
...The "construc-tivist" humor, rather than being a vehicle for laughter, is both a device for expressing anger and self-pity and a way to articulate one's national views...
...Israel has only one television channel, state-sponsored and financed by taxpayers' money...
...As Dr...
...In retrospect, one may perceive this show to be a prophecy of things to come, handwriting on the wall at the high point of the revelry...
...The joke about "turning off the lights at Lod," too old to retell, hovers in the background...
...Drawings by Kerman/Kerman theater companies, it was funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture...
...At one time, following the oil embargo threat, he raised the amusing possibility that Kaddafi be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature...
...says the officer...
...In Israel, humor is a serious matter, and often one man's laughter is another man's tears...
...If we take Israeli humor seriously and seek to enumerate signs of social significance therein, we must examine what amuses whom and when...
...I think I'm fascinating, and what do you think...
...At the beginning of the war Kishon wrote: "You saved this Yom Kippur for us, Anwar...
...Today, even Israel's new leaders lack the vitality of Yiddishkeit that characterized the era of Ben Gurion, Eshkol and Golda...
...Kishon, like his colleague Dosh, reached the acme of his popularity during the Six Day War...
...It isn't amusing but it is often true...
...Another typical cartoon of that period: a wriggling snake (Egypt) sharpens its fangs...
...I intentionally chose to begin with this unconventional dialogue, because it illustrates the convoluted nature and the peculiar and sharp barbs of Israeli humor...
...One has difficulty describing to an outsider how this satirical television show has become a national happening in Israel...
...These young people are very influenced by the "scene" among their peers in the Western world...
...at the end of the road a sun, labeled "victory," was breaking through the clouds...
...all this stems from a direct and conscious desire to see Israel as a "normal" Western country despite her abnormal situation...
...Two young Israeli girls lead in an Arab on a rope...
...It opened with a caustic parody in the style of Siach Lochamin (a book which appeared in English under the title The Seventh Day) — conversations of "good" Israelis after the great victory of the Six Day War...
...its main proponent was Amos Kenan, a gifted writer and journalist...
...Whatever happened to the good old days of the Six Day War, when, on the eve of battle, our "Yisroelik" wrote "military solution" with an exclamation point and "political solution" with a big question mark...
...Ever since the scandalous economic disclosures, Israel is like a bus — half the people sit (in jail) and half shake...
...This column, entitled "Uzi's Opinion" — written in the first person and using the new sabra's arrogant language and inimitable slang — derided several key figures in Israeli society...
...Joseph Burg, Israel's Minister of the Interior and one of the last old-time politicians, said with typical Jewish-Israeli humor: "Things used to be different...
...It's summer (the dry season) now...
...Numerous newspaper articles address themselves to this program, and scores of irate citizens bombard the editorial boards with letters of protest...
...The joke tells of a sign at Lod Airport saying: "Will the last one out — turn off the light...
...During .the period of the War of Independence and the establishment of . the state, a special sabra humor (more ingenuous than today's) flourished, a humor which, even then, mocked the "old-timers" — those pathos-stricken people who spoke magniloquently of distant national goals while ignoring the individual's happiness...
...It was Queen of the Bathtub , which threw the first punch, so to speak, at the overly complacent Israelis...
...But sometimes, with jokes like these, one doesn't need bad news...
...There are no original cartoons about the lonely man on the desert island, the little middle-class bourgeois facing the television set, or the plant falling on the head of a passerby...
...Often, it is hard to distinguish between the program's humorous content and real-life events...
...Queen of the Bathtub was a "satirical revue about brothers dwelling in the shadow of guns...
...Come on gang...
...This type of humor, too, has a history...
...Today sadness and gloom permeate "constructive" humor...
...Strange...
...see you again at the canal in six years...
...His travails, flashes of anger and moments of satisfaction constitute the great saga of Israel's struggles...
...Ford frequently turns his back on "Yis-roelik," Kissinger puts him through a wringer, and threatening terrorists resembling Yassir Arafat, with knives thrust between their gnashing teeth, sneak up behind him...
...From this wave of venomous and scathing satire, there remains the most conspicuous and dominant platform for Israeli humor — the popular satirical television program called Nikui Rosh (engine overhaul...
...It is group therapy for an entire nation...
...Indeed, the profusion of ridicule has undergone a complete about-face: what was once outer-directed is now dumped on our heads...
...It is a cruel, biting and macabre humor, directed toward the Achilles heel of Israeli society...
...Average Citizen, and the falling plant a currency devaluation and tax increase...
...Disclosure of economic scandals following bank and investment firm collapse provided good kindling for caustic satires and parodies on economic management in Israel...
...Some people charge that the program represents "leftist humor" because the main barbs are directed toward "right-wing circles" in Israel...
...Juicy Yiddish comments are no longer heard in the political upper echelons...
...for them, the Holocaust and the heroic exploits leading up to the establishment of the state are chapters in a history book...
...But in bad times, as of late, his face shows sadness and rage...
...This figure started out as a little boy...
...Is the passerby the prime minister...
...Ostensibly, this is a typical Jewish joke which might have appeared in the writings of Sholom Aleichem or Mendele Mocher S'forim...
...For the most part, Israel began to lose her initial, charming innocence during the period of recession that preceded the Six Day War, and the humor naturally reflected this...
...In those days, when the right-wing ultra-conservative humor (regarded as repugnant and chauvinistic by some people) was in full bloom, Dosh drew "Yisroelik" shaking his fist in three directions— Jordan, Syria and Egypt — under the caption "Wunderkind...
...as time passed, he matured into manhood, and is now 27...
...The first sign of this wave of political satire may have appeared prematurely — during the height of the euphoric, self-satisfied period which followed the Six Day War...
...Times have changed...
...Perhaps for the first time in the history of Israeli theater, tomatoes were hurled at the stage...
...In the 1950's, this line of humor continued to exist alongside the "mobilized," "constructive" humor...
...The following harsh scene, of real political significance, brought the audience's fury to a climax...
...Give my regards to the Syrians...
...This article was translated by Carole Kaufman...
...When panicked hoarding of oil, sugar and gasoline overran the country following rumors of price increases (a common phenomenon in Israel during the past two years), two housewives were seen on Nikui Rosh, emptying all the books, including the Bible, off the shelves, and replacing them with sacks of rice and cans of oil...
...our friend "Yisroelik," forehead wrinkled angrily, club in hand, stands over the snake and calls to the converging masses, smiles on their faces and pitchforks in their hands...
...This is the way the right-wing humorists mobilized to fan the instinctual flames and raise the morale for war...
...Kishon continues to pursue a similar course, though perhaps with greater refinement...
...A prize...
...shouts one of the Israelis, "I want a prize for not smashing his head open...
...Because of Israel's small size and her people's feeling of partnership, one is hard put to find the same kind of "civilian" day-to-day humor in the media that can be found in the cartoons of the Western press...
...The members of Gush Emu-nim — religious young people desiring to settle in the "holy places" beyond the green line for religious-mystical motives, despite governmental decisions to the contrary — are also jeered and ridiculed...
...I ask myself: How can a person be so right all the time...
...In Israel, almost every joke falls back on a collective experience or has a national, economic, and especially political significance...
...The gap between this type of humor and that of today is very great, because, once again, Israel is going through a period of macabre "catastrophe jokes," in an era of "turning off the light at Lod...
...In those days, he would dispatch sarcastic letters to "Dear Gamal (Nasser)" threatening the Egyptian ruler that "our jeeps are ready for a contest to see who reaches the Suez (Canal) first...
...Naturally, Israel's rotating adversaries (Assad, Sadat, Brezhnev, the Soviet ambassador to the UN) are loathingly drawn as hideous, hypocritical and self-righteous figures, while poor "Yisroelik" suffers one more wrinkle of worry, one more flush of insult...
...When sharp denunciations of Henry Kissinger, the alleged oppressor and humiliator of Israel, increased, a song was sung in his defense: "If not for you, Kissinger," it went, "we'd now be dead, crippled or sitting on the other side of the canal eating army rations...
...And so television satire, with its brutal cathartic action and immediate reaction to newspaper headlines, currently serves as a distorted reflection of Israeli' reality...
...and by nature it becomes caustic during periods of unrest...
...Like many Israeli Doron Rosenblum writes regularly for HA'ARETZ and resides in Israel...
...The former has the uncontested copyright on one of the tragicomic figures of Hebrew cartoonistry — "Yis-roelik," with his shock of hair and kova tembel (a kind of sailor hat originally worn by chaiutzim...
...At that time, Kenan wrote a daily column in Ha'aretz, a column which may be considered the father of contemporary Israeli satire...
...This leads to grotesque spectacles in our public and political life...
...Several of Israel's economic chieftains, who are presently serving jail sentences for fraud and embezzlement of tens of millions, were shown losing their socks and trousers (a visual simile referring to sock and trouser factories that lost their capital as a result of wild economic speculations...
...Likewise, he would send himself tearful letters from Nasser: "They all worked together to do me in...
...Humor exists...
...Cosmopolitan jokes about husband and wife, parents and children, son-in-law and mother-in-law do not circulate here...
...Yisroelik" once again shook his fists during the first days of the war, but then he lowered them very slowly as his face took on a look of perplexity and frustration...
...It's like every Jewish joke that tries to cope with an inescapable fate...
...This old joke, which might be called the classical hard times joke, is again popular today...
...This may be a sad try per se, but it is an interesting attempt (and in the sphere of humor, quite funny) to act normal under abnormal circumstances, to maintain one's sanity...
...The war against these stereotypes also marked the beginning of a humoristic war against manifestations of bitchonism (total reliance on the army's strength), religious interference with political life, the mishmash of mystical myths and secular day-to-day life, and all those "abnormal" demons that the cruel post-Yom Kippur War satire battles today...
...Opponents of this scathing satire cannot believe their eyes and ears...
...Is a sketch of a swastika on the UN building amusing...
...And this, to the great consternation of those very same good citizens who were accustomed to laughing at Idi Amin but not at Golda, at Sadat but not at Knesset Members...
...A serious analysis of the underlying motivations and characteristics of this humor might be valuable...
...How and for how long can one describe national adversities humorously...
...Is the plant a motion of censure at the UN...
...After the Yom Kippur War, the rage against the political leaders and the perpetual social and political distortions found no effective outlet...
...The word "Zionism" was placed in quotation marks, and in sabra slang, one who talks Zionism denotes a person mouthing dull and meaningless phrases...
...the question remains — is it funny and whom does it amuse...
...The opening refrain of Nikui Rosh puts it — "As of late, when things aren't so great, got to get a tear-filter tune-up, oil and lube job for the ears, overhaul the eyes, rotate the opinions, and that's that — we can move on...
...Today, even the future isn't what it once was...
...Afterwards, the show described "those beautiful moments in life" — when people jump off roofs, are poisoned, or are run over by passing cars — those moments of grace from the killing of war...
...Public investment policy was depicted as a roulette game played by shady characters a la The Godfather...
...Time and again, he is shown delivering tearful, pathos-ridden speeches, wherein he proves ad absurdum how every step the government takes toward peace is really a step toward war, and vice versa...
...This form of satirical expression is the province of young, native-born Israelis who have not experienced life in the diaspora...
...Israeli humor is so unique, so familial, that not only are there difficulties rendering it into another language, but a stranger will not understand this humor if he himself has not experienced life in Israel...
...One finds only political cartoons in the Israeli press...
...We understand as much about conquest as we do about handball...
...The show achieved popularity primarily due to the profusion of visual devices and the excellent impersonations (in appearance and voice) of Israeli leaders and public figures performed by a superb group of actors...
...Relief was found on stages, in cabarets and satirical newspaper columns which had been less biting in the past...
...and if a plant falls on someone's head, it isn't just a plant, and it isn't just anyone...
...I get up in the morning and poof — I'm right again...
...Kenan humorously presented a gallery of dominant yishuv archetypes: "Yerachmiel" — the party worker ready to sacrifice everything for a handful of vague ideals, "crazy Zal-man," "Rabbi Moishe...
...Kishon's letters to "Hussi" and Sadat initially were as audacious as those of the previous war, but then they petered out...
...Indeed, it is difficult for Israel's loyal old guard, so accustomed to good old ever-right "Yisroelik," to digest satire that seems to rub salt into their wounds...
...The show, which was supported by public funding, was withdrawn on the pretext that it desecrated all the sacrosanct values of Israeli society...
...Herein lies the source of the scoffing at antiquated fears, the demand for consideration of Israel's Arab minority, the calls for compromise with our neighbors, the stress placed upon correction of social distortions...
...Golda Meir, the much esteemed prime minister of those days, was shown presiding over a Cabinet meeting, seized with admiration for herself: "I don't know what to do...
...Today, however, after the censure of Zionism at the UN and the expulsion of Israel from UNESCO, international political realities surpass all imagination...
...Prominent members of this group are Dosh, the cartoonist, and Eph-raim Kishon, the humorist...
...Most of the humorists, newspaper columnists and cartoonists representative of "constructive" humor (which usually mocks Israel's enemies and the world at large, but not Israel) are European-born, middle-aged people who have observed the Holocaust at close range and live with its trauma...
...today the Jews stay abroad and send their money to be buried in Israel...
...It is interesting to trace the modifications in these humorous works since the Yom Kippur War...
...One cannot joke about the spirited personalities of Golda, Dayan, Eshkol and Sapir...
...At most, he was shown walking down a long road...
...A good joke but not very funny...
...I am so right...
...And perhaps the passerby is Mr...
...Hence, Israeli humor changes tone in accordance with the "real" news: it moves from the black humor, the macabre, in varying hues, to the humor of contentment, oversatisfaction and smugness — humor of nachas...
...Take 'Hussi' (Hussein), that little squirt, hopping all over the world and asking where the air umbrella was during the war...
...The parody scoffed at the smugness of these young people who, encouraged by the country's aging leaders, became entranced by their own infinite superman qualities...
...Is a drawing of Kissinger cheating "Yisroelik" at poker funny...
...It is interesting to contrast this satire with one of Kishon's jokes: "We're inexperienced conquerors...

Vol. 1 • March 1976 • No. 8


 
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