I keep seeing these posts wondering whether the various characters are Jewish. I think that for those who are not exposed to the jewish idiom this might be helpful to know, but I find that unlikely since eighty percent of the great comediens of all time are/were Jewish. I imagine that they have attained this place of distinction in our culture, because we in America can relate to the foibles of life as rendered by the Jewish idiom, whether we are Jewish or not.
Jews in the entertainment industry have also done a brilliant job depicting the foibles of Gentile life as well, without the filter of the Jewish experience that is much more apparant in the comedy of Jackie Mason, Joan Rivers, et al. Last week I watched the comedy chestnut, It's a mad, mad, mad, mad, world. With only a few exceptions (Jonathan Winters being the most hilarious, exception) the rest of the cast is Jewish, however they are not�playing Jewish characters, per se, but ordinary American shmoes, haranged by their mothers-in-law and trying to get a free buck.
I find this interest in the Jewishness of the characters to smack more of the traditional, American distintion against anyone - fictional or not - for being Jewish. Does this make them any more or less funny. Does it give greater depth of insight or apprecaition of their character? Probably not. It's more likely that it is a way that we draw attention to a certain fact that really has nothing to do with the character, or the writer's intentions. It's probably our old racist habit of having to identify certain groups for their ethnic identity, regardless of their worth as comedians, entertainers and human beings. Being or not being Jewish seems to override all that in many peoples minds. Especially in this time of Buchananism, we need to stop making these distinctions. They are dangerous. Joe
PS: See the documentary on Jewish humor sometime titled, "Next Time, Choose Someone Else."
********************************************************** *Joe Clarke "Life is much too important * *Boston College to be taken seriously." * *IREPM/GSSW Oscar Wilde * **********************************************************