Redeeming Laughter, 2nd Edition

6 Interlude: Brief Reflections on Jewish Humor

It is no accident (as Marxists used to say) that many of the jokes cited in the preceding chapters have been Jewish. The best jokes are Jewish jokes. This is a well-known fact among, at any rate, college-educated Americans of whatever ethnic or religious background. The college education is relevant only insofar as Jewish humor tends toward a high level of sophistication; whatever else a college education may be useful for today (this is a very controversial issue that cannot be pursued here), it does lead to the acquisition of a measure of sophistication. At least since the 1950s Jewish humor, both in its explicit form and in what might call a certain covert infiltration (the tone is Jewish even ...