Comments

dan bloom

May 02, 2012

Finallly, an editorial that sees the LIGHT! Bravo.

In debating these Anne Frank jokes, which Jewish comedienne Joan Rivers also tells in her lunge “act”—saying “Anne Frank was such a whiner, what a whiner, all she does in her diary is whine whine whine!” and also saying that Anne must have “surely fantasized about ahving wild sex with the handsome blonde Nazi soldiers downstairs”—Joan River riffs on that!—oi vey—and the joke on the Jon Stewart show that you till did not focus on which was Gervais telling Jon that “the reason the Frank family hid in an attic for two years was that they wanted to get out of paying rent…”—that’s funny?  and that’s borderline antisemitic stereotyping too—and Gervais said this RIGHT TO JON’s face on national TV! so yes, let us all honor ‘‘the great Jewish tradition of argumentation, especially what the sage rabbis called “arguments for the sake of heaven” — debates that seek to uncover the truth, not to belittle or undermine an opponent,” as this newspaper says elsewhere.

And yes, the key here is that we love comedy, comedy is useful, laughter is good, yes, but jokes about the victims of the Holocaust (or any other natiional or personal tragedy are NEVER funny!) and should be left out. as you wisely editorialize above: “Just leave it out.”

Anne Frank rent joke? Leave it out. All the Ricky Gervais Anne Frank jokes in his scripted, staged “act”? Leave them out. New motto: “Just leave them out.”

There is so much MORE to joke about in the world and Gervais and Rivers surely know that. i hope your very good editorial reaches the eyes and ears of Jon Stewart and Mr Gervais in London too. Anne Frank should NEVER be the butt of any human being’s joke! Period. Now make a joke about Dan Bloom’s ferociously determined campaign in the USA, the UK and Israel to rid the world of Anne Frank jokes, sure, mock me, make fun of me, I am a good target and I don’t mind. But don’t mock Anne Frank or her family! Got that Ricky?
And YET, you Andrew, tried to belittle ME without even having the professional courtesy of contacting me first by email to confirm my idendity or SDJW credentials! Sure, we can agree to disagree on Ann Frank jokes pro and con, in the traf of AFSK, arguments for the sake of heaven, sure. But you did not follow your own heart when you “attacked” me as being someone “who calls himself the Taiwan bureau chief for the San Diego Jewish World website” as if Jews who live overseas in Asia ARE NOT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY. WTF? you owe me a big fat AFSK apolo, Mensch! Do it.

danny bloom, 1949-2032
Taiwan Bureau Chief, San Diego Jewish World website
Tufts 1971

dan bloom

May 02, 2012

says Ruth Ben-Or in Israel to me today re this issue:

“Try free speech when its about something the” progressive” Left don’t
want to hear!…..Most kids today are given the ‘‘Diary of Anne Frank’’ to read
as a rite-of-passage novel about a young girl who dies tragically like
Mimi or Little Nell, with no reference to the Holocaust, only some
politically correct platitudes, .......so is it any wonder they find ignorant
so-called comedians acceptable?”

PS: I hope this very good editorial makes its way to the New York Times, to the JTA website, to the Forward, to the Guardian and Telegraph in Britain, and the Jerusalem Post in Israel. I don’t want a BAN on Anne Frank jokes and I don’t want censorship. I want voluntary compliance with the NJJN editorial here ! Voluntarily mandatory, in other words. No, just kidding, Self-censorship by Joan Rivers and Ricky Gervais is the best way to handle this, as you said JUST LEAVE [the tasteless vulgar pointless Anne Frank jokes] out!

dan bloom

May 02, 2012

I wish you had started off your very good editorial above this way:
[Get me rewrite!]

‘‘In a bit he recently repeated right in the face of Jewish host Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, British comedian Ricky Gervais jokes that the reason the Anne Frank family hid in an attic for two years in Holland during the war is that her family wanted to get out paying the rent.

It’s not a very good joke, but it’s not exactly an assault on the memory of the Holocaust. Nevertheless a Jewish journalist named Dan Bloom would like to see Gervais or Jon Stewart acknowledge that the joke was inappropriate. Writing in Britain’s Jewish Chronicle, Bloom asks Gervais to “leave Anne Frank out of your comedy routines.” etc etc

dan bloom

May 02, 2012

Chaim Paddaman says:
The Frum Jewish communities and the Jewish community as a whole, must give support to Dan Bloom in his endeavour to persuade Ricky Gervais and Joan Rivers to omit offensive and repulsive Anne Frank jokes from their comedy routines.

dan bloom

May 02, 2012

Alan Friedman says:
It’s a fact that we all have to joke about ourselves. Jewish people have been laughing about themselves forever–it has helped get us through the horrible times over the millenia. We even laugh at others who joke about us, which is normally about a stereotype of some sort. But this adn this particular subject matter can NEVER be joked about. There is nothing about the Holocaust that lends itself to joking, and how dare anyone try to tell us what should and should not offend us! This “joke” is inexcusable!

dan bloom

May 02, 2012

dan bloom says:
A non-Jewish Catholic blogger in the DC area tells me and says pelase post his words here too:

”Dear Dan
Just so you know, you’re doing a really good job of exposing this, and it deserves it. I’ve been buried, and have been meaning to mention it for some time.

Oh, and Anne Frank jokes just aren’t funny, period.”

Tom

dan bloom

May 02, 2012

Gerrick Kenndy at LAT writes ‘‘As hard as I am on this show, it’s out of love. It’s cemented its place in my heart, which is still reeling over the loss of “Arrested Development”—I know it’s been years, but it’s still emotional.

I talk often about the one-liners that are always *comedy gold*. I think it’s only right I start sharing my favorites.

Luke [on diaries, not breasts]: Some are real, right? Like Anne Frank’s?

FUNNY? why riff on Anne Frank here? Strange. True, she did keep a diary. But in the most horrific of circumstances. Which WRITER on the show was responsible for that LINE? Dish. we all want to know…. me too

 

Ruth Ben-Or

May 03, 2012

And, by the way, pornographic riffs aren’t funny either!

Bubbie Zadie

May 03, 2012

Yes, Ruth, WHAT was Joan Rivers thinking when she wrote that joke AND when she delivered it on stage? Revolting! And she is Jewish! Oy gevalt!

danny bloom

May 03, 2012

Someone asked my why I am doing this? Let me explain. I am the bloke in far away Asia who in 2008 or so single-handedly, but as part of a larger team, got the fake Holocaust memoir by our dear landsmann Herman Rosenlbat cancelled before publication by Penguin, and in my camaign to stop that book before it was published, i was met with a huge barrage of criticism and NO’s and stop emailing me and shut up from Jewish reporters and editors and bloggers, including JTA and Joseph Berger at NYTimers and top Jewish reporter at AP, not one media outlet would LISTEN To me for 3 months until i found Gabriel Sherman at TNR in DC and even for Gabe , he did not believe me for the first 27 emails and the first ten phone calls went nowhere, he kept saying I’m busy dan….but finally one night i called him one last time at his apt in NYC and he HEARD me and i told him the smoking gun i had and he went out to confirm what i told him and a week later his 2 part take down was published in The New Republic…..Gabe did it. But I had to work 90 days to find him and convince him to get off his tuches and look into the fake memoor. I knew it was fake. THe blind date gave it away. I have radar for these things. Not Jewdar, but human relations dar, psychologydar, pysche-dar, i understand a little bit how the human mind works. not evertything mind yu but a little. Anyways, we got the fake book cancelled. Why did i work so hard on the Herman rosenblat case fro my cave in Taiwan for no pay and no recompense? Because once i found out the book was fake, I had to al;ert the media, and as a media man, i just could not rest until i got THROUGH to the busy busy media…..so in this RICKY GHERvaIS JON STEWART case, different story, but again, i was just minding my businss, not looking for truble. and one friday night i happened to watch aYoutbe video of the Jon Stewart show with Gervais doing his sick Anne frank jokes and the RENT thing etc….i could not sleep all that night. REALLY, i tossed and i turned all night, fell asleep finallyu at 5 am….when i woke up at 8 am, i knew ihad to chase down this story, so i started blogging it….alll over…again, nobody LISTEND to me , nobody answed me emails, eveyrone told me to shut uyp, get lost, who are you, etc…but i knew these ANNE FRANK jokes had to be challenged. Again, my brain dar, my mind-dar, it is just NOT RIGHT…..so for the past 18 days i have been online 24/7 chasing down this story, and with editirial todayhere is great. But i am not fisinsehd. i still want Jon Stewart to speak out on this pro or con, i don’t care, just speak, man, and Joan Rivers too, one of our own for crying out loud! agian, why am i doing this, age 63, semi-retired, independetnly healthy and barely wealthy? because i care. i have no dog in this fight. I am not writing a book on this, i am not giving lectures on this, i am not intresed in appearing on TV on this….i am happy far away from sick USA.but i must speak outand i am glad NJJN heard me, finally, afer firstr MOCKING me last year in ASC’s blog.Par for the course, story of me life. But i spoke out because I once met Elie Wiesel in Boston, and he told me to never never give up when I had something to say…a.nd he is my inspiration and teacher in all things ANNE FRANK, so thank you Mr Wiesel…... i am not finished. i want justice for ANNE, and comedians all over must be
educated on this so that they voluntarily stop doing ANNE FRANK jokes…..and all jokes that mock victims of any tragedy? what’s next: an Elie Wiesel joke by Joan Rivers?come on, people. rise up and fight this dreck!

Hamish MacDonald

May 03, 2012

‘‘Bravo. You are a mensch, my friend!’’

—Hamisch MacDonald, Canadian man living in Scotland, raised Catholic in Toronto,

dan bloom

July 17, 2012

In late May, I penned a commentary here titled ‘‘Do ‘Jewish jokes’
need to be updated?’’ which challeneged Jewish comedians on stage and
in
movies to make modern Jewish humor in the 21st century better mirror
Jewish culture today and leave the Catskils and Borsch Belt behind.
Adding the text of a kind battle cry I called “The Silverman Manifesto
(2012),” I noted that I had some qualms about how it might or might
not go over among American Jews, and whether it might be or might not
be accepted.

Still, struck by some of the God-awful humor that has made its way
into so-called “Jewish humor” over the years — most of it good and
life-affirming, but some of it tasteless and sexist and even feeding
into the Internet hands of neo-Nazis and anti-semites — I asked
readers to look at my ‘‘manifesto’’ in order to raise some issues that
I hoped thoughtful people would address, pro and on.

The manifesto, I emphasized, was meant merely as an alarm bell, a
‘‘wake up call’’ for Jewish writers, comedians, film directors,
artists, screenwriters, producers, actors and others to re-examine the
state of Jewish humor in 2012 and where it’s headed. And a look back
to the past might not hurt either.

Now, two months later, Professor Ted Merwin at Fairleigh Dickson
University in Pennsylvania, and a regular drama critic for the Jewish
Weekly in New York, has
answered my call independently, with his own take on what’s right and
what’s wrong with Jewish humor today. Reviewing the current
off-Broadway revue titled
“Old Jews Telling Jokes” (which has gotten many very good reviews by
the way, and only few critical reviews).

take root outside of New York.’‘

Merwin adds: “To compensate for their nagging sense of outsiderness,
the show implicitly suggests, Jews turned to humor—in particular,
dirty jokes. Either sex or scatology is thus the underlying theme of
almost every gag. Jests about masturbating teenagers, blushing brides,
under-endowed grooms, priapic desert-island castaways, lascivious old
ladies, flaccid old men, aphrodisiac Jewish foods—the sex jokes go
on and on. Same with the jokes about bodily functions, which embrace
everything from women stuck on toilets to men with prostate and bowel
complaints.”

‘‘This is where one needs to wonder if the show, despite having plenty
of heart, has a soul,” Merwin writes.

dan bloom

July 17, 2012

Merwin concludes that he wishes the revue ‘‘didn’t insult its
audience’s intelligence quite so much,” adding that he was “reminded
of Bryan Fogel’s and Sam Wolfson’s phenomenally successful “Jewtopia”
(which played at the Westside Theater in 2006), which trotted out
every Jewish stereotype and excretory joke in the book, as if paradise
for Jews is an eternity on the toilet.”

The professor’s final verdict: “Perhaps I’m asking too much, but I
wish that “Old Jews Telling Jokes” afforded some kind of new
perspective on the place of humor in Jewish life, rather than yet
another guilty peep into the bedroom or bathroom window.’‘

Professor Merwin did not read the article I wrote here on May 24, nor
did he read “The Silverman Manifseto.” He does not know me, and I have
never known of his work before either, having
lived in Asia now for almost 20 years. Still, our views are very close
regarding ‘‘some kind of new perspective on the place of humor in
Jewish life.”

I was heartened to read his review in Jewish Week.

dan bloom

July 17, 2012

Merwin is direct and to the point, noting: “[The play] essentially
transports its audience ‘up the mountains’ (as my grandmother would
say) to the Catskills. In Borscht Belt jokes, Jewish men always felt
murderous toward their wives, non-Jewish women were secretly more
attractive to Jewish men than Jewish women were, rabbis always offered
ridiculous advice, and gentiles occupied a rarefied realm that Jews
could never hope to enter. The dated quality of the show is summed up
in two of its most inspired routines, which are Susman’s heavily
Yiddish-accented, solemn rendering of “Ol’ Man River” and a sing-along
with the audience of Tom Lehrer’s “Hanukkah in Santa Monica,” a song
about Jews discovering that Jewish life can (big surprise!) actually
take root outside of New York.’‘

Merwin adds: “To compensate for their nagging sense of outsiderness,
the show implicitly suggests, Jews turned to humor—in particular,
dirty jokes. Either sex or scatology is thus the underlying theme of
almost every gag. Jests about masturbating teenagers, blushing brides,
under-endowed grooms, priapic desert-island castaways, lascivious old
ladies, flaccid old men, aphrodisiac Jewish foods—the sex jokes go
on and on. Same with the jokes about bodily functions, which embrace
everything from women stuck on toilets to men with prostate and bowel
complaints.”

‘‘This is where one needs to wonder if the show, despite having plenty
of heart, has a soul,” Merwin writes. “A non-Jew who wandered into the
theater could be forgiven for thinking that Jews, despite being
renowned for their intellectual attainments, are in reality obsessed
with their lower bodies. Or that upwardly mobile Jews remain stuck in
a low-class or unassimilated Jewish past that they have only
transcended on the outside, but still inhabit in some nether region of
their deepest selves.’‘

Merwin concludes that he wishes the revue ‘‘didn’t insult its
audience’s intelligence quite so much,” adding that he was “reminded
of Bryan Fogel’s and Sam Wolfson’s phenomenally successful “Jewtopia”
(which played at the Westside Theater in 2006), which trotted out
every Jewish stereotype and excretory joke in the book, as if paradise
for Jews is an eternity on the toilet.”

The professor’s final verdict: “Perhaps I’m asking too much, but I
wish that “Old Jews Telling Jokes” afforded some kind of new
perspective on the place of humor in Jewish life, rather than yet
another guilty peep into the bedroom or bathroom window.’‘