by Debra Rubin
NJJN Bureau Chief/Middlesex

June 4, 2009

Sam Hoffman grew up in Highland Park listening to his elderly relatives and laughing at their quirky Jewish humor.

So he got the idea to film friends and family telling their favorite jokes, and to post the results on the Internet.

The result, the bluntly titled “OldJewsTellingJokes,” went up in January and has received more than two million hits. The series’ Facebook page lists over 2,000 followers. A new season is set to premiere next month, featuring former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, 84, among other old jokesters.

Meanwhile, First Run Films recently optioned the web series for a forthcoming release on home video — hopefully by the fall, says producer Eric Spiegelman.

The site also has a distinctly New Jersey accent, thanks to Barnett Hoffman, Sam’s dad, who helped recruit the original cast of amateur comics.

Barney Hoffman, a retired Middlesex County superior court judge who lives in Highland Park, said his son, a Manhattan resident who’s been in the movie business about 25 years, “asked me if I knew any funny old Jews.”

Those who answered the call — mostly men, and two women, including Sam’s mother Diane — met at a vacant storefront in Highland Park, where Hoffman was waiting with a professional crew, sandwiches, and the guarantee of a free DVD for each participant.

“Sam brought in a film crew, and we had an absolutely memorable evening,” recalled Barney. “Then he edited the jokes for the whole world to see how funny or unfunny we were.”

The elder Hoffman said that his own father was the oldest of eight siblings — all of them sharp-witted, a trait that was passed on to many of his cousins.

“We spent a lot of time laughing when [Sam] was growing up,” said Hoffman.

Every video starts off with a snippet of a jaunty klezmer romp from noted Yiddish musician Henry Sapoznik. Each joke gets a simple title — “Chicken” or “Broccoli,” for instance — and Sam Hoffman writes a bit of backstory beneath each would-be Rodney Dangerfield or Fyvush Finkel.

The biographies are as tongue in cheek as the site’s jokes.

“When we were growing up in the seventies, Bert had a groovy moustache that made him look a little like Gomez from the Addams family,” Hoffman writes for one man.

“Notorious amongst her friends as an inveterate collector, she also plays a mean kazoo” is the descriptor given to one woman.

‘No prudes’

To cast the series in summer 2008, Barney Hoffman e-mailed 15 to 20 friends who fit three requirements: over 60, Jewish, capable of telling one hell of a joke.

Neil Lawner, an assistant professor of orthodontics at New York University’s School of Dentistry, has three jokes posted on the site. He says its appeal may stem from a forgotten “Catskill Mountains vintage” brand of humor.

“It describes really a little bit of a lost generation of joke-telling Jewish guys,” he said. “That standup comedy, joke-telling Jewish guy is a little bit passe. You don’t see that much anymore.”

David Paszamant of Highland Park contributed a joke about a chicken and a deaf man.

“One night last summer, we’re sitting down on Raritan Avenue telling our jokes and the next thing we’re stars,” recalled the retired winemaker and salesman. “I even got my picture in New York Magazine.”

Then, demonstrating his own sense of humor, Paszamant added, “You want to come over? I’ll autograph it for you,” although he admitted, “Letterman hasn’t called me.”

However, he did take a fair amount of good-natured ribbing from his Monday lunch group.

Lou Goldstein of Monroe’s Encore adult community, also part of the original taping, said he, too, has found Internet stardom.

A member of the Encore men’s club who had visited the website asked Goldstein if he would participate in a comedy night. His synagogue, Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick, also wants to do a comedy program featuring Goldstein next spring.

“You have to be open-minded and not be a prude,” Goldstein cautioned those going to the site. “Some of the jokes would peel the paint off the walls.”

In April, Spiegelman wrote an appeal on the site asking frequent visitors to write their own Jewish jokes and interweave them with family stories. The site’s founders hope to craft a book from users’ submissions, he said in the post. Several have been posted to the site.

“I’m very proud of my son,” said Barney Hoffman. “He has captured a part of being Jewish that everybody can enjoy and that is a Jewish sense of humor carried on by us old Jews.”

JTA contributed to this article

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Did you hear the one about…

‘I Must’

As told by Barney Hoffman, retired judge, practicing lawyer

A Frenchman, a German, and a Jew are walking through the desert. It’s hot out and they’re shlepping along, and the Frenchman says, “I’m hot and I’m tired, and I’m thirsty. I must — I must have some French wine.” And they continue trudging along, and then the German says, “I’m hot. I’m tired. I’m thirsty. I must — I must have some German beer.” They keep walking and then the Jew says, “Oy, am I tired, am I thirsty. I must — I must — I must have diabetes.”

‘Bobka’

As told by Louis Goldstein, retired lumberman

Jake is on his deathbed, and he says to his wife, “I don’t know if I’m going to make to morning. I need you to do something for me, please. Can I have some of that bobka that I love so much, that you make so well?” She says, “Jake, I’d love to, but I’m saving it for the shiva!”

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