Currently Browsing: humour 9 articles
Seinfeld Yomi: The English Patient
In another instalment of his Seinfeld Yomi, Jarrod Tanny discusses the episode, “The English Patient”. Day 144, Thursday, March 24, 2022, s8e17, first aired on March 13, 1997. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0697691/ MISHNAH: Hillel: The English Patient Shammai: Sack Lunch Hillel: Neil Armstrong Shammai: Neil Diamond Hillel: Cubans Shammai: Dominicans Hillel: World’s Greatest Sage Shammai: Number one Sage […]
He Was Making Out During “Schindler’s List”
In his latest “Seinfeld Yomi”, Jarrod Tanny pores over “The Raincoats”, eps 18 and 19, season 5. Which is worse making out during Schindler’s List or The Ten Commandments? The Rabbis weigh in. GEMARAH: He was making out during Schindler’s List! Who does that? said Bar Kappara convening the meeting in the name of Rav […]
Seinfeld Yomi: The Contest
Jarrod Tanny shares another of his daily Talmudic discussions of the sitcom Seinfeld. “THE CONTEST”, s4e9, first aired on November 18, 1992. GEMARAH: Fellow Sages, let’s get started, said Rav Huna convening the meeting. The reason I sent out an advanced notice to prepare for our shiur is because our subject for today, “The Contest,” […]
Rodney Dangerfield, Mensch
Steve Gimbel and Gwydion Suilebhan pay a little overdue respect to the late comedian, who recently would have celebrated his 100th birthday. Rodney Dangerfield was a living contradiction: a successful failure. Fame is the closest thing American culture has to royalty, and America made Dangerfield famous, curiously, precisely because he failed to embody the virtues […]
The Diaper Diaspora
Marc Kaye remembers being born Jewish on a US Army Base in Germany. In screenwriting, it is often recommended to place your protagonist in very extenuating circumstances – situations that he would never expect to find himself in. For a Jewish mother, I would think that taking a Jewish son and placing him both in […]
‘Shalom, Jackie’: The end of ‘Friday Night Dinner’
Sue Vice laments the end of an era. As confirmed by Channel Four’s anniversary documentary, Friday Night Dinner: 10 Years and a Lovely Bit of Squirrel, broadcast on, fittingly, Friday 28 May 2021, the series has now finished. There will be no more weekly visits by twenty-something Adam and Jonny to the suburban Jewish home […]
Groucho Marx and the Spirit of American Humour
Nathan Abrams learns a great deal from a new biography of Groucho Marx. I’m by no means a Marxist. By that I mean I am no Marx Brothers maven. In that context, I learned a great deal from ‘this biography of sorts’ of Groucho Marx by Lee Siegel. Born in 1890, Julius Henry Marx was […]
It’s ‘Shirley’ Something to Remember: Airplane! 40 Years Later
Emilio Audissino celebrates the classic spoof Airplane! and its creators Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker. An apt way to seek some solace and distraction in this virus-laden 2020 is to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of Airplane! Released in the US and UK theatres in the summer of 1980, the film was the directorial debut of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, […]
My Hero, Seth Rogen
I have long admired Seth Rogen and I still do. No amount of selective quotation from his hour-long interview with Marc Maron will change my mind. In fact, it has reinforced my appreciation for him. Rogen (whose surname must be mispelled as often as mine is) first came into my life as part of Judd […]