Реферат: Mel Brooks As Jewish Comedian Essay Research

you don’t fit the mainstream of American society. It comes from the realization

that even though you’re better and smarter, you’ll never belong" (Friedman

172). Mel Brooks’s experience is very similar to that of every American Jew, and

his comedy speaks uniquely to the American Jew. So, even Brooks’s most offensive

work is rooted deeply within both typical Jewish Humor and the modern Jewish

experience. The greatest lesson that Brooks has to teach American Jews of today

is the expansion of our boundaries. Through his use of Jewish humor to topics

which where previously considered off-limits, he allows his viewers to cope with

painful parts of history which they may not have been able to cope with in the

past. Brooks describes his role as a comedian by saying, "for every ten

Jews beating their breasts, God designated one to be crazy and amuse the breast

beaters. By the time I was five I knew I was that one" (Friedman 171-172).

He explains that his comedy "derives from the feeling that, as a Jew and as

a person, you don’t fit the mainstream of American society. It comes from the

realization that even though you’re better and smarter, you’ll never

belong" (Friedman 172). Mel Brooks’s experience is very similar to that of

every American Jew, and his comedy speaks uniquely to the American Jew. So, even

Brooks’s most offensive work is rooted deeply within both typical Jewish Humor

and the modern Jewish experience.

Altman, Sig. The Comic Image of the Jew. Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson

UP, 1971. Blazing Saddles. Dir. Mel Brooks. With Gene Wilder and Cleavon Little.

Warner Brothers, 1974. Davies, Christie. "Exploring the Thesis of theSelf-Deprecating

Jewish Sense Of Humor." Semites and Stereotypes: Characterisitics of Jewish

Humor. Eds. Avner Ziv and Anat Zajdman. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993.

29-46. Doneson, Judith E. The Holocaust in American Film. Philadelphia: Jewish

Publication Society, 1987. Friedman, Lester D. The Jewish Image in American

Film. Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press, 1987. History of the World, Part I. Dir. Mel

Brooks. With Mel Brooks and Madeline Kahn.Brooksfilms/Twentieth Century Fox,

1981. Internet Movie Database. On the World Wide Web at http://www.msstate.edu/movies.