Реферат: Mel Brooks As Jewish Comedian Essay Research

An example of this is Spaceballs, a parody of Star Wars where the main

characters have to save a princess from Planet Druidia ("Funny, she doesn’t

look Druish") from the evil Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) (Spaceballs). The

only Jewish reference in the movie were playing off the theme of the Druish

princess and a short scene with Mel Brooks as Yogurt, a reinterpretation of Yoda

as an old, Jewish man. Brooks also renamed "the Force" from Star Wars

to something more ethnic-"the Schwartz." Although these Jewish

references may be equal to the Yiddish-speaking Indian in Blazing Saddles, it is

too big of a stretch to link a deeper meaning to them as can be done in his

earlier films. In the Big Book of Jewish Humor, Jewish humor is defined as

having these five qualities: 1. It is substantive in that it is about some

larger topic. 2. It, in many cases, has a point-"the appropriate response

is not laughter, but rather a bitter nod or a commiserating sign of

recognition." 3. It is "anti-authoritarian," in that "it

ridicules grandiosity and self-indulgence, exposes hypocrisy, and?.is strongly

democratic." 4. It "frequently has a critical edge which creates

discomfort in making its point." 5. It is unsparing-it satirizes anyone and

everyone (Novak and Waldoks xx-xxii). Telushkin’s definition of a Jewish joke is

much simpler. He say’s "it must express a Jewish sensibility" (16). To

Bernard Saper, a "uniquely Jewish joke must contain incongruity, a sudden

twist of unexpected elements" (76). Christie Davies, points out "that

people such as Jews, who belong to a minority or peripheral ethnic groups tell

jokes both about the majority group and about their own group, and they may tell

more ethnic jokes about their own group (and find them funnier) than about the

majority"(29-30). Are the four films discussed within these definitions?

Brooks’ movies definitely fit the Telushkin test of expressing Jewish

sensibility, weather it is through how he attacks the Nazis or the random

Yiddish expressions that he uses. A lot of Brooks’ humor is also incongruous.

For example, having a Nazi say "never again," fulfills Saper’s