Funny, You Don't Look Funny

Jennifer Caplan’s Funny, You Don’t Look Funny: Judaism and Humor from the Silent Generation to Millennials explores how American Jewish humorists across generations have dealt with their Jewish heritage through the lens of humor. Caplan is wrestling with what makes Jewish people funny and how the specific Jewish humorist heritage shapes their brand of humor. “I hope this methodology will illuminate some of the meaning behind the phrase ‘Jewish Humor,’” she writes (2).

The book's central idea concerns what Caplan calls the “Thingafication” of Judaism. She borrows from Bill Brown's Thing theory. Caplan explains that “in Brown’s terms, the same object can be simultaneously a Thing and an object” (3). Through the different ages, each humorist wrestles with the “Thing” of Jewishness differently. Caplan correlates these through the generations.

Caplan begins with the Silent Generation and explores how this generation looks at the idea of Judaism. She locates generations according to the twenty-year sociological markers and their distance from significant events. The Silent Generation is connected to what she calls “Old World” Jews and the First World War. She focuses on how many of the members of this generation who grew up in a traditional Jewish household may have downplayed their Jewishness but used their heritage in their comedy. This generation's humor focuses on the ideas of Old World or Eastern European Jews and the Jews of America. The Jews of America are looking to downplay their Jewishness. The New World Jews were looking to assimilate and push back against their Jewishness.

One story Caplan explores is by Bernard Malamud, “The Jewbird.” The story is about a bird that comes to live with a family in New York. The bird speaks and sounds like an Old-World Jewish man and invades a modern Jewish family. “‘The Jewbird’ is not just about post-Holocaust inter-Jewish relations,” Caplan argues, “it is about the disdain American Jews have shown for Eastern European Jews for a very long time” (66). This story illustrates the humor of this generation.

Caplan then moves on to focus on the Baby Boomer Generation. This generation is marked by the return of many soldiers from the Second World War, and who directly remembered the Holocaust. The humorists of this generation sought to explore the humor in being Jewish, looking to poke fun at the things that were explicitly Jewish, even if the characters didn’t appear Jewish. The characters of this generation are “Conceptual Jews.” As the author explains, “‘Conceptually Jewish’ characters are Jewish by design, but that fact may seldom or never come up in the show itself” (86).

This generation also poked fun at primarily Jewish customs, such as circumcision—a particular favorite. One example of this humor is from a Saturday Night Live faux commercial of a car called the “Royal Deluxe,” in which a rabbi performs a circumcision in car on a bumpy road. The juxtaposition of performing a delicate ritual under adverse circumstances drives home the humor.

Caplan then moves to Generation X. This generation focused less on making fun of Judaism and instead explored Jewish stereotypes. Caplan primarily focuses on the “Jewish American princess” and the “Jewish Mother.” These two ideas are significant in the work of humorists from Generation X. The humorists of this generation use these stereotypes to better deal with serious matters, such as death or family drama. They did not see Judaism as a thing to make fun of, but as a heritage to push forward. She illustrates their style of humor with the Chanukah song by Adam Sandler on Saturday Night Live, observing that “Adam Sandler’s ‘Chanukah Song’ works in both directions. It is both a rallying cry to young Jews who want to reclaim their Jewish identity and a mockery of the insularity of the Jewish community and the practice of painstakingly tracking who is and is not Jewish” (109).

Finally, Caplan looks at Millennials and how they deal with humor. The most significant difference between this generation and previous ones is how Millennials embrace technology. Many humorists from this generation use technologies like social media to enter mainstream consciousness Generation X humorist generally followed the stand-up comedy to tv formula, but with Millennials they have made their own way using social media.

Millennials look at the Jewish American Princess and Jewish Mother stereotypes as well, and embraces the coolness of Judaism. This generation remembers the Chanukah song of Adam Sandler and leans into their heritage as a remarkable aspect of their life.

The book’s coverage of the Millennial Generation is the thinnest, mainly because this generation is currently working out its brand of humor. Caplan recognizes this limitation, writing that this section showcases the limitation of this section by recognizing the lack of distance to properly contextualize their work. This limitation is understandable, considering this generation's humor is incomplete.

Caplan concludes the book by taking the basic ideas of each generation to explore how each understands and processes this “thing” Judaism. Caplan understands that the noteworthy events of the generations define the humor of each age. The World Wars, the distance from the Holocaust, and technological advances have caused each generation of humorists to engage the “thing” of Judaism differently.

Overall, Funny You Don’t Look Funny captures the nature of Jewish humor. The book highlights how each generation built upon and modified the work of the previous generations while engaging the world in which they found themselves. Caplan’s use of generations helps highlight the roots of modern Jewish humor and lays the groundwork for further study and exploration of Jewish humor. Though she engages many Jewish humorists, she leaves room for further exploration of others.

Philmont Bostic is a pastor and PhD student in practical theology at Palm Beach Atlantic University.

Philmont Bostic

Date Of Review:

February 24, 2023