One of the most often played songs during the winter holiday season is Frank Loesser's classic, Baby, It's Cold Outside. The song was included in a 1949 film titled Neptune's Daughter and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
The following year Loesser wrote the music and lyrics for Guys and Dolls.
Jon Wolf and Matt Campana wondered how the song would sound if the lyrics were written by a Jewish mother. So they created a parody with animation that addresses that question head-on.
We hope you'll enjoy the parody, and if you don't remember the original, we're posting a video clip of it as sung by Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme.
2014 has been a wonderful year for us at Jewish Humor Central. We hope it's been a great one for you, too. Enjoy today's video, and don't forget to dress warmly. We wish you a happy new year, and we'll see you in 2015!
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So
you think you know the story of the binding of Isaac? Think again.
The new (and controversial) satire now playing on TV sets in Israel, Hayehudim Ba'im
(The Jews are Coming), has a different take on what went on behind the
scenes. Just like all the other sketches in the series, it's funny and
irreverent.
Here's
the episode in Hebrew with English subtitles so you can see what really
went on when Abraham and Isaac journeyed to Mount Moriah to fulfill God's command to Abraham about offering his son Isaac as a sacrifice. We plan to bring you other episodes as soon as they are
released with English subtitles.
Please remember that this is satire, and clever satire at that. The writers are not being disrespectful, they are simply being funny. We find it to be well within the range of satire and parody that most Jews expect and accept on Purim. We're glad to have a taste of the fun of Purim all year long and applaud the creators of this series for finding humor in these situations.
Enjoy!
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It's the last Monday of the old year, but it's no different from any other Monday in that we still need a joke to get the week started.
So let's dip into the Old Jews Telling Jokes barrel and pull out an oldie but goodie. This one is told today by 68-year-old Dennis Spiegelman, a dealer in antiques and collectibles.
Here's the setup: It's 2016, and a Jew has been elected president. And he calls his mother and says "Ma, I'm the President of the United States. Are you coming to the inauguration?" And then...
Enjoy!
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Robert Klein has kept us laughing for more than 40 years, and at 72 he's still going strong as a stand-up comedian and actor.
Most recently he narrated the documentary tribute to the Borscht Belt, When Comedy Went to School.
Klein's stand-up skits are still floating around the Internet, and we recently found one from 1979 where he turns a description of a trip to the dentist into a barrage of sound effects guaranteed to put us right into the dentist's chair.
Maybe painful, but still funny.
Enjoy!
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Philology is the study of a language's grammar, history and literary tradition. Biblical philology focuses on the historical development of language as it appears in the Bible.
Sounds like a boring, arcane pursuit to anyone not already immersed in it in the world of academia. But every field has its own sense of humor, and even biblical philology can be a very funny subject when combined with the comedic style of Gilbert and Sullivan, whose works include The Pirates of Penzance.
Joshua Tyra, a PhD student in Old Testament and ancient Near Eastern history, archaeology and languages at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, saw parallels in Gilbert and Sullivan's song I am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General, and adapted the song to biblical philology using his talents as a composer, musical theater director, arranger, and piano accompanist.
The result is a hilarious romp through the world of biblical and linguistic scholarship set to Gilbert and Sullivan cadences.
We hope you enjoy this delightful biblical and linguistic excursion, followed with a video clip of the original song from The Pirates of Penzance.
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(A tip of the kippah to Dan Mosenkis for bringing this video to our attention.)
We're in the middle of a big holiday week, with yesterday being the eighth and last day of Chanukah, and Christmas starting and ending today. So today we're posting a pair of satire videos produced by Buzzfeed, those same folks who gave us the funny video of non-Jews trying Jewish food for the first time.
It's a matched set, Christmas Explained by Jews and Hanukkah Explained by Christians. It's all in good fun.
We hope you're enjoying the holiday season, whichever holiday you're celebrating. It reminds us of the old joke about an EL AL plane landing in Tel Aviv in late December.
The pilot has asked all passengers to remain in their seats until the plane arrives at the gate. Just before arriving at the gate, the pilot gets on the intercom again and announces "Thank you for flying EL AL. To all the passengers who are standing in the aisles, we wish you a Happy Chanukah. To the passengers who remained in their seats, we wish you a Merry Christmas!"
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Christmas Explained by Jews
Hanukkah Explained by Christians
The Gat Brothers have come a long way from jamming on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem and playing in the Mamilla Mall, and achieving high scores and fame on Israel TV's Kochav haBa (Rising Star) talent show.
Their story and their musical expression started long before their Jerusalem street appearances. They grew up in the largely secular resort city of Eilat and became observant 17 years ago.
As Dalit Halevi and Tova Dvorin wrote in Arutz Sheva earlier this year,
Aryeh told a Toronto daily that he and his brother, prior to becoming
observant, spent their days dancing and singing on the streets of Eilat.
Impressed passersby took video footage of them and uploaded in onto YouTube.
The staff of The Next Star found the videos and were impressed,
and the rest is history. The brothers came on stage with guitars in
hand and shocked the judges with a rendition of Paul Simon's "Sounds of Silence." Instead of becoming a gimmick - an act on a music competition
television show by brothers who do not own a television themselves -
audiences were hooked to the brothers' heartfelt connection to their
music and easygoing manner.
Aryeh stressed during the interview that participation in the program
was approved by the brothers' rabbis, and there was no mission to
deliver a message to the public. Rather, the two performed on the show
from a desire to express themselves artistically and use their talents
to make a livelihood.
We found a video clip of the Gat Brothers rehearsing their renditon of Simon and Garfunkel's hit The Boxer and thought you'd like to see them in action again.
Enjoy!
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Rabbi Ari Goldwag is a prolific writer, lecturer, singer and musician who lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel.
Just in time for Chanukah, he has released a new music video, Chanukah Lights, that puts the traditional Chanukah story of lighting the menorah in a contemporary framework.
In this video, Ari is rushing to the airport to catch a plane home for the holiday.
When he finds that his flight and many others have been canceled, he takes to the city streets with his rolling suitcase and sees a menorah already lit. Anxious to fulfill the mitzvah of candle lighting, he wanders the streets until he sees a shop owner putting a bag full of empty Perrier bottles in a recycling container.
He quickly trades his suitcase for the bag of bottles and continues walking until he finds a street vendor selling odds and ends including plain white candles. The modern miracle? Just enough bottles to hold nine candles and candles just the right size to fit in the bottle necks.
Enjoy!
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Even though we're in the middle of Hanukkah, it's still a Monday. And we wouldn't want to disappoint our readers who anxiously await a new joke on Mondays. We have two more Chanukah music videos to share, but we'll wait until tomorrow to post them so you joke lovers can have your weekly dose.
Once again we pick a joke from the Old Jews Telling Jokes collection. Today's joke teller is Larry Lerner, an 81-year-old retired Superior Court Judge.
Here's the setup: Two cars are driving on a highway at 90 degree angles to each other coming to an intersection, both going 45 to 50 miles an hour. As they hit the intersection, the cars smash into each other. And then...
Enjoy!
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Hasidic comedian (and rabbi) Mendy Pellin and the Jewbellish crew are in high gear for a boisterous parody of Taylor Swift's pop hit "Shake it Off."
Just a couple of days ago we joined in the fun of posting another parody of this song by the a cappella group Six13. But this version came in after Hanukkah started and we thought you'd like to see a different take on it.
In this version, Mendy, dressed as the Loopholer Rebbe, leads his Chasidim out of the office where they work, to take the day (or week) off from work because it's a Jewish holiday.
As the Jewish online newspaper The Algemeiner reports:
Menachem Weinstein, the video’s lead singer, is the creative director at the all-boys Jewish Educational Trade School (JETS) in Los Angeles. I’m Taking Off features
all JETS students, including the young boy who raps in Yiddish about
fooling his boss, losing his job and then having to work at the
Jewish-owned electronics store B&H.
“We sort of want to show the world that Hassidic Jews are not those
close-minded, sad, closed people,” Weinstein said. “We wanna show the
world Hassidic Jews can have fun and we’re fun.”
The boss and co-workers are understandably not pleased with this display of chutzpah in taking off on a holiday on which work is permitted. While in our working days we took off our share of religious holidays like Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot, but we never took the same privilege with Purim or Chanukah.
We hope this video is only in the spirit of satire and parody and not an attempt to portray Chanukah as a holiday that demands taking off from work.
Enjoy!
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We still have a few days to go before Chanukah 2014 is history, so we'll bring you a few more of the best new Chanukah videos that have shown up on the Internet. Today's song by Six13 doesn't have a unique name -- it's Chanukah, but it's a take off on Taylor Swift's popular Shake It Off.
Six13 is a six-man vocal band that brings an unprecedented style of
Jewish music to the stage, with songs ranging from hip-hop dance tracks
to rock anthems. The members of the New York City-based group sound like
a full band – while using nothing but their voices.
Six13 has recorded five award-winning albums, whose songs have been
played all over Jewish radio and been chosen to appear on nine different
“best of” compilation albums. The group has over 20,000 CDs in
circulation, and are among the top Jewish music artists on iTunes.
They
have received distinctions and accolades from Jewish organizations like
the National Council of Young Israel and Moment Magazine, and awards
from musical organizations like the Harmony Sweepstakes and the
Contemporary A Cappella Society of America.
They have been featured on
the Chabad Telethon, Fox, ABC, in the Huffington Post, Jewish Week and
NY Daily News, and were chosen three years running from hundreds of
groups, both Jewish and secular, as finalists in the casting process for
NBC’s hit prime-time television series The Sing-Off. The group has also become a viral internet sensation, with over 1.5 million views on YouTube.
Enjoy!
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Most of the Hanukkah music videos that we get and share with you fit into two neat categories.
Either they're musical or a cappella performances of the top five traditional songs (Maoz Tzur, Mi Yemalel, Chanukah oh Chanukah, I Have a Little Draydel, or S'vivon, Sov Sov Sov) or they're parodies of popular secular hit songs on the Billboard Top Hits list.
It's not often that we find a new warm
ballad composed especially for Hanukkah. But there is a new Chanukah
song that's circulating among the non-day school world of high school
choral groups, even in schools where there are no or very few Jewish
students. And it's not writtten in a minor key. It's just a tender heartfelt message of family and
tradition.
A Hanukkah Wish, written by Andy Beck, incorporates a contemporary setting of the traditional Hebrew
“Maoz Tzur” just before a dramatic modulation to the final refrain.
This version was recorded last Thursday in the Dallas, Texas suburb of Prosper as sung by the Prosper High School Varsity Mixed Choir. We hope you enjoy it.
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Naomi Less is an internationally renowned,
multi-skilled musician, facilitator and educator – who both
performs and creates tailor-made trainings and educational experiences
for all ages.
In February 2013 we featured her performing a modern twist on Lecha Dodi to show that "Ain't No Mountain High Enough " to keep us from welcoming Shabbat.
Now, just in time for Chanukah, she has released a new music video called Eight Lights. As we continue our selections of the best new Chanukah videos, we wanted to share it with you.
Enjoy!
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Tonight we light the first Chanukah candle, and we can't think of a better way to get the eight-day holiday off to a happy start than to share with you another new, original song by Julie Geller.
Julie, raised in Colorado where she now lives with her family, also spent time in Boston, San Diego, and Israel. She has taken on a mission to bring love and healing into the world through her music.
Julie is a graduate of Harvard University and the New England Conservatory of Music. She studied at Bar Ilan University and Midreshet Lindenbaum in Israel.
Last year Julie gave us new, original songs that she composed for Passover, Rosh Hashanah, and I Believe in Miracles for Chanukah. Now she's done it again with another new song for this year's Chanukah celebrations called Shine With Me.
We hope it enhances your Chanukah experience. Enjoy.
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It's Monday again, and you know what that means. Time for another joke to get the week off to a funny start.
This week's joke is another gem from the archives of Old Jews Telling Jokes. The joke teller is Marty Adickman, a 65-year-old dentist and keyboardist for "The Alta Rockers."
Here's the setup: The guys are playing cards, and during a break in the action, one guy leans over to the other guy and says "I don't know what I'm going to do, I think Sylvia's going deaf." And then...
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In 2010 The Maccabeats, an a cappella group from Yeshiva University, released their first Hanukkah music video, Candlelight, and every Hanukkah (and other holidays) since then we've seen many more videos by them and lots of other groups.
Originally formed in 2007 as Yeshiva University’s student vocal group,
the Maccabeats have recently emerged as both Jewish music and a cappella
phenomena, with a large fan base, more than 20 million views on YouTube, numerous TV appearances, and proven success with three albums, 2010′s Voices From The Heights, 2012′s Out Of The Box and 2014′s One Day More.
Many of the songs are parodies of pop hits and The Maccabeats' latest is no exception. Using the pop song All About that Bass as a basis, they sing about the neis (miracle) of Chanukah.
Enjoy!
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So
you think you know the story of how Abraham carried out the first circumcision of Isaac and Ishmael? Think again.
The new (and controversial) satire now playing on TV sets in Israel, Hayehudim Ba'im (The Jews are Coming), has a different take on what went on behind the scenes. Just like all the other sketches in the series, it's funny and irreverent.
Here's
the episode in Hebrew with English subtitles so you can see what really
went on near Abraham's tent. We'll bring you other episodes as soon as they are
released with English subtitles.
Enjoy!
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For years, English comedian Sacha Baron Cohen adopted the persona of Ali G, an unorthodox journalist who asks absurd and ridiculous questions to seemingly unsuspecting guests on his interview show.
After a year of doing the show in England, it came to the USA for two years. One of the episodes was a "religion roundtable" in April 2011 during which Cohen asks downright offensive questions to the four guests representing Judaism, Catholicism, and religion in general.
They included Rabbi Barry Freundel of the Georgetown Synagogue in Washington, Dr. Francisca Cho of Georgetown University, Bobbie Kirkhart of Atheist Alliance International, and Father William Byron, a Catholic priest.
Watching the episode, it's hard to believe that these serious guests didn't realize that they were pawns in an elaborate put-on and put-down of religion for the sake of comic relief. But Cohen, as we later saw in his movie role as Borat, can be very funny.
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Elliot Dvorin and the Key Tov Orchestra are at it again. The Chicago-based wedding band likes to use the large plaza in front of a Chicago office building as a stage for their musical productions.
We have featured them before, performing a flash mob version of Hashem Melech in downtown Chicago, and with the Kol Ish a cappella singers in a bluegrass version of Yigdal.
Their latest production is a mashup of Chanukah songs old and new, sung by Dvorin and danced to by an ensemble of dancers in the streets of Chicago. The songs included are Adam Sandler's Chanukah Song, Sevivon, Ocho Candelas, Candlelight, and Chanukah oh Chanukah.
Enjoy!
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Remember the childrens' books about Paddington Bear, the bear who arrived unaccompanied at Paddington Station in London wearing a raincoat, rain hat, and a tag that said "Please look after this bear. Thank You."?
Now that Paddington, a new film featuring Nicole Kidman, Hugh Bonneville, and Sarah Hawkins has been released in the UK and is coming to the USA in January, Michael Bond, the 88-year-old author of the books has revealed the quasi-Jewish roots of the stories.
As Rachel Shukert wrote in The Tablet,
Bond revealed his inspiration
for the kindly bear: the Jewish evacuee children he remembered seeing in
the train stations of London during the Kindertransport of the late 1930s. “They all had a label round their neck with their name and address on,” a recent article in The Guardian quotes
Bond as saying, “and a little case or package containing all their
treasured possessions. So Paddington, in a sense, was a refugee, and I
do think that there’s no sadder sight than refugees.”
Paddington wasn't really a Jewish bear and his family wasn't persecuted. But when his Aunt Lucy moved into the Home for Retired Bears, he became a stowaway to London with his aunt's handwritten note on his tag. His refugee status resonated with many parents who became attached to the stories of his adventures.
Speaking of the Kindertransport, in 1988 the BBC aired a program that included a surprise encounter of Sir Nicholas Winton, the organizer of the Kindertransport from Czechoslovakia to London, with many of the children, now grown up, that he saved. It's a very moving video, just below the trailer for the new Paddington film
Last October, Sir Nicholas, now 105, was awarded the highest honor of the Czech Republic, the Order of the White Lion, by Czech President Miloš Zeman.
Enjoy!
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