Remembering Jackie Mason: Legendary Borscht Belt, Broadway, Film and TV Standup Comedian

The world of Jewish humor lost one of its brightest stars yesterday with the death of 93-year-old Jackie Mason, a fifth generation Orthodox rabbi who traded the pulpit for the stage.

As Mark Kennedy wrote for the Associated Press,

The irascible Mason was known for his sharp wit and piercing social commentary, often about being Jewish, men and women and his own inadequacies. His typical style was amused outrage.

“Eighty percent of married men cheat in America. The rest cheat in Europe,” he once joked. Another Mason line was: “Politics doesn’t make strange bedfellows, marriage does.” About himself, he once said: “I was so self-conscious, every time football players went into a huddle; I thought they were talking about me.”

His Wikipedia biography fills in some of the details of his career change from rabbi to comedian:

As a teenager, Mason worked as a busboy at resorts in the Borscht Belt in New York's Catskill Mountains. He recalled: "Twenty minutes, at the Pearl Lake Hotel. I broke all the dishes. They made me a lifeguard. 'But I can't swim', I told the owner. 'Don't tell the guests."

At age 18 he became a cantor, and at age 25 he received semikhah from Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and was ordained a rabbi (as his three brothers, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had been), in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.He led congregations as their rabbi in Weldon, North Carolina, and Beth Israel Congregation in Latrobe. He said that in synagogue, "I started telling more and more jokes, and after a while, a lot of gentiles would come to the congregation just to hear the sermons. "Three years later, after his father died, he resigned from his job as a rabbi in a synagogue to become a comedian because, he says, "Somebody in the family had to make a living."

In this video clip from his August 31, 1969 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, Mason goes on a hilarious rant about doctors. Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.