My Hebrew has become so pathetically bad
When I was in private Jewish elementary and high schools (and subsequently in an American school in Israel), we learned biblical Hebrew. Given that we learned a lot of the Bible (Old Testament) as translated into Hebrew (the original is in Aramaic), and we subsequently translated the Hebrew into English, the average graduate of 12 years of yeshiva education knows a lot of biblical Hebrew (if they were paying attention), and just enough street Hebrew to pass the New York State (or whatever state) Regents exam.

It appears that most American schools that endeavor to teach Jewish studies and traditional academics stress the religious studies.
- posted by Dana Friedman @ 1:48 PM

 
Volunteer work
I'm not always convinced of the merits of volunteer work. I know it's a good idea..It's good in theory to give to those who are less fortunate. Sadly, there are so many who consider themselves to be less fortunate, and who ask for a handout when they don't need one.

I think that people are likely to be taken advantage of if they aren't a little jaded.

If one doesn't look askance occasionally at an organization who treats their volunteers as if they were being paid (insisting, for example, that they want a volunteer to provide services gratis, and they want it *just so*)...I don't know. I don't mind doing something according to specifications. But some people just strike me as far too princessy to warrant doing volunteer work for.
- posted by Dana Friedman @ 8:55 PM

 
Political Correctness in comedy? No way!
I haven't yet finished listening to Patton Oswalt's new album. I listened to about the first half yesterday while walking to work. I was wearing my iPod, and big-ass headphones (almost literally..the ears on this thing were big enough to look like buttocks), and listening blissfully to Patton. Several times I laughed really hard, and people turned around. These were obviously not native New Yorkers.

But I digress Patton is not what one might call a politically correct comedian. He's hilarious. He does bits about retarded people, gay people, and even gay retarded people. I find those bits funny. I played one bit about gay retarded people for friends of mine, and they laughed. Their having laughed is not my justification for my having laughed...I'm just sayin'...He's funny, dang it.

Should we feel guilty about laughing at politically incorrect humor? God, I hope not. Laughter is an involuntary response. If your brain is inclined to laugh at death and destruction (one of my employees (let's call her EKG) can be made to break up in hysterics if she's told Father Flanagan died in a grease fire. It's really interesting to explore what makes different people laugh. EKG loves to laugh at stupid people. She is of far above average intelligence, and has little tolerance for stupidity (except in her employer. :)). The person who goes out hunting, shoots a gun, doesn't hear the gun fire, and looks up the barrell subsequently shooting himself in the face, is likely to make EKG fall on the floor laughing. I imagine it's not only the somewhat unusual circumstances under which the person died, but the stupidity that caused his death. EKG believes strongly, I think, in the Darwin effect...I'm scared to think she's right, as I have no idea how I'm going to die.

But we digress. Laughing at stupid people is, to me, perfectly okay. We all discriminate against something. Some of us discriminate against others on the basis of religion, skin color, or other things that do not necessarily tell us anything about their capacity to be a good human being.
I believe most Muslims are likely to dislike, or even hate Jews. Does that mean they all do? No. But I'll be more surprised to find one who doesn't hate Jews, than to find one who does. There's a mosque about 12 blocks from where I live. I ain't exactly goin' to troll around there hoping to make peace with the attendees. They have a sign out front claiming Jesus, Mohammed, and Moses were all prophets. Maybe that's their idea of an overture toward peace. I ain't buyin' it. I just keep walking when I go past there, and avert my eyes. Is that some expression of discrimination? Yep. Deal with it. :)

Back to political correctness in comedy. Lisa Lampanelli is hilarious. She is not what you'd think of as one of the ladies who lunch. A lot of her act involves interaction with the audience, and digging up their ethnic or racial background, and just going off on them. She even plays members of the audience against each other. She does not hold back. I will not spoil her show for you by telling you how it ends. Go see her.

Other politically incorrect comics who make me laugh include Jim Norton, Laurie Kilmartin, Nick DiPaolo, Jeffrey Ross, and so many others.

On the other hand, some of the old timers can really get out of hand and not funny. Milton Berle used to host the Friars Club Roasts after Dean Martin quit. He got very dirty and misogynistic in those roasts. Now, there are ways to be dirty, misogynistic, and still funny. Milton was just dirty. He seemed like a little boy who just wanted to get up on stage and curse. He cursed, and got laughs just for having cursed. I remember having heard him on Howard Stern's show several times in which he encouraged Howard not to "work blue".

It was rather embarrassing to hear an excerpt of his 1984 Roast of Rich Little. I thank God that download was free on Laugh.com. I'd really have regretted paying for it. Henny Youngman uses the word "cock", and it's just not funny when he does it. Slappy White on the other hand, got up on the same stage roasting a football team, and was hilarious. Most of Slappy's material during that roast was not dirty. It was "whitey" material, and he was just hilarious. Slappy did another joke about a Mexican and a black man in which the black man asks the Mexican if he, the Mexican would like to split a cab. The Mexican, he said, took the tires, the engine, and the transmission, and the black man took the rest.

The delivery of that joke was hilarious. Slappy was funny. I don't think politically incorrect = dirty. Sometimes dirty humor can be hilarious. George Carlin proves that every time he performs. Jim Norton says things that are so ..politically correct and misogynistic, I often want to examine my beliefs after having laughed at some of his material. Jeez. Only a Jew could feel guilty about an involuntary response. Jim is "scary funny". He's one of the few comedians who, if he were ever to rip into me, might be able to make me cry. When it happens to someone else, I might laugh like hell.

I recently saw Patrice O' Neal at a small club. I heard from the club owner that he is quite a "diva". He got up on the stage and just started ripping into someone. That rip accounted for a substantial portion of his time onstage. I rarely find Patrice funny.

Judy Gold's political incorrectness has a different slant to it. It's not the basis of her act. Her political incorrectness is not a large part of her act. Between her Jew humor, and the bits about her mother, the p.i. material just flows naturally as part of the set. I'd be very surprised if Bill Cosby ever did "whitey" material.

People like Dave Chappelle, Paul Mooney, Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock, are all incredibly funny. They do "whitey" humor as large parts of their respective acts. One can tell that their humor comes from their life experiences of discrimination. It just follows that they're going to talk about it onstage. I sometimes see myself in some of their "whitey" humor. I reflect on it for half a second, if I think they hit home with me, and, then the involuntary response kicks in.

More later.

- posted by Dana Friedman @ 7:10 AM