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Originally Posted by levite
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Originally Posted by Reese
This question isn't so much about the Jewish religion. Why are there so many self-deprecating jew jokes?
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Because maybe if we get there first and say them as jokes we can get other people to stop saying it and mean it. |
That's partially it. From what I understand, American-Jewish humor is strongly rooted in Yiddish/Eastern European humor that developed in Shtetls (the very religious Jewish communities that existed in 19th century Eastern Europe). The Russian empire has always been kind of oppressive and tolerance of the Jews has been an on-off thing throughout history. Pogroms were an unfortunate risk of life.
Jewish/Talmudic teachings encourage us to find the joys in life, to analyze and criticize ourselves, our communities, and that which we don't understand. The next step after finding these flaws, surely, is to then find the humor in them?
The Eastern European Jews developed a dry sense of humor about their uncertain life and humor had to be subtle to avoid the wrath of the people in power when mocking them. You may notice that a lot of Jewish humor is very sarcastic, or brings humor into the way things are said (which words are emphasized, etc). This is very Yiddish. A lot of American-Jewish comedians are really just stealing material from their grandparents or great-grandparents
