Self-deprecating humor has long been a trope of Jewish comedy. Woody Allen and Larry David, well aware of their own neuroses, allow people to laugh with them at their own travails because they look at themselves in a critical light. This event that I want to talk about, however, is a case where people laugh at Jews, rather than with them.
This Jewish girl, who is away at college, prank calls her parents on a live radio show. She knows exactly what their reaction is going to be when she jokes that she is dating an Italian guy. Their reaction is one of outrage and, frankly, racism, which the "innocent" girl predicted. The parents aren't necessarily racist against Italians, but one can assume they'd react similarly if her daughter were dating a Brazilian dude. Whereas Woody Allen and Larry David "take advantage" of themselves, this girl takes advantage of her parents, whom she knows to be incredibly ignorant and insular, and publicly humiliates them.
I'm finding parallels with the internalized anti-semitism that the Russian writer Isaac Babel suffers from. Internalized Anti-Semitism can be roughly defined as adopting the (anti-semitic) opinions of gentiles as one's own. In Babel's works it's manifested with Jews themselves accepting anti-semitic stereotypes such as, "like all Jews, I was puny short of stature, and suffered headaches from too much study." The girl knows her parents would react with vitriol because they are Jews who place too much emphasis on marrying a member of their own race and religion. But, rather than opening up an intellectual debate as Babel does, this girl plays a sick joke in a public sphere.
More parallels: Bernie Fucking Madoff. I guess the only parallel, though, is that Bernie Madoff fostered Jew hate.
So, internalized anti-semitism is bad in two ways. For one, it's Jews hating Jews due to external sources. Secondly, this perpetuates anti-semitism because people see the way Jews condemn their own kin and they latch on to that.
http://www.break.com/index/jewish-girl-prank-calls-her-parents.html
There's the video. It has 7 Milion hits.
I see what you're saying, but I don't think this is a case of internalized anti-Semitism. For one, there's nothing anti-Semitic about Jews poking fun at the many idiosyncrasies of their traditions. By that logic, Jewtopia (http://jewtopiaworld.com/) is anti-Semitic. If you haven't seen it, it's very funny and it pokes fun at this aspect of Jewish culture and many other funny stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, it's important not to essentialize Jews. I've dated a Jewish girl whose parents didn't approve of me because I wasn't "Jewish" according to them. Now, I'm dating a Jewish girl whose parents accept my Jewish identity wholeheartedly. It all depends on the individuals. It doesn't make the crazy individuals any less funny.
-Kotu