HSEM2042H: Jewish Humor: Seriously Funny from Text to Stage to Screen

In the U.S. the comic world has been so dominated by Jewish writers and performers that the "People of the Book" have come to be known as the "People of the Joke." A 2013 Pew Research poll showed that for American Jews, a sense of humor is essential to their Jewish identity, more important than ritual or the observance of traditional religious commandments. While surveying a broad range of humor in print, on stage, and in films along with classical Jewish texts including the Torah and Talmud, students will learn about the historical and cultural contexts that make such humor not only possible, but existentially necessary, a serious business indeed. And we'll accomplish all this while laughing hysterically. No prior knowledge of Jewish history and culture is required or assumed.

View on University Catalog