Anti-Wagnerite - Excuse me. Are you Jewish? 

Larry -Are you Jewish? You wanna check my penis? Is that what you wanna do?

Anti-Wagnerite - My real question is, what were you whistling?

Larry -Hello, Dolly.

Anti-Wagnerite - No, it's Wagner.

Larry- Was it?  

Anti-Wagnerite – Yeah.

Larry - You, sir, won $100. 

Anti-Wagnerite - I wanna know what a Jew is whistling Wagner for? 

Larry - Do you wanna know? 

Anti-Wagnerite - When he's one of the great anti-Semites of the world. You know what you are?

Larry - What am I? 

Anti-Wagnerite - You're a self-loathing Jew. 

Larry - Am I? 

Anti-Wagnerite - Yes!

Larry - I do hate myself, but it has nothing to do with being Jewish. No, it doesn't have anything to do with being Jewish.

Anti-Wagnerite - Those millions of Jews were taken to the concentration camps with Wagner being played in the background. Yes! Hitler's favorite composer! 

Larry - Really?  

Anti-Wagnerite - Yes.

Larry- They got a mental asylum a couple of blocks away. I suggest you go and check yourself in.

Anti-Wagnerite - Where's your Heritage, your Judaism? 

Larry - Judaism? Where are you? Where are you, Judaism?

Anti-Wagnerite - How can you have this attitude? That you're better? 

Larry - They should put a muzzle on you. You're foaming at the mouth.

This is a scene from Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm in which Larry gets confronted about whistling Wagner and being a self-hating Jew by his neighbor. This scene represents Larry’s view on his Jewish identity, it’s there but it isn’t what defines him as an individual. Larry David was the writer of the landmark series Seinfeld (1989-1998) and stars in and writes his own show Curb your Enthusiasm (2000-). Seinfeld is a show following the misadventures of four friends with the main character being Jerry Seinfeld. Curb Your Enthusiasm is about the daily life of Larry David. Larry’s take on Jewish identity is explored many a times in his shows. The representation of Jewish identity is very ambiguous at times in the shows. Jewish Humor and identity are a distinct brand, forming from a long history of strife and being outcasts wherever they went. This can be seen in both TV shows. 

To find the reasoning behind this we must first look at the historical context and what the culture was like when the shows aired. Seinfeld aired right after the cold war and right before the 9/11 atmosphere of America. While “Curb Your Enthusiasm” started airing before 9/11, most of the episodes aired afterwards. This is important to mention, ask anyone and they will tell you 9/11 changed America, and television is no exception. Another thing to bring into context, is the PC (politically correct) culture that followed this era and that is explored in Curb your Enthusiasm.

To look at the Jewish humor of the shows, we must first look at what Jewish humor is. Sigmund Freud is regarded as the father of psychology, and in his book The Joke and Its Relation to the Unconscious discusses the psychology of jokes. In it, he gives a definition of what Jewish humor is: “[Jewish jokes] are stories invented by Jews and aimed at Jewish characteristics” (106). In other words, he looks at them as self-deprecation, criticism of themselves which is the core of Jewish humor. In the 2013 documentary When Jews were Funny by Alan Zewig, Howie Mandel, a famous Jewish comedian, reinforces this notion in a present timeframe and gives an explanation as to why Jews are so attuned to this style of comedy, “I think that comedy ultimately comes from darkness… because that sense of humor is a great conduit to survival. And I think as Jews, you know, just culturally we suffered a lot of pain, and even when there isn’t pain to be suffered we enjoy giving it to ourselves… In fact, we are very comfortable in our hard time.” (0:32-0:33) What he says is that despite all the hardships Jews have gone through they still find humor in most things. This is a distinct brand of humor, something that cannot be emulated by another culture. 

However, some people look at it as another product of whiteness such as Tamara Olson, who claims this in her paper which looks at the humor of a show titled The O.C, a show about a Jewish family. In this paper, she claims the humor “has morphed into merely another version of Whiteness,” (3) meaning that Jewish humor is no longer its own thing, which I argue is false. Looking at Curb and Seinfeld closely and comparing it to another comedy of today, such as “Modern Family” clearly shows a distinct difference in the style of comedy. What Tamara fails to look at is the full scope of Jewish humor, not just this one TV show, but all mediums. But most importantly, she gives us the assumption that all of white America has no ethic marks, just one “blended” whiteness. This is simply untrue, there are a multitude of white ethnicities, i.e. Germans, Italians, Slavic, Etc. And while in today’s culture they may not be as distinct as they once were, they still have different backgrounds and traditions. While her argument does make good points with the specific show, I consider it to be an anomaly, and therefore not representative of Jewish humor. And what she finds in this show is the assimilation of Jewish comedy and regular comedy. However, this does not mean Jewish humor is gone, it simply has gone more mainstream. She does, however, makes an accurate note of what Jewish humor is and how Jewish history influences it. These influences I am going to explore in the shows. Her paper also describes how ambiguous Jewish identity can be which I also am going to explore.

Seinfeld is often regarded as one of the decade defining TV shows of the 90s and it is one of the first sitcoms to feature a Jewish protagonist. However, many of the supporting characters’ religions are veiled. In the article Does He Actually Say the Word Jewish? - Jewish Representations in Seinfeld by Rosalin Krieger, she gives a reason for this: 

Brandon Tartikoff, president of NBC when Seinfeld was first created, said the show was “too New York” and “too Jewish” (Stratton 2000:290) … Tod Gitlin (1983) puts Tartikoff’s comments about Seinfeld into historical context by suggesting that if creators of Jewish images in network television are “self-censoring” it is because they realize “that a large part of the audience prefers its Jews Gentile” (Berger 1996:100)”… This kind of censorship dates back to the beginning of network television production. Back then, big sponsors had the power to police the content and “racist and anti-Semitic strategies were an even more pervasive part of network practices” (Berger 1996:101).

Antisemitism has always had a presence on network television. So, their veiling of their religions works a self-defense, they’re not explicitly Jewish, allowing the people who are anti-Semites not to instantly write off the show. This paired with the background of the multi-tribe New York City, gave Seinfeld the formula to not be subject to the anti-Semite bias. 

The more modern show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, follows the more traditional format of Jewish joke telling, and to be more specifically, the Schimel tradition. The Schimel originates in medieval Arabic poets, which was then adopted by the Jews living in those Arabic countries (Halkin). A schlemiel is someone who always falls flat of their goals, but never quits or loses hope. The schlemiel embodies arguably the most important part of Jewish humor and is the most emblematic of modern Jewish humor, the ability to not give up after strife. If you were to view Jewish history, you would see countless times there have been tragedies and events that have led to Jews being either forced to convert or killed, going all the way back to Babylon. These events have tried to wipe Jews off the earth, but none have been successful, and Jews still thrive to this day. In the article Negotiating Jewishness: Curb Your Enthusiasm and the Schlemiel Tradition by David Gillota, Gillota makes note Larry’s use of the Schlemiel tradition in Curb: 

But it is through those social obligations that Larry becomes a schlemiel. In nearly every episode, Larry finds himself in sharp opposition to his social milieu. At times, this conflict is because of his failure- or refusal- to follow unwritten social guidelines, and at other times it is because someone else has not adhered to Larry’s own conception of propriety. Under both circumstances, the result is usually the same: a series of minor events coincide to turn Larry into a social pariah. (5)

This social pariah that Larry always seems to become relates back to the Mandel’s quote, that Jews love being in a hard time.

Larry also throughout the show questions his Judaism and as Gillota explains that “[Larry] adamantly refuses to have his identity circumscribed by religious or ethnic categories.” (6) This leads to Larry satirizing the zealous Jews in many episodes. One episode even has him finding out he could have been adopted, leading him to celebrate, until his parents tell him he is not adopted. And one more recent example of this is the Palestinian chicken episode, Where Larry finds himself torn between supporting the ‘Jewish’ deli and a vixen’s Palestinian restaurant, who tempts him with sex with her and her sister. The episode ends with him in the middle of the protest torn. This episode serves as a metaphor for the ongoing conflict in Palestine. Larry’s attitude of the situation is symbolic of the current generation’s attitude towards Judaism, being Jewish and not at the same time. The real ‘Jew’ would support the deli (Israel) while the ‘non-Jew’ would support the restaurant (Palestine). However, the episode ends leaving the audience to decide what happened. However, in other episodes Larry finds himself supporting his Jewish heritage over Christians. One example of this is seen in the episode of Curb “The Christ Nail” where Larry uses his step-fathers Christ nail necklace to hang a mezuzah. This behavior is as the author of “Why Would You do That, Larry?”: Identity Formation and Humor in Curb Your Enthusiasm, Benjamin Wright puts it as:

The incongruous nature of David’s comic figure resembles the schlemiel in his oppositional tendencies. Though he agitates the cultural protocols of his environment with an aggressive and mocking attitude, he is often the victim of blame and the proprietor of bad luck. Indeed, David experiences life as a series of unattenuated gaffes, whereby he remains neither comfortably Jewish nor cozily un-Jewish. (Wright)

And Larry certainly represents this, he is not in the series what some would call a “good Jew” He doesn’t keep kosher, rarely goes to synagogue, etc. (Gillota)

Larry David’s work is the Paradigm of Jewish humor. It follows many of the traditional aspects of Jewish humor while also giving it a fresh look. The Humor of Jews is rooted in a long and unique history. And from this history the Identity of Jews is sometime questioned. They are seen by some as ‘white’ but are at the same time not. And this attitude is reflected in modern sitcoms featuring Jews.
