COMPLIT 166 / YIDDISH 166 – Jews, Humor, and the Politics of Laughter

COMPLIT 166 / YIDDISH 166 – Jews, Humor, and the Politics of Laughter

Semester: Spring
Offered: 2024
Instructor: Saul Zaritt
Meeting Time: T Th 1:30pm – 2:45pm

By mistake some thieves found their way into Hershele’s house late at night while he was sleeping. They searched and searched but found nothing. Meanwhile, Hershele heard their rummaging and slowly crept up behind one of the thieves. He grabbed him by the arm and the thief, naturally, tried to run away. Hershele held him close, whispering, “Be still. Maybe together we’ll actually find something.” Beginning with jokes like this one, this course will examine the question of Jewish humor, exploring the concept of therapeutic joking, the politics of self-deprecation, and strategies of masking social critique behind a well-timed joke. Rather than reach some essential definition, we will instead investigate literature, stand-up comedy, film, and television of the twentieth and twenty-first century in order to 1) think together about the theory, mechanics, and techniques of comedy and humor and 2) ask how and when a text or performance gets labeled Jewish, by whom and for what purposes. Texts, films, and performers include: Freud, Kafka, Sholem Aleichem, the Marx Brothers, Belle Barth, Mel Brooks, Joan Rivers, Larry David, Sarah Silverman, Broad City, and Rachel Bloom.

Offered jointly with: Faculty of Arts & Sciences as YIDDISH 166.

For more details please visit the Harvard Course Catalog.