Warbling vaudeville songs and the sounds of slapstick humor echoed through MacMillan Hall's C.V. Starr Auditorium yesterday as Edward Merwin, assistant professor of religion at Dickinson College, explored the cultural roots of Jewish comedy in the Jazz Age.
Focusing on the children of first-generation immigrants, Merwin analyzed how cultural stereotypes and the search for a new identity influenced comedians such as Fanny Brice, Eddie Cantor and George Jessel.
"It must have been very difficult to shuffle between your parents' world and the outside world," Merwin said. According to Merwin, much of Jewish comedy stemmed from a desire to be accepted by mainstream American society. This task was especially difficult in the 1920s, which Merwin called one of the most anti-Semitic decades of the century.
As second-generation Jews migrated away from Manhattan's Lower East Side, settling in different boroughs and outside of New York City, Jewish stereotypes spread quickly, Merwin said. Non-Jewish entertainers personified these traits as so-called "Hebrew comics." Second in popularity only to the black-face performers of minstrel shows, "Hebrew comics" dressed in dark clothing and adopted fake Yiddish accents, much to the delight of American audiences, Merwin said.
"Lots of Jewish entertainers had to work within and beyond these stereotypes," he said. Comedian George Jessel performed a comedy sketch entitled "Momma in the Box," in which Jessel takes his Yiddish-speaking mother to an uptown theater. In the sketch, the mother abandons all decorum and starts yelling at the actors, while Jessel frantically tries to pacify her.
"How does the immigrant get out of the box?" asked Merwin. "And how does the child negotiate between these two worlds?"
Due to pressure from society, many Jewish entertainers acted within these stereotypes, Merwin said. Fanny Brice, another successful comedian of the 1920s, often performed with a Yiddish accent despite her complete ignorance of the language. In one of her most famous melodies, "Second Hand Rose," she sings about owning exclusively second-hand items, ranging from her thrift-shop winter coat to her previously married husband. While she never explicitly addresses her Jewish heritage in the song, Merwin said she used it to symbolize her status as a second-class citizen. Caught between America's upper class and the old country, she was struggling to create a new identity for herself, he explained.
"Even her Jewishness has been handed down to her," Merwin said, "but something's been lost in the transition."
Merwin also screened a movie clip in which Jewish entertainer Eddie Cantor performed as a tailor working in the Lower East Side. Merwin believes that audiences loved Cantor not only for his slapstick humor and impeccable comedic timing, but also for portraying the life so many Jews had escaped from or "assimilated out of."
"Is there a way in which this idea of humiliation is still central to Jewish comedy?" asked Merwin, referencing the work of Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David. "What does it mean to be self-deprecating? By trading in these stereotypes, Jews couldn't detach themselves from the stereotypes of society," he said.
While Merwin feels modern Jewish entertainers have become much more accepted within popular culture, he argues that a desire to become more "American" still lingers within their comedy, pointing to his favorite "Seinfeld" episode, "The Chinese Restaurant."
In it, "Seinfeld" characters Jerry, Elaine and George are constantly prevented from eating in a Chinese restaurant, which Merwin believes symbolizes the American mainstream. At one point, Elaine becomes so hungry that she steals food from a seated customer's plate. Merwin argued that Elaine's faux pas refers to the notion that Jews are unaware of how to behave in American society.
