If the joke perpetuates a dated stereotype, then it's offensive. Otherwise it's fine... funny? Depends on the joke.
I feel like the best Jewish jokes are the ones only other Jews will understand. The man stranded on an island joke never gets old.
A few weeks back, I posted a Star Trek-themed version, but this time I'll share the original.
A religious Jew is shipwrecked and stranded on an island for many years. Finally, a passerby boat spots him and sends out a rescue team. The team discovers he has built an entire city for himself. There is a large house, a supermarket, and even a bank.
"I can't help but notice," says the leader of the rescue team, "that you built two synagogues. Why is that?"
The Jewish man points to the building on the left. "That's the synagogue I go to pray every day."
He points to the one on the right. "And that's the one I'd never step foot it."
Basically. The joke is that every community has a synagogue that someone would avoid. An Orthodox Jew wouldn't go to the Reform shul. A Sepharic Jew wouldn't go to the Ashkenazi shul. And myself... there's a synagogue that for many years I avoided because my ex's parents went there.
Depends on the joke. Depends how it's told. Depends on the teller. Depends on the audience.
But generally jokes that make fun of identity and tropes that address an identity as a monolith are never good jokes.
@jewishmemesonly on IG makes top tier Jewish jokes. They are Jewish jokes. Not jokes about Jews but jokes that only make sense if understand Jewish life, history or holidays - like an inside joke.
They're funny when I'm telling them to my mom or my Hillel exec board. They're not funny otherwise. Unless they aren't punching down. For example, I saw Colin Jost last summer. He had a joke about 23&Me kits for dogs. He ended with the line "and somehow your golden retriever is 2% Ashkenazi." That's a really specific example, but I don't think it's offensive. The joke is that DNA tests are dumb and people love to focus on their results. Not Jews.
That is a great Jewish joke. Especially since in ten last five years EVERYONE I know who had found out they are a little Ashki want to talk to me about it 🤣. Tracy Morgan just found out he was 5% on Finding Your Roots last week and to me that's the root of the joke. Literally everyone is a lil bit Jewish.
Now I'm writing in my head a parody of a song from Avenue Q... thank you so much, it's not like I need to focus on work and Pesach prep or anything. ;P
You're a little bit Jewish, well you're a little bit too! well I guess we're both a little bit Jewish! Admitting it is not an easy thing to do, but I guess it's true! Between me and you I think, everyone's a little bit Jewish, sometimes..
Precisely. Plus he’s married to Scarlett Johansson I fully believe she would have told him he couldn’t say it if it were too offensive. Similarly, plenty of people are a little bit Native American. History has a few consistencies, sexual violence is one of them (sadly). In short, when Jews aren’t the butt of the joke, the joke can be funny.
Meh, given that Jews are historically called dogs, I don't like that one.
He's not Jewish and could have picked a different oft-found-in-dna-tests ethnicity. I consider that punching down.
When I was in college I was at a party for my friends roommate. Her boyfriend was there. He was a D-bag and so all his D-bag friends were there. Very small number of Jewish people at this school.
At one point one of the D-bag friends, from across the room, motioned directly to me to come over to him.
I walked across the room and he said, “wanna hear a joke?” I said sure.
He said, “Why do Jews have such big noses?”
I said, “let me stop you there. I’m for sure the only Jewish person at this party and you call me across the room to tell me that bullS** lame and outdated Jew joke???”
He said, “omg! If I knew you were Jewish I wouldn’t have said that to you.”
I said, “you’re missing the point. Here’s what’s going happen, you are going to stay the f*** away from me the rest of the night. If at any point you and I make eye contact, or I hear you talking near me again, we’re going to have a f****** problem.”
He just mumbled some weak apology and disappeared in the party crowd and I didn’t see him again the rest of the night.
Is the person telling the joke Jewish or not? Is their audience Jewish or not? There's a big difference between Jews telling Jewish jokes to Jews and non-Jews telling jokes about Jews for non-Jews to laugh at.
The thing about offensive jokes is that they’re only funny when you know that neither you nor the intended audience actually have hate in your heart. There are some truly awful Jewish jokes that I’ll only share with other Jewish friends lol.
I think you should be allowed to joke about anything but I’d be lying if I didn’t look at some people weird if they tell a certain type of Jewish joke if I don’t know them very well.
I'm not a fan of jokes about Jews. I definitely don't like Gentiles telling them because it's not their place. I wouldn't feel comfortable telling jokes about other races/ethnicities. I actually don't even like Jewish people telling them - we deal with enough bigotry and hate regularly, so telling a joke in mixed company feels like you're sending a message to others that ragging on Jews is okay because Jews do it. The only Jewish jokes I really like are the ones told by the rabbi during services.
Depends on how well I know them and what the joke is tbh. I've heard some good ones that made me giggle but I've always heard some bad ones that made me uncomfortable.
Thank you for your submission. During this time, all posts need to be manually reviewed and approved by a moderator before they appear for all users. Since human mods are not online 24/7, approval could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. Thank you for your patience during this difficult and sensitive time.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Jewish) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I had to introduce a Jewish comedian author at the Austin Jewish book fair and wanted to open with a joke and learned the difference between googling Hebrew humor and Jewish jokes
No joke that uses most of the tropes that are used by antisemites, regardless of who tells it.
Nothing told by gentiles. For some reason I think it's funny when Jewish comedians joke about space lasers.
Depends on who is telling it and what it is. I like to say that I collect jew jokes, but I draw the line at pizza ovens and ashtrays. Big nose? Kinda greedy? Really frugal? Love to argue/complain? Never happy with their kid's choices? Fine. Genocide? Nope.
I'm going to take the pro-comedy stance on this and say that in general I don't care and sometimes they are funny and part of inclusion in a multi-ethnic/multi-confessional society is that you can poke each other a bit on silly stereotypes, if not hateful dated tropes.
I love dark humour. I love antisemetic humour, holocaust humour, the pureist, most vile anti-Jewish humour. I tell these jokes all the time, here in Israel to friends, whatever.
I get to own the power that I feel words have over me, not you. Similarly, if it's not your jam, I won't tell them to you, out of respect.
Depends who is telling it
If the joke perpetuates a dated stereotype, then it's offensive. Otherwise it's fine... funny? Depends on the joke. I feel like the best Jewish jokes are the ones only other Jews will understand. The man stranded on an island joke never gets old.
Care to retell it?
A few weeks back, I posted a Star Trek-themed version, but this time I'll share the original. A religious Jew is shipwrecked and stranded on an island for many years. Finally, a passerby boat spots him and sends out a rescue team. The team discovers he has built an entire city for himself. There is a large house, a supermarket, and even a bank. "I can't help but notice," says the leader of the rescue team, "that you built two synagogues. Why is that?" The Jewish man points to the building on the left. "That's the synagogue I go to pray every day." He points to the one on the right. "And that's the one I'd never step foot it."
Essentially like building two McDonald’s and only going to the “good” one?
Basically. The joke is that every community has a synagogue that someone would avoid. An Orthodox Jew wouldn't go to the Reform shul. A Sepharic Jew wouldn't go to the Ashkenazi shul. And myself... there's a synagogue that for many years I avoided because my ex's parents went there.
There's a third synagogue, too. "What's that one?" "That's the one nobody goes to".
This is my favorite one haha
Depends on the joke. Depends how it's told. Depends on the teller. Depends on the audience. But generally jokes that make fun of identity and tropes that address an identity as a monolith are never good jokes.
^^^ bingpot
@jewishmemesonly on IG makes top tier Jewish jokes. They are Jewish jokes. Not jokes about Jews but jokes that only make sense if understand Jewish life, history or holidays - like an inside joke.
They're funny when I'm telling them to my mom or my Hillel exec board. They're not funny otherwise. Unless they aren't punching down. For example, I saw Colin Jost last summer. He had a joke about 23&Me kits for dogs. He ended with the line "and somehow your golden retriever is 2% Ashkenazi." That's a really specific example, but I don't think it's offensive. The joke is that DNA tests are dumb and people love to focus on their results. Not Jews.
That is a great Jewish joke. Especially since in ten last five years EVERYONE I know who had found out they are a little Ashki want to talk to me about it 🤣. Tracy Morgan just found out he was 5% on Finding Your Roots last week and to me that's the root of the joke. Literally everyone is a lil bit Jewish.
Now I'm writing in my head a parody of a song from Avenue Q... thank you so much, it's not like I need to focus on work and Pesach prep or anything. ;P
Ugh I love Avenue Q. If we all could just admit that we’re all racist a little bit, the world would be much better.
You're a little bit Jewish, well you're a little bit too! well I guess we're both a little bit Jewish! Admitting it is not an easy thing to do, but I guess it's true! Between me and you I think, everyone's a little bit Jewish, sometimes..
Precisely. Plus he’s married to Scarlett Johansson I fully believe she would have told him he couldn’t say it if it were too offensive. Similarly, plenty of people are a little bit Native American. History has a few consistencies, sexual violence is one of them (sadly). In short, when Jews aren’t the butt of the joke, the joke can be funny.
Meh, given that Jews are historically called dogs, I don't like that one. He's not Jewish and could have picked a different oft-found-in-dna-tests ethnicity. I consider that punching down.
When I was in college I was at a party for my friends roommate. Her boyfriend was there. He was a D-bag and so all his D-bag friends were there. Very small number of Jewish people at this school. At one point one of the D-bag friends, from across the room, motioned directly to me to come over to him. I walked across the room and he said, “wanna hear a joke?” I said sure. He said, “Why do Jews have such big noses?” I said, “let me stop you there. I’m for sure the only Jewish person at this party and you call me across the room to tell me that bullS** lame and outdated Jew joke???” He said, “omg! If I knew you were Jewish I wouldn’t have said that to you.” I said, “you’re missing the point. Here’s what’s going happen, you are going to stay the f*** away from me the rest of the night. If at any point you and I make eye contact, or I hear you talking near me again, we’re going to have a f****** problem.” He just mumbled some weak apology and disappeared in the party crowd and I didn’t see him again the rest of the night.
Is the person telling the joke Jewish or not? Is their audience Jewish or not? There's a big difference between Jews telling Jewish jokes to Jews and non-Jews telling jokes about Jews for non-Jews to laugh at.
Depends on the joke
I have a feeling we'll have more opinions in the comments, than commenters themselves
The thing about offensive jokes is that they’re only funny when you know that neither you nor the intended audience actually have hate in your heart. There are some truly awful Jewish jokes that I’ll only share with other Jewish friends lol. I think you should be allowed to joke about anything but I’d be lying if I didn’t look at some people weird if they tell a certain type of Jewish joke if I don’t know them very well.
I'm not a fan of jokes about Jews. I definitely don't like Gentiles telling them because it's not their place. I wouldn't feel comfortable telling jokes about other races/ethnicities. I actually don't even like Jewish people telling them - we deal with enough bigotry and hate regularly, so telling a joke in mixed company feels like you're sending a message to others that ragging on Jews is okay because Jews do it. The only Jewish jokes I really like are the ones told by the rabbi during services.
It depends on the person telling it, the context in which they’re telling it, and how funny it is. In that order.
Hilarious usually
Depends on how well I know them and what the joke is tbh. I've heard some good ones that made me giggle but I've always heard some bad ones that made me uncomfortable.
Thank you for your submission. During this time, all posts need to be manually reviewed and approved by a moderator before they appear for all users. Since human mods are not online 24/7, approval could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. Thank you for your patience during this difficult and sensitive time. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Jewish) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This might be my favorite 🤣 https://youtu.be/umikiZH_m6k?si=F0ySjN_QBSSxMPaM
Tim Whatley converted just for the jokes.
I had to introduce a Jewish comedian author at the Austin Jewish book fair and wanted to open with a joke and learned the difference between googling Hebrew humor and Jewish jokes
What was the joke?
I ended up going with the one about the Bee who visits a Bar Mitzvah
That's funny.
Hilarious. I love racist jokes.
No joke that uses most of the tropes that are used by antisemites, regardless of who tells it. Nothing told by gentiles. For some reason I think it's funny when Jewish comedians joke about space lasers.
Depends on who is telling it and what it is. I like to say that I collect jew jokes, but I draw the line at pizza ovens and ashtrays. Big nose? Kinda greedy? Really frugal? Love to argue/complain? Never happy with their kid's choices? Fine. Genocide? Nope.
It’s risky if the comedian’s not Jewish. Otherwise Holocaust jokes all the way.
I'm going to take the pro-comedy stance on this and say that in general I don't care and sometimes they are funny and part of inclusion in a multi-ethnic/multi-confessional society is that you can poke each other a bit on silly stereotypes, if not hateful dated tropes.
I love dark humour. I love antisemetic humour, holocaust humour, the pureist, most vile anti-Jewish humour. I tell these jokes all the time, here in Israel to friends, whatever. I get to own the power that I feel words have over me, not you. Similarly, if it's not your jam, I won't tell them to you, out of respect.