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When situating the Gospel of Mark within a Jewish context, incongruities concerning both Jesus's character and the collective character of Jesus's disciples become apparent. The Markan Christ, for one thing, is a non-Christ. He does not defeat the powers that be (rather, the powers that be defeat him), nor does he inaugurate a messianic age. His disciples, additionally, are generally clueless, and do not understand who Jesus is or what his theologies are. This essay puts into conversation the Markan narrative with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend to consider whether humour might be part of Mark's Gospel. More specifically, it unpacks the self-disparaging humour of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (e.g. what it is; where it is; how it functions), and question intertextually if or to what extent Mark's Gospel might be implementing a similar self-disparagement as a way to open up space for critical reflection and critique—a self-disparagement that, when held up by humour, does not leave readers falling down an existential hole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses Alter Druyanow’s popular work:The Book of Jokes and Witticisms(Sefer habediha vehahiddud, Frankfurt, 1922) as a turning point in the development of modern Jewish humour. The acceptance of the book is ascribed mainly to its Zionist agenda expressed not only in the formation of its repertoire, but also in the censorship of a large collection of sexual jokes. Following a discussion of Druyanow’s main motives and anthologizing principals, the article includes a first exposure of these jokes, aiming to analyse their social roles. The comparative reading of the jokes in their historical and cultural contexts points at what the Jewish society of that time considered as its “other” – from competing religious groups to other threatening reference groups within this society, such as women and assimilated Jews. In this way, the censored jokes shed light not only on the marginality of the East European Jews and their feelings of inferiority but also on their creative response to them and their ideological horizons. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

From the era of the early republic, American humor has drawn from the frontier ethos that valued domineering triumphs over nature and over others. The tradition of masculine posturing and physical bravery was countered in the twentieth century by Jewish comedians who punctured brawn with brain and who played with anti-Semitic stereotypes as well as showing the advantages of business acumen. Instead of glorifying winners, as mainstream frontier humor had done, Jewish humor in the United States toyed with the character ideal of the loser, who is indifferent to practicality and to mastery of the environment, and thus shuffled cards of identity that made the nation’s culture more variegated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]