“American Dad!” does the “Bar Mitzvah Shuffle”

My boyfriend and I are big fans of the animated show "Family Guy," not so much of its creator Seth MacFarlane's other show, "American Dad!" - but I taped both this past Sunday to watch the following night. When the latter show came on, my boyfriend said I could turn it off, but I was too tired after a long day at work and figured I could use the episode for a 30-minute nap.

But I bolted upright about 30 seconds into the show, when a character was introduced whose name was Etan Cohen. My brother's name is Eitan (pronounced the same), and people always remark on what an unusual name it is, even though it's pretty common in Israel and there's even a Bratz doll with the name. So I was really (pleasantly) surprised to hear my brother's "unusual" name on a major network TV show.

Anyway, the gist of the episode, "Bar Mitzvah Shuffle" (which you can watch online at Hulu.com), is that Etan (brilliantly voiced by nice Jewish boy Seth Green) is having his bar mitzvah, and is "study buddies" with a boy named Snot, who is the best friend of Steve, one of the show's main characters.

In the first scene, smooth-talking Etan seduces Steve's Jewish girlfriend, Debbie, and Steve vows revenge. He plans an intricate, "Ocean's Eleven"-style heist of Etan's bar mitzvah money, but Snot accidentally foils the plan and is blamed for the robbery. Snot has to go in front of a beit din and prove that he is still worthy of having a bar mitzvah. The beit din finds him guilty and strips him of his bar mitzvah privileges (here's where my boyfriend asked, "You have to get permission to have a bar mitzvah?!?"). Racked with guilt, Steve confesses and Snot is able to have a Star Trek-themed bar mitzvah.

While I'm not really a fan of "American Dad!," I found the episode funny. Although it wasn't entirely halachically accurate - to my knowledge, a beit din doesn't weigh in on bar mitzvah issues - it was a relatively respectful portrayal of Judaism (the most discomfiting Jewish character was actually a non-Jew pretending to be a Chassid), even though the ultimate hero (Steve) wasn't Jewish. One of the best parts (besides Etan's hilarious entrance on a cell phone call to "Bubbe Judy") was a neo-Nazi character who explained the purpose of the beit din, adding that Jews have a rich and wonderful heritage - but that he still hates them.

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