Old Jews telling jokes online? Better tighten your Borscht Belt
Thursday, June 11, 2009 | by alex weislerThere’s a relatively new Web site called OldJewsTellingJokes.com, and it’s pretty up front about what it offers: old Jews telling jokes.
On every Tuesday and Thursday from February through the end of April, the Web site posted a new video of an over-60 Jew raucously recounting one of his or her favorite jokes.
Quietly, the site became a hit. The site’s Facebook page lists nearly more than 2,200 fans, and the site has logged nearly 2 million video plays.
.jpg "SRold jews (d hoffman)")
.jpg "In images from their online videos: Barney Hoffman (top), a retired judge and current lawyer; Diane Hoffman (middle), a retired health care professional; and Neil Lawner, a retired dentist who now teaches dentistry at NYU.")
The OldJewsTellingJokes home page might be sparse, but the simple interface is effective enough for the site’s needs.
Every video starts off with a snippet of “Dave Tarras’ B flat Bulgars,” a jaunty klezmer romp from noted Yiddish musician Henry Sapoznik. Each joke gets a simple title — “Chicken” or “Broccoli,” for instance — and director Sam Hoffman writes a bit of backstory beneath each would-be Rodney Dangerfield or Fyvush Finkel.
Hoffman works in the film industry as a producer and director. He has directed two short films, and has been an assistant director for Woody Allen, Barry Levinson, Penny Marshall and others.
To cast the series for last summer, Hoffman’s father, Barney, e-mailed 15 to 20 friends who fit three requirements: over 60, Jewish, capable of telling one hell of a joke.
Those who answered the call — mostly men, and two women — met at a vacant storefront in Highland Park, N.J., where Hoffman was waiting with a professional film crew, sandwiches and the guarantee of a free DVD for each participant, according to one of the joke tellers, Neil Lawner.
Lawner, an assistant professor of orthodontics at New York University’s School of Dentistry, has three jokes posted on the Web site. He says the site’s appeal may stem from a forgotten “Catskill Mountains vintage” brand of humor.
“It describes really a little bit of a lost generation of joke-telling Jewish guys,” he said. “That standup comedy, joke-telling Jewish guy is a little bit passé. You don’t see that much anymore.”
After its launch, OldJewsTellingJokes became a hit in the Jewish blogosphere, frequently popping up on Jewcy, Jewlicious, Jewssip and other sites.
Six weeks ago, Spiegelman wrote an appeal on the site asking frequent visitors to write their own Jewish jokes and interweave them with family stories. The site’s founders hope to craft a book from users’ submissions, he said in the post.