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From Tummler to Top Banana: The Influence of Yiddish Humor on American Culture

January 21, 1:00 PM

A lecture by Kenneth Libo

Sholom Aleichem, Boris Thomashefsky, and Molly Picon are great figures in Yiddish culture who have profoundly influenced American English, especially through classic comedy routines Dr. Libo shares with the audience.

More than any other language since the Revolutionary War, Yiddish has exercised a profound influence on American English far beyond the confines of the immigrant Jewish world. Hundreds of Yiddish words and expressions have become ineluctably a part of American English – everything from shmatte, shmendrik and shlock to chutzpah chochm and oy gevalt. Many Yiddish words and expressions entered American English as punch lines to jokes, often told by quintessentially Yiddish types like the krechtser, the shnorrer and the kibbitzer. These names and many more have morphed into American English. Using a number of classic Yiddish-language routines which later became popular in American vaudeville, Dr. Libo takes the audience on a trip via Second Avenue, the Broscht Belt, and Broadway to the mainstream bastions of American English.

JCC of Mid-Westchester

For further information about this event, please contact:

Phyllis Kelly
Phone: (914) 472-3300 x423

http://www.jccmw.org

This lecture is a part of the Speakers in the Humanities program.