Citizen of the Month » Jokes in Yiddish

Humor is very important. I’d rather hear good jokes than see a naked woman in my bedroom. Of course, if the naked woman was the one telling the jokes, I wouldn’t complain. Especially if she was also carrying a corned beef sandwich.

You see, that was sort of a joke. Not a good one, but then again, you didn’t pay to come to this blog.

Sophia likes to laugh. That’s one of things that keeps us together. Tonight, we watched Bruno and Carrie Ann’s Dance Wars. The song and dance routines were so bad, that we were laughing it up. The show was like a bad high school production, and you couldn’t even blame the writer’s strike. Thankfully, it put us in a happy mood. Who said TV couldn’t couldn’t have a positive effect on personal relationships?

Since I’m on the subject of humor — how many of you have heard a guy tell a real joke in Yiddish? Probably not many of you. I don’t know Yiddish, but I imagine every joke to be much funnier in that language.

Here is a guy telling some jokes in Yiddish. I’d like to imagine that I would be like him if I was born during his generation. Eh, I probably would be too shy. It is much easier writing a blog.

(Mom, if you want to watch this, remember to turn the sound ON)

Tags: humor, Jewish, jokes, Yiddish

12 Comments so far

I heard the rim shot after your joke!

The Yiddish guy is a lot funnier without the translator…

Yiddish jokes are funny just because it sounds like the guy is coughing and spitting at you. You could deliver a eulogy in Yiddish and have the crowd in stitches.

I just hate when they tell the whole joke in English and do the punch line in Yiddish.

Everyone should know more Yiddish. And I do mean everyone. Who can do without the word schlepp? Who can make it even a week?

Mom… turn the sound on… a joke in itself. I sent a picture to my grandma the other day. I didn’t format it to make it smaller. I spent half an hour on the phone to try and explain what a scroll bar was and how to use it. No luck.

Nina is right. Schlepp is a very necessary word.

And I’m afraid I laughed the hardest when I read the directions to your mom. It sounded like something I would say to my mom.

i read somewhere that men only have two moods: horny and hungry.

so if he doesn’t have an erection, you make him a sandwich…

Catnapping — Do you know Yiddish?

WHAT? I DO pay to come here. Some guy appears and shakes me down for five bucks whenever I visit.

The “ta’am” of Yiddish really should have no translations. Nuances of the language, and even of the body language and facial expressions — while telling a story or a joke in Yiddish — can get lost in translation.
(An aside: I think I once told you that I copy edited this book: http://www.amazon.com/You-Cant-Anything-Nice-Yiddish/dp/0806527315)

Yeah, seriously. Some guy (from Nigeria, I think?) asks me to deposit some of my own money in an off-shore bank account for you every time I visit your site. Something about you needing money to start a water polo team or something.

Isn’t everything funnier in Yiddish?
What a great language.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>