Jewish Comedians

"Better to laugh than to cry," says an old Yiddish proverb. While Jews account for less than 2.5% of the USA's population, approximately 70% of the USA's working comedians are Jewish. As Sally famously said to Harry, "You do the math.” From the Borscht Belt shtick of Mel Brooks, to the Hollywood hijinks of the Marx Brothers, Jewish humor has defined comedy in 20th century America.

Woody Allen, Henny Youngman, Milton Berle, Jerry Lewis, Jerry Seinfeld, Garry Shandling (with whom I worked on “The Larry Sanders Show”), Bob Hope, Robert Klein, Mickey Katz, Weird Al, Allan Sherman, Jack Benny, George Burns, George Jessel, the Ritz Brothers (Al, Jimmy, Harry), Danny Kaye, Alan King, Jerome Lester 'Curly' Howard (Horwitz), Yehudah Leib b’r Shlomo Natan ha-Levi. His brother Moe was Moshe, and brother Shemp was Shmuel — otherwise known as The Three Stooges. The list goes on and on and on and on and on . . . Need I say more?