Typical Jokes in the Shtetl
A traveler, arriving in a Galician town, orders a pair of trousers from a Jewish tailor. Three months later he leaves, without the trousers. After seven years he happens to pass through the same place again and, lo and behold. The tailor comes to deliver the trousers. “Well,” the traveler exclaims, astounded, “God created the world in seven days—but you took seven years for a pair of trousers!” “True,” the Jew agrees, quite unimpressed, “but look at the world—and look at my trousers.”
Explanation: This joke insults the reliability of the Jewish tailor but comically challenges God’s power by challenging his creation. Yet it evades the status of blasphemy by camoflauging the insult to God with comedy and assuming the impudence of the tailor himself.
You tell a joke to a peasant and he laughs three times: when you tell it; when you explain it; and when he understands it.
A landowner laughs only twice: when he hears the joke and when you explain it. For he can never understand it.
An army officer laughs only once: when you tell the joke. He never lets you explain it—and that he is unable to understand it goes without saying.
But when you start telling a joke to another Jew, he interrupts you: “Go on! That’s an old one,” and he shows you how much better he can tell it himself.
Explanation: This is the first joke written in Royte Pomerantsen, a recent transliteration of Jewish folk humor compiled my Immanuel Olsvanger which was transliterated in order to preserve the ‘untranslateable’ flavor of the Yiddish within the jokes for Americans who can understand but do not read Yiddish. The peasant laughs because he is the closest in status with the Jew, the landowner is removed because the Jews are unable to own land and the soldier is the most removed because he represents the Tsarist army which used to kidnap young boys in order to serve 25 years in the military. Yet the joke also ridicules the Jew’s overconfidence and egotism.
Chernov, the schnorrer of Petrograd, had a very wealthy patron who, for some obscure reason, had taken a liking to the nervy little beggar. Each year he would give Chernov a handsome stipend—never less than 500 rubles.
One year, however, the rich man gave him only 250 rubles.
“What is the meaning of this?” demanded the insolent shnorrer. “This is only half on what you have been giving me!”
“I’m sorry, Chernov, but I must cut my expenses this year,” apologized the wealthy man. “My son married an actress and I am paying all the bills.”
“Well, of all the chutzpah!” roared Chernov, hopping mad. “If your son wants to support an actress, that’s his business. But how dare he do it with my money!”
Explanation: While this joke pokes fun at the schnorrer’s unqualified feelings of entitlement, it also allows the schnorrer, and therefore Jews as a whole, to reverse power roles by allowing the schnorrer to act superior to his wealthy benefactor.
I agree what you said however there is some statements that I don’t agree with you.
And how many times do the students laugh? 🙂
Martin