Comment: You say that humor is especially inherent in Jews.

My Response: Jewish humor where people laugh at themselves is welcomed in Kabbalah, and therefore, it has penetrated into all Jewish literature, art, and worldview.

To some extent, this is also the case with the British. I have not observed such a feature in other peoples. It is very rare to find small, narrow zones in the culture of peoples where they laugh at themselves.

Most societies do not like it, they like to glorify themselves. All their anecdotes are based on their own praise. It seems to me that this speaks of some of their underdevelopment. They lack a sense of their own real place, and therefore they have to cheer themselves up all the time.

The English have a very particular humor, which does not exclude jokes about themselves. This also happens among some other peoples, but usually it is something specific, very narrow, for example, stinginess, frivolity, or impatience, meaning some distinct personality traits that are ridiculed.

And the Jews have it all over. All the character traits of an ordinary person are exaggerated and presented as common, typical, and ethnic. Moreover, all this is retold, encouraged, and inflated by the Jews themselves.

This suggests that the people are free from the need to showing themselves, they do not have a feeling of inferiority. That is, this is our nature, this is us, this is how I am, and that’s it.

The centuries-old development of the people, in general, gives such grounds. Whatever we do, the phenomenon itself exists. Therefore, I can make fun of everything, including my most terrible states.
[302889]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call, Humor and Jews” 5/22/13

Related Material:
When Kabbalists Laugh
Humor—An Emotion Of A Developed Person
Humor Is A Brilliance Of Mind

Filed under: Israel, Nations of the World | Add Comment →