My Father’s Humor

In reading my most recent homework assignment for my Modern Jewish Experience class (Michael Wex’s Discouraging Words: Yiddish and the Forces of Darkness), I couldn’t help but see my father and my grandfather around every turn. My grandfather, whose parents came straight from “the old country” of Germany, Russia, and Romania, and my father, his son, have both long participated in what we in my family have deemed “dad humor.” Dad humor, I have so naively thought for so many years, was a particular brand of humor unique to the Kinrich family male. (My brother, I fear, is being groomed to continue the tradition) I now realize, however, that Dad humor is undeniably born out of the irony, “doublethink,” and sarcasm that characterizes Yiddish speak. Dad humor is an ironic, dry form of comedy that consists of ridiculous puns, plays on words, and an uncanny ability to make present company groan with simultaneous admiration and disapproval. Such in-the-moment jokes make the present company (usually my mother, sister, or myself, who, suffering from that pesky extra X chromosome, are incapable of understanding the “true wit” of such jokes) roll their eyes and mutter “there you go again!” all the while acknowledging, but never letting my dad know!, that the joke was, truly, funny.

Until I read Wex’s chapter on this subject, I had not known that the irony, “doublethink” and sarcasm that so characterize the Yiddish language were born out of a fear of the evil eye or evil spirits that “lies at the root of…a niggardliness with compliments and pleasant remarks” (Wex, 111). Before being so enlightened, I would have chalked up a response to “How are you?” such as “How am I? How should I be?” to the crotchetiness and sarcasm often associated with old Jewish men. Now, however, I am aware that such a response is meant, at its historical core, to guard the answerer from being targeted by the evil eye, that ever-opportunistic spirit that preys upon the admittedly healthy and happy. Dare I say this knowledge has given me a new respect for my father’s brand of groan-worthy humor? Yes, I think it has, but that won’t stop me from continuing to roll my eyes each night at the dinner table.