Throwback Thursday Chanukah Special: SNL Commercial for Chanukah Hymns

As we count down the days until Chanukah (first candle is Sunday night) let's go back to Season 24 of Saturday Night Live in 1998. 

In this Saturday Night Live commercial parody, a spokesperson (Alec Baldwin) promotes Chanukah Hymns, a new Holiday CD collection of Chanukah songs, which all have a similar, not-very-festive, sound to them.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.
  


#Throwback Thursday    #TBT

Funniest Israeli Commercials: Hebrew University Encourages Calls to Grandma

One of the drawbacks of our technologically advanced society is that low-tech bubbes are often left waiting for phone calls from their kids and grandkids who are absorbed in Facebook and texting.

The U.S. branch of Jerusalem's Hebrew University wanted to call attention to the generational technology gap, and to its excellent high-tech reputation. So they came up with this funny commercial to drive the point home.

As Steve Lipman wrote in The Jewish Week,

A video on the website features an octogenarian identified as Judith Cohen who describes the “Would It Kill You to Call?” app she’s developed that will send periodic cell phone reminders to delinquent members of the mishpocha. “Do they ever remember to call their bubbe?” she asks. After seven days without a call, a text message goes out to the offender.

It seems like a great way to reach out and touch forgetful ones.Just one problem — the app isn’t real.

In online comments, many people said they thought the app “was real,” said Eileen Hume, chief marketing officer for the American Friends. Some asked, “where can I find the app?” Others responded with “a lot of laughing emojis and LOLs.”

The video came out of a brainstorming session on new ways to get the word out about Hebrew University’s work. Then came an aha moment. Or, in this case, an oy vey moment. What about a bubbe-centered video? “Everyone has a bubbe,” Hume said. “It’s a shared cultural experience.”

A casting call went out. More than a dozen actresses tried out for the role. Judith Cohen is played by Barbara Malley, an 84-year-old actress whose TV and movie credits include a nurse, a mobster’s mother and a “grandma.”Malley is not Jewish. She “nailed” the Yiddish accent and Jewish inflections, Hume said."

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO IS NOT VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

"Hamilton" Creator Lin-Manuel Miranda Stars in New Video for Yeshiva University

Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator and star of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton, is lending his narrating talents to a new fundraising video produced by Yeshiva University. 

As Gabe Friedman wrote yesterday for JTA,

Miranda, who is Puerto Rican and not Jewish, has connections to the school, too. He grew up in Washington Heights — where the main Y.U. campus is located, and which served as the setting for his first hit, “In the Heights” — and his mother is an assistant professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (which was, until earlier this year, part of Y.U.).

Miranda has given guest lectures there and was given an honorary doctorate from the school in 2009, when he was 29  — making him the youngest ever to receive that honor from the university.

Of course, growing up in Washington Heights left him with plenty of Jewish connections outside of Y.U. He has previously said that all of his elementary school friends were Jewish and that he paid his rent before making it big by performing at bar mitzvahs. Then there’s his love for “Fiddler on the Roof,” which he has said heavily influenced “In the Heights.” He even surprised his wife at their wedding by singing “To Life (L’Chaim),” an upbeat tune from “Fiddler.”

In September 2013 we posted the complete To Life production number from Miranda's wedding which he surreptitiously rehearsed with his entire wedding party to surprise his bride.

Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)

i-Shiva - An iPhone App Satiric Commercial - Dark Humor But Still Funny

Sitting shiva is not a subject you would expect to be the basis of a funny commercial. But there is a long history of dark humor over the centuries during which Jewish jokes and anecdotes developed.

With more than one million apps available for the iPhone, it was just a matter of time until one surfaced that dealt with sitting shiva.

Nathan Firer followed a Jewish tradition of turning tragedy into comedy when he lost his father last year. The former lawyer turned comedy writer and producer used his powers of observation and exaggeration to satirize what typically occurs at a house of mourning during the seven day long shiva period. He created a funny mock commercial for a new iPhone app called i-Shiva.

In the video below, the announcer asks "Are you down on your luck, homeless and hungry yet own a smart phone? Are you a foodie in search of your next blog-worthy meal? Are you totally stoned and have the munchies? Then i-Shiva is the app for you! i-Shiva is the new revolutionary smart phone application that will guide you to the nearest shiva call within 18 miles of your location."

From there it gets funnier and funnier, with the app even including a database of which yentas to avoid when visiting and fressing at the shiva house.

Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)



(A tip of the kippah to Seth Front for bringing this video to our attention.)

Seinfeld's "Soup Nazi" Visits Israel and Makes a Pepsi Commercial About Street Food

Pepsi Max produced a commercial in Israel as part of its Top Street Food project, in which the company, along with a committee of experts, ranked the 50 best street food venues in Israel.

Pepsi recruited Larry Thomas, the actor who played the memorable Soup Nazi character in Seinfeld, to star in a commercial in which he roams the streets of Tel Aviv, searching for the perfect meal and a drink to wash it down.

As Adiv Sterman wrote in The Times of Israel,

The YouTube ad begins with two visibly frightened individuals at a typical grilled meat joint as they carefully serve Thomas “one steak with pita, with tahini and harif (spicy flavoring), and one “kruvit (cauliflower) with salsa.”

The two sidle up to Thomas cautiously as they offer him the dishes, apparently so as not to raise his ire, and wait for his approval as he tastes the food.

“This is yummy!” Thomas, dressed in a cook’s uniform, finally yells in a characteristically stentorian voice, to the relief of all those around him.

Does he get to deliver his famous line "No soup for you!" or does he become the object of a similar denial by an Israeli food server? Watch the video and see for yourself.

And if you want to see if your favorite street food store in Israel made the list, check it out here.

Enjoy! 

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)    

What Do Bentley Luxury Cars and Shmurah Matzah Have in Common?

What do Bentley luxury cars have in common with Shmurah Matzah? Well, they both cost a lot more than their machine-made competition. But the fact that they are both handmade is a distinguishing feature.

Check out this commercial. For the first 40 seconds it looks like an ordinary automobile commercial. But hold on -- don't be tempted to stop watching. The last 20 seconds get to the point with the same announcer bringing to life the parallels between the top of the line car and the top of the line matzah.

Handmade is always better. Commercial courtesy of Chabad.

Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)

James Gandolfini: An Israeli Connection in a Funny Commercial

When we were saddened to hear about the untimely death last week of actor James Gandolfini (Tony Soprano in The Sopranos HBO series), the last thing we expected to hear among all of the tributes that came pouring in was a Jewish or Israeli connection.

Well, Tzvee's Talmudic Blog, a blog by Tzvee Zahavy that we follow regularly, found one and posted it on Thursday. Gandolfini was featured in an ad for the Israeli cablevision network called YES. The ad was a tongue-in-cheek commercial for saying YES to trying new ways to stay healthy, illustrated by mob activities such as shooting at a man's feet to make him dance, dumping a body off a bridge into the river, and other such scenes as you'd see in a crime movie.

The ad was created to encourage viewers to try new things, such as a two-month free trial of the YES cablevision service,

We'll miss you, James.

Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places: Moses Parts Traffic and Spilled Coca-Cola in Film Festival Commercials

Jewish Film Festivals are popping up all over the world. Just about every major city, and some minor ones, are presenting new films to eager audiences. In reviewing lists of the films that are being shown, we noticed that most explore serious themes, and very few are true comedies. When we find a comedy, we try to bring it to your attention.

The lack of comedy in Jewish film doesn't stop the festival promoters from indulging in humor, sometimes irreverent, in calling attention to the festivals themselves.

The scene of Charlton Heston as Moses parting the Red Sea in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments was just too powerful an image not to inspire comedic copying in commercials for Jewish Film Festivals in Mexico and Canada.

In the first clip below, a couple is driving through busy Mexico City traffic, trying to get to a movie theater before the film starts. When traffic comes to a standstill, they despair and ask for a miracle.

Moses appears atop a van in full DeMille regalia, raises his arms and extends his staff. The cars split into two rows, allowing the couple's car to pass through.

In the second clip, a couple buys a large cola at a movie theater concession stand, and the guy spills it all on the floor. Enter Moses, actually a janitor with a mop, who raises his arms and with a mighty roar splits the cola puddle and lets the girl pass through on dry land. 

When she passes through, the Moses character lowers his arms. Her date tries to follow her, but fails as the cola spill returns to its original form as the Moses character says "Loser!"

Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)

Funny Israeli Commercials: A Big Hamburger For a Special Visitor

US Secret Service agents rush to a home in Israel and escort a young man living there into a black limousine. Then they enter a movie theater and pull out a young woman. Then it's on to a nightclub where they remove another young woman.

What's going on? It seems that it's after closing time at McDonald's, and a late night opening is needed. All three work there, the destination of the convoy of black limos carrying a special passenger. After checking the meat and the fries, the agents give the go-ahead to the three to serve one of the new Big America hamburgers to the passenger.

Who is he? You've probably guessed by now.

McDonald's operates 170 restaurants in Israel, 40 of which are under kosher supervision. According to Wikipedia, all use kosher beef, but the ones not under supervision are open on Shabbat and Jewish holidays and also serve dairy products.

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)



(A tip of the kippah to Esther Kustanowitz for bringing this video to our attention.)

Funny Israeli Commercials: John Cleese Authorizes Air Strike While Eating Chocolate Spread

It's been awhile since we last posted a funny Israeli commercial, but this week we found a new one featuring Monty Python veteran John Cleese in the role of a Western general discussing possible air strikes against an unnamed target.

The commercial is getting lots of publicity in Israel. As Gabe Fisher wrote in The Times of Israel,

...in a new Israeli commercial, the British comedian and former Monty Python member appears to approve a strike on the Islamic Republic, along the way promoting Sababa Egozim chocolate-hazelnut spread.

The commercial, released on YouTube Thursday, features a group of Israeli military leaders entreating a trio of Western generals, led by Cleese as “General Rogers,” to approve an attack on an unnamed target, saying they “will be in and out in 33 minutes” and that “we have the right to defend ourselves!”

Cleese then takes a taste of a conveniently-located container of the sweet spread and dryly says “Sababa Egozim,” which the Israelis take as permission to order a strike.

“Sababa” means “cool” in Israeli slang (taken from the Arabic, like many Hebrew slang words) and “egozim” are “nuts.” Put together, though, the term is slang for “super cool” or “hell yeah.”

Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)
 

Funny Israeli Commercial Causes Friction Between Samsung and Iran

Israel's newspaper Haaretz reported this week that Iran is mulling a partial ban of products manufactured by South Korean electronics giant Samsung over an Israeli commercial promoting one of the firm's products which depicts the imagined destruction of Iran's nuclear facility in Isfahan by Mossad operatives.

In the commercial for the cable TV company HOT, three characters from the popular show Asfur arrive disguised as women near the nuclear facility, where they meet a bored Mossad agent passing the time by watching the show on his Samsung tablet.

The Mossad man then shows the various features of the tablet to the characters, when one of the "visiting" Israelis accidently pushes a button which causes the nuclear plant in the background to explode. 

To this, the character said: "What? Another mysterious explosion in Iran," a quip referring to a series of explosions in Iran targeting the countries military facilities which have been attributed in the foreign media to covert Israeli attempts to target Iran's nuclear program.

On Thursday, a top Iranian lawmaker said Iran's parliament was considering to cut the country's trade ties with the country, over what he said was an "insulting" commercial, over the depiction of Iran as a "primitive society" and of insinuating that Israel was "powerful enough to easily destroy Iran's nuclear facilities or assassinate the country's nuclear scientists." 

The commercial is in Hebrew, but the clip we reproduce below has English subtitles and in the first 50 seconds of the video a few terms are introduced that will help to make the commercial more understandable. Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)

Funny Israeli Commercials: Flavored Pretzel Thins and a Very Young Ben-Gurion

Beigel Beigel, an Israeli company that makes many different varieties of pretzels, is running a funny commercial set in a bakery in Poland in 1880.

The actors wear period costumes and the lighting and staging bring the shtetl world to life.  The bakers' son bursts into the bakery with a new and exciting idea -- flavored pretzels. His mother reacts with shock -- Flavor in food? It can't be. We're Polish. That's for the Moroccans.

Then his father delivers the punch line "When the little Ben-Gurion becomes Prime Minister of Israel, then we'll bake flavored pretzels." as the camera cuts to a cute little boy with wild shocks of blond hair.

The commercial plays in Yiddish, with Hebrew and English titles. Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO IS NOT VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)

Funny Israeli Commercials: How to Love a Woman With an Enormous Nose

Funny Israeli commercials have been among our most popular blog posts since we started Jewish Humor Central two years ago. We thought we had searched out the best ones and shared all of them with you, with no good ones left to post.

But we found one today, a commercial that aired in Israel a few years ago, but somehow never made it to the world of YouTube. Now we can share it with you.

Posted by CulturePub, a site that collects funny TV commercials from around the world, this one is for Dapei Zahav, the Israeli Yellow Pages. It's called "Man in Love With Nosy Girl..."

In it, a couple walks hand in hand in the park. He presents her with a flower, which she smells. They sit in a cafe, and conversation quickly leads to a kiss, or at least an attempt. The problem is that the girl has a proboscis of Cyranoic proportion. What to do?

The boy goes home, gets on his computer, and searches the online Yellow Pages for a plastic surgeon. Does that solve his problem? Check out the video below and see. Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO IS NOT VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.) 

Funny Israeli Commercials: How to Say No and Stay Alive

Last year we shared a funny Israeli commercial by the Steimatzky book store chain that showed a man and a woman flirting by showing each other titles of books. Here's another one in the series that we think you'll like.

A mother and her son walk into a bookstore. The boy immediately pulls books and toys from the shelves and piles them up in his mother's hands. The sales clerk smiles knowingly and hands the mother a book titled How to Say No and Stay Alive.

It's all visual, except for the Hebrew tag line: "Even for children, books are Steimatzky."

Like other Steimatzky commercials, the background music may sound familiar. It's Carlos Gardel's Por Una Cabeza, the same song used to accompany the tango scene in Al Pacino's Oscar-winning performance in Scent of a Woman.  If you liked the movie or just the music in the commercial, here's a video clip from the movie with the whole song being played.  Enjoy!

Israeli Parody Ad for Sprite Soft Drink Takes Asia by Storm

An Israeli TV commercial for the soft drink Sprite has gone viral, mainly in Asia.  Millions of viewers in China and other Asian countries have gone wild over the ad, which pokes fun at an unnamed dictator and his followers.

Here's a report about the ad and the attention it has received, from a TV news show on NTD (New Tang Dynasty) Television, a Chinese television station based in New York.

The news report shows excerpts from the ad, but we thought you'd like to see the 46 second commercial in its entirety, so we're including it below the news video.

Enjoy!

Funny Israeli Commercials: How Isaac Newton Really Disccovered Gravity

We've been running a series of funny Israeli commercials produced by Neviot, producer of one of the most popular brands of drinking water. The common theme is how their product played a previously unknown role in the creation of great works of art and scientific discoveries.

Earlier this year we posted a commercial revealing how Leonardo Da Vinci managed to change the frown on Mona Lisa's face to a smile just in time to complete his famous painting and how Michelangelo was inspired to create his famous David sculpture.

Here's one set in England in 1666 where Sir Isaac Newton is hit in the head by a bottle of water that leads him to discover his law of gravity. Enjoy!

Chassidic Comedy With Menashe Lustig: Pesach Car Wash Commercial

We've been running a series of funny commercials from Israel ever since we started Jewish Humor Central, but we found that the chassidic community in Brooklyn can also be a good source of funny ads and slapstick comedy.

Menashe Lustig, who calls himself Mr. Chusid, appears in a series of comedy sketches online that we'll share with you in the weeks ahead. Most of the dialogue is in Yiddish, but the comedy is broad and expressive and can be understood without mastering the mama loshen.

Just in time for Pesach, Lustig, after burning his chometz and reciting the appropriate blessing, proceeds to look for chometz in his car and clean it. Frustrated with the mess and dirty appearance of the car, he first tries to use his yarmulke as a rag to wash the trunk lid, and then gives up. He calls his wife to get the number of a car wash that sponsors the skit, asking her to spell out the number in Yiddish (347-WASH) by repeating "W as in Velvel, A as in Anything, S as in Shin and H as in Hock Nisht Keyn Tchainik." 

We hope you'll enjoy this as you do your own cleaning for Passover.

Funny Israeli Commercials: The Secret of Michelangelo's David

Neviot is one of the popular brands of bottled water in Israel.  They've been running a series of funny commercials showing the previously unknown roles played by their product in the creation of great works of art.

Earlier this month we posted a commercial revealing how Leonardo Da Vinci managed to change the frown on Mona Lisa's face to a smile just in time to complete his famous painting.

Here's one set in Florence in 1504 where Michelangelo is trying to finish his famous sculpture of David, but can't get the model to remove all of his clothes until ...well, you have to see the video.  Enjoy!

Funny Israeli Commercials: The Secret of Mona Lisa's Smile

Neviot is one of the popular brands of bottled water in Israel.  They've been running a series of funny commercials showing the previously unknown roles played by their product in the creation of great works of art.

Here's one set in Florence in 1503 where Leonardo Da Vinci is poised to paint the classic portrait of Mona Lisa.  The model can't seem to get in the right mood, maintaining a frown on her face until...well, you have to see the video.  Enjoy!

Another Funny Israeli Commercial: "How Do You Say McDonald's In English?"

Here's another in our series of funny Israeli commercials.

A couple of American tourists ask an Israeli cab driver where they can get an authentic local salad - juicy tomatoes, fresh cucumber, finely chopped onions, olive oil, and lemon.

The cab driver, obviously English-challenged, calls his dispatcher for help in translating the name of the restaurant that he knows will give the tourists what they want.  Then comes the punch line:  Eich omrim McDonald's b'Anglit? (How do you say McDonald's in English?)

There's a second joke at the very end that's easy to miss.  The tourist says "It's wonderful."  The taxi driver hears the last syllable, ful, and thinks she's saying the dressing is "ful", a paste made from fava beans.  He thinks he's correcting her and says, "No ful, techina."

Enjoy!