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David Minkoff |
Bringing some j-oy back into our lives
David Minkoff’s Jewish Joke Book could be the way to lift our spirits in these times of doom and gloom, writes Gerald Isaaman
OY! THE GREAT JEWISH JOKE BOOK
By David Minkoff.
JR Books, £8.99. Order this book
THERE’S nothing like a good Jewish joke. So, as gloom descends on the globe – and some scientists insist the future of Earth is strictly limited – then you need to turn to David Minkoff’s enhancing new book to create smiles and laughter galore in the coming weeks of dire headlines.
He has collected and collated some 800 jokes, mainly thanks to his website, which attracts email attention from around the world. They are packed into this new paperback, published at a time when the news grows ever grimmer.
“Perhaps it is really appropriate just now,” he tells me. “It is absolutely true that laughter is the best medicine. And we do need to laugh a lot at the moment to forget our problems.”
Whether Jewish jokes are unique – is there a Jewish humour gene? – is another matter, though it is certainly accepted that centuries of persecution have played their part in promoting the joke as a arcane weapon against the worst happening to you and your race.
Perhaps that is why Jewish jokes contain an innate sense of wisdom and practical advice that makes good sense. And makes them so attractive. Minkoff believes these are basic Jewish characteristics that are coming through. The determination of Jewish families to ensure that their children are given the best education, to ensure the best professional jobs, is one example, the love of good food another.
So it is that he has catalogued his jokes under different sections dealing with subjects such as medicine, people and professions, family fortunes and romance, and takes in anything from philosophy and gambling to praying and keeping fit, throwing in a glossary of Yiddish and Hebrew words to help allcomers.
But, Minkoff admits, you will find a similar desire for fulfilment among Italians, Greeks and other Mediterranean people of different religions, and he takes great delight in seeing his jokes, their environment somewhat changed for obvious reasons, pop up in other countries.
He has his own concept too of what qualifies as a Jewish joke.
“Some people would say a joke about a Jew outsmarting Hitler is a Jewish joke,” says Minkoff. “But I don’t regard it at all as a funny Jewish joke. My idea of what makes a funny Jewish joke is different and is central to my joke collection. I choose my jokes carefully and I’m fussy over what I include.”
He appreciates that laughing at a joke is very subjective.
“I realise that jokes I find funny are not necessarily those that you find funny,” Minkoff insists. “I’d obviously like to know how every one of my jokes is received so that I can make adjustments to my joke inventory.
“But there lies the problem. If a stand-up comedian tells a joke, he can tell right away whether it’s a good or bad one by the laughs. But I can’t tell which jokes bring the loudest laughs from my readers.”
That’s not unless they send him an email after contacting his website – www.awordinyoureye.com.
Indeed, buying that website was the joke that virtually started him off in collating and rewriting Jewish jokes in his own style. He had begun by writing down remembered football jokes from his youth in Neasden, once itself considered a great joke in Private Eye, which snowballed into Jewish jokes in 2000.
And Minkoff gave them meaningful purpose by turning the empty website into the biggest collection of Jewish jokes in the world – more than 2,000 so far. That keeps him happy and busy now that he has hit 65 and is retired, living quietly in Edgware, after spending the last four years of his professional life working as the marketing managing for a firm of Camden Town solicitors.
Minkoff refuses to nominate his favourite Jewish joke.
“It’s like asking a grandparent which grandchild he likes best,” he explains. “I like jokes about husbands/wives, marital strife, matchmakers, growing old, business, health, even Viagra. I really do have many favourites.”
And as you turn the pages of his welcome joke book, you will no doubt find them and enjoy a good laugh.
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