Israeli and American culture clash on ‘Bobby and I’

July 21, 2011 - 8:32 AM by David

Bobby, right, messes with the mind of his host body Ofer.

An odd phenomenon on the Israeli TV screens has been the emergence of characters in sitcoms who speak in English. That may not be so strange, but the weird thing about them is how obnoxious they are.

Red, the life-size puppet rock star of the series Redband doesn’t have a mouth wide enough to contain his feet, as he insults, antagonizes and embarrasses the cream of the Israeli rock scene who appear as guests with his ill placed raunchy utterances.

And now – if inappropriate wasn’t ‘in’ enough – the Channel 2 series Bobby and I is taking low taste to new heights, thanks to the ‘ugly American’ title character.

Bobby, played by Israeli animator/writer Roy Iddan is the loud, vulgar, leisure-suited circa 1975 imaginary childhood friend of scruffy Haifa detective Ofer, played by the show’s co-creator Yuval Segev. While many children have imaginary friends, Ofer’s has stayed with him and grown up alongside him devolving into Bobby’s sorry excuse for a human.

Self-centered, flamboyant and gravely jealous of anyone that comes between him and Ofer, Bobby just blurts out profane, stream of conscious remarks as they come to him – like Ofer’s unedited inner voice, but in a broad American accent. Amid a show spoken totally in Hebrew, these English additions are hilarious, if you’re not easily offended.

“I try to be as outrageous as possible, because you can say whatever you want in English on TV in Israel,” said a decidedly sensible, non-flamboyant Iddan recently, explaining the concept behind Bobby. “I don’t think Bobby’s ever gone too far – I think he can do much worse.”

Iddan, who learned his perfect English – including the accent – while spending many childhood years with his parents in the US, said that he wasn’t making fun of Americans, but focusing on a particular type as personified by the fictional characters of some of his comic heroes – like the obnoxious Tony Clifton, Andy Kaufman’s lounge lizard alter-ego, and Jimmy Glick, Martin Short’s insufferable talk show host.

“I think that most Israelis who brave the show are smart enough to know that Americans aren’t really like that. If they know English well enough to understand the jokes, they understand American culture,” he said.

You may never have seen Israeli and American culture mix quite like this though. The second season of Bobby and I is broadcast on Channel 2 at 11 p.m.