Comedy of Israeli errors

June 18, 2009 - 4:25 PM by Harry · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, Blogging, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Pop Culture 

Daniella AshkenazyRaised in the metro Washington, DC area, Daniella Ashkenazy (pictured) has been living in Israel for over 40 years and working as a journalist for about half of that time., currently covering the environmental beat for The Jerusalem Post’s weekend Metro section.

Launched a few months ago, Ashkenazy’s Chelm-on-the-Med website is an ever-growing collection if local soft news items – those curious, often humorous stories that would sound like they are urban legends if they weren’t in the mainstream news media.

Among Chelm-on-the-Med’s gems are the tale of a farmer who used his LoJack–like car theft recovery device to recover bales of hay that had been stolen from him, a Knesset proposal to combat the ever-lowering water levels of the Dead Sea by importing water from Turkey, and a Hassidic man who proposed throwing books of Psalms at enemy entities as a poetic response to falling rockets (because in Hebrew, the word for missiles, Tillim, is similar to the word for Psalms, Tehillim).

Chelm-on-the-Med’s beat is relatively similar to ISRAELITY’s in that both sites attempt to take Israeli life out of the realm of hard news and into the realm of real life. As Ashkenazy puts it in her FAQ….

Beyond life and death issues, Israel is an outrageously amusing and lively place to live, and it’s strange that Jews, famous for their humor from Charlie Chaplin to Seinfeld, haven’t a clue about the humorous side of Israeli life.

She also sees the site as a useful tool for spreading a positive image of the country, especially among Diaspora youth:

A lot of things that make some adults uncomfortable will be viewed as very cool by adolescents. In fact, I think the zany, irreverent intriguing encounter with Israel that Chelm-on-the-Med offers will make Jewish kids think Israel is a very neat place – a vast improvement from the image of a gloomy and dangerous…and yes, dead serious and humorless ‘tight-ass’ country that focus groups have found.

Although the site is relatively new, the concept is not. In the late Eighties, Ashkenazy launched the column under the moniker “Gleanings” in the now-defunct Israel Scene magazine, and it has run in a variety of additional publications under other names as well.

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TV’s The Office to open a Petach Tikva branch

April 13, 2009 - 4:20 PM by Harry · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Movies, Pop Culture 

The OfficeExciting Israeli pop culture news has reached us with the recent announcement that the local satellite TV provider, Yes, will soon be running its own version of the landmark satirical half-hour comedy series The Office. A full 15 episodes have already been contracted, set to air in about a year from now, with the Israeli firm July August, which was behind the recent success of The Band’s Visit, handling production.

Co-creator Ricky Gervais was quoted in The Guardian’s piece announcing the project saying,

“I am thrilled and amazed that Israel are making The Office with local writers, directors and actors. I mean, who ever heard of Jewish entertainers?”

Ha’aretz reported shortly thereafter that screenwriting will be handled by B’tipul’s Uzi Weill and the director will be Eitan Tzur, who also had a hand in that Israeli television export’s success.

When Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant developed The Office as what would become a two-season sitcom for the BBC, they had no idea what levels of universal appeal their odd sense of humor had the potential of reaching. Sure, Gervais’ portrayal of oblivious, over-the-top, tasteless paper company branch boss David Brent was arguably grounded primarily in esoteric British dry humor stylings and in specifically British office culture-inspired mishaps. But the show also managed to tap into the universal phenomenon of “cubicle angst,” and its mockumentary-inspired packaging, complete with uncomfortable silences, helped rocket it into global cult favorite status.

Soon the BBC was licensing local versions of the show to markets outside England, with France, Russia, Chile, Canada and the United States (pictured) creating their own takes. While the US version got off to a rocky start (its short first season was more or less a remake of the original British one, just with some local flavor and accents added), it hit its stride towards the beginning of season two and is now enjoying its fifth successful season on NBC.

It can be argued that one of the reasons that the American Office has been as much of a creative success as it has been is that the writers have allowed for the characters to take on lives of their own in ways that are distinctively American. The action all takes place against the backdrops of corporate booze cruises, office outings to Chili’s (where family members’ drinks might or might not be comped), ridicule of those who count Legally Blonde as an all-time favorite movie, peeking at one another’s high school yearbooks – you know, American office culture type stuff.

Having watched both the British and American versions of The Office for several years, I have wondered many times how an Israeli version might manifest itself. Israeli office culture has its own cultural mores and archetypes.

Also according to The Guardian:

….Giyora Yahalom, head of production at the Israeli satellite broadcaster Yes, added: “We are sure that the universal experience of contemporary office life will speak to Israeli viewers. There is no doubt that our viewers will enjoy the same jokes as their contemporaries in the UK.”

And the Ha’aretz piece makes a good argument that the creators are taking the proper approach, reporting that the show

…will take place at the dreary workplace of “Super Office,” a fictional office-supply firm in Petah Tikva.

….The cast will include a variety of Israeli types – an Arab warehouse manager, an ultra-Orthodox saleswoman and a bitter Russian accountant. The Israeli answer to David Brent, the obnoxious boss of the U.K. program, will be named Avi Meshulam, though an actor has yet to be pegged for the role.

Exciting stuff. Hopefully the creative team will have enough self-depreciating perspective to do it right.

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Nostalgia Sunday – Sallah Shabati

November 30, 2008 - 11:55 PM by Rachel Neiman · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Movies, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture 

If you don’t know the film Sallah Shabati then go out and rent it right away because you don’t know Israel. Yes, that’s how strongly I feel about it. Go, go, go out and get it now.

Okay, are you back? Good. Without giving away anything of the plot, Sallah is a film about the immigrant experience and although Israel has changed since 1964 when the movie was made, there are certain constants of Israeli society that humorist Ephraim Kishon put his finger on 44 years ago which still remain the same – bureaucracy, cronyism, societal divides, JNF tree plantings – all the things from which great humor is derived.

The film stars Haim Topol – who went on to have a successful international careers, as well as a very young Arik Einstein, an equally young Gila Almagor and a host of other well-known Israeli actors. It won two Golden Globes and was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category.

Now, the Cameri Theater is reviving the highly successful musical version of Sallah, which first premiered at Habima in 1988. It promises to be good. Here’s the movie version of Sallah’s big number, “Mashiach HaZaken.”

And a clip from the 1988 stage version starring Zeev Revah.

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Snipped from Top Secret Truth

July 14, 2008 - 2:03 PM by Harry · 3 Comments
Filed under: Pop Culture 

Zohan!By now, we all know the premise behind Adam Sandler’s newest comedy, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, which has been breaking Israeli grossing records and has already exceeded Borat’s box office run from two summers ago. Protagonist Zohan Dvir’s madcap journey from super-spy to super-sensitive Brooklyn hairdresser sure seems like an unlikely career arc to the uninitiated – pure comedic gold.

Sandler, who hails from Brooklyn, New York, said the inspiration for Zohan dates back to his childhood when he heard stories about how tough the Israeli army was, even though the country was small.

“Anytime anyone comes after them, they take care of business,” Sandler told reporters at a recent news conference, “As a Jewish kid, you were proud of that. So I admired them.”

“….An Israeli guy used to cut my hair, and I just thought it’d be funny to see an Israeli soldier, a bad-ass fearless warrior who had a little secret dream of wanting to do something else, but was embarrassed to share it with anyone,” Sandler said.

But the truth is, Israelis constitute some of the most notoriously resourceful and disproportionately plentiful communities of expatriates in the world, as CNN ever-so-diplomatically points out.

Like Zohan, many young Israelis escape the country, at least temporarily, after completing their military service to go on lengthy backpacking trips through Asia or South America or to work in odd jobs in American cities.

And in New York, for instance, young Israelis are commonly seen working as furniture movers or aggressively selling useless knickknacks.

….Oddly enough, the concept for the Zohan movie evolved from a spoof of just such Israelis. Comedian-writer Robert Smigel came up with a Saturday Night Live sketch in 1990 called the “Sabra Shopping Network,” the first SNL skit Sandler appeared in.

“….I think it is almost a gesture toward Israel,” said Ido Mosseri, who plays Zohan’s pushy expat Israeli sidekick Oori. “I was a little worried because Israeli crowds are very critical, but I think they took it all in with love.”

And anyway, the schism between the imposingly macho commando persona and the coiffuring, service-oriented one is not as glaring in Israel as it might be in North America. In the US, the stereotypical male hairstylist is effeminate, while in Israel, that’s not necessarily the case.

There’s no surprise that men flock to the profession. The career of a hairstylist is for guys with big egos, for social animals, for ambitious types with a head for business. “….The dream of every Israeli hairstylist who’s just starting out is to go New York and make it big,” says student Rahel Aharonov, 21, drinking coffee by herself.

Sometimes what seems like the most ludicrously improbable scenarios in the minds of Hollywood creatives ends up ringing with a whole lot more true than they might have ever dreamed. Sure, Israelis might not brush their teeth with hummus, but as a premise, Zohan proves to be not much of a stretch.

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