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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