Old Jews Telling Jokes: 5,000 Years of Funny Bits and Not-So-Kosher Laughs by Sam Hoffman and Eric Spiegelman

256 pages

Schtick happens. For five thousand years, Gods chosen people have cornered the market on knee-slappers, zingers, and knock-knock jokes.

Now Old Jews Telling Jokes mines mothers, fathers, bubbies, and zaydes for comic gelt. What we get are jokes that are funnier than a pie in the punim: Abie and Becky jokes; hilarious rabbi, doctor, and mohel tales; and those bits just for Mom (Q: Whats the difference between a Jewish mother and a Rottweiler? A: Eventually a Rottweiler will let go!).

Some are just naughty and some are downright bawdy—but either way youll laugh till you plotz. With Borscht Belt gags from Brooklyn to Bel Air to Boca, Old Jews Telling Jokes is like chicken soup for your funny bone.

This is the book based on the 2009 web series created by Sam Hoffman and produced by Eric Spiegelman. Its chapters consist of jokes and humorous anecdotes contributed by several Jewish personalities, including Ed Koch, Norman Stiles, John Pleshette and Annie Korzen. In the introduction Hoffman says his book "categorized the jokes into chapters, roughly tracing the trajectory of the Jewish experience in America." In May 2012 Old Jews Telling Jokes opened as an off-broadway play at the Westside Theater.