Israeli Nonsense: humor, globalization and vegetables during the early nineties
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Ofer Idels
Ofer Idels (ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2366-4083 ) is a Minerva Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Munich’s History Department. He is a scholar of modern Hebrew culture and the author of “Zionism: Emotions, Language, and Experience” (Cambridge University Press, 2024).
und
Roni Cohen
Roni Cohen (ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8667-0619 ) is a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow at Columbia University’s Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies. The author of the forthcoming book “Carnival and Canon:
Abstract
Offering an inaugural analysis of Israeli Nonsense, this article explores humor, globalization, and Israeli identity since the early 1990s. Israeli Nonsense, a particular form of humor, emerged during Israel’s rapid shift towards neoliberal privatization and globalization. Influenced by the growing popularity of standup comedy and the rise of new commercial television channels, it became a distinctive humor style in an era marked by optimism and “normalization.” It quickly formed nostalgic classics, leaving a lasting impact on contemporary Israeli humor. Through interviews, newspaper excerpts, and sketch analysis, we identify five key attributes of Israeli Nonsense: (1) improvisation, (2) linguistic humor, (3) physical humor, (4) nostalgia, and (5) non-politicization. By challenging existing interpretations of 1990s Israeli culture and nonsense as “elitist” with anti-national and non-ideological tendencies, we highlight the popular manifestations of Israeli Nonsense to demonstrate that this distinct humor did not adopt a consciously critical and cynical stance towards society and culture but embodied an optimistic and empathetic attitude toward local identity in the age of globalization.
About the authors
Ofer Idels (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2366-4083) is a Minerva Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Munich’s History Department. He is a scholar of modern Hebrew culture and the author of “Zionism: Emotions, Language, and Experience” (Cambridge University Press, 2024).
Roni Cohen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8667-0619) is a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow at Columbia University’s Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies. The author of the forthcoming book “Carnival and Canon: The Medieval and Early Modern Purim Parody Literature” (Magnes Press, forthcoming).
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© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Full Length Articles
- Israeli Nonsense: humor, globalization and vegetables during the early nineties
- “Laughing with” or “laughing at” people with disabilities? Love on the Spectrum and Derek
- Party games and prejudice: are these Cards Against Humanity?
- What is counter-Versailles literature? – At the intersection of humblebrag, irony, and humor
- The power of memes: personification as a marker of psychological distance in memes about the war in Ukraine
- Let’s entertain others: the relationship between comic styles and the histrionic self-presentation style in Polish, British, and Canadian samples
- Downward-punching disparagement humor harms interpersonal impressions and trust
- Book Reviews
- Jessica Milner Davis: Humour in Asian Cultures. Tradition and Context
- Francisco Yus: Pragmatics of Internet Humor
- Chaoqun Xie: The Pragmatics of Internet Memes
- Esther Linares Bernabéu: The Pragmatics of Humour in Interactive Contexts
- Lena Straßburger: Humor and Horror – Different Emotions, Similar Linguistic Processing Strategies
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Full Length Articles
- Israeli Nonsense: humor, globalization and vegetables during the early nineties
- “Laughing with” or “laughing at” people with disabilities? Love on the Spectrum and Derek
- Party games and prejudice: are these Cards Against Humanity?
- What is counter-Versailles literature? – At the intersection of humblebrag, irony, and humor
- The power of memes: personification as a marker of psychological distance in memes about the war in Ukraine
- Let’s entertain others: the relationship between comic styles and the histrionic self-presentation style in Polish, British, and Canadian samples
- Downward-punching disparagement humor harms interpersonal impressions and trust
- Book Reviews
- Jessica Milner Davis: Humour in Asian Cultures. Tradition and Context
- Francisco Yus: Pragmatics of Internet Humor
- Chaoqun Xie: The Pragmatics of Internet Memes
- Esther Linares Bernabéu: The Pragmatics of Humour in Interactive Contexts
- Lena Straßburger: Humor and Horror – Different Emotions, Similar Linguistic Processing Strategies
