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Irishman and a Jew: Difference between revisions
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The trope is most common in the USA, but can be found in Britain as well and in any other place where both ethnic groups live.
When the trope is exploited for [[Odd Couple]] purposes, it usually hinges on the ways in which the two characters' respective upbringings and outlooks on the world affect their personalities. Newsday critic Frank Lovece [http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/futurama-finds-a-new-future-on-comedy-central-1.1402526 outlined the two different traditions] of Irish-American and Jewish humour; the former is said to be concerned with the sentimental bonds of blood family, while the latter uses laughter as a defensive technique to deal with a cruel and hostile world. Along similar lines, self-described "Bad Catholic" writer John Zmirak [http://www.catholicity.com/commentary/zmirak/06750.html humourously contrasted] Irish Catholic guilt over [[Sex Is Evil|lust and concupiscence]] with Jewish guilt about [[Race Tropes|race]] and [[Urban Segregation|inequality]]- note how Vienna-born Jewish attorney Felix Frankfurter helped found the American Civil Liberties Union, while Irish-born Archbishop John T. McNicholas founded the [
It is hard to generalize, but the Irish character will probably be [[Large Ham|bolder]] and more [[The Ace|self-assured]], but also more [[Too Dumb to Live|naive]] and possibly [[Ted Baxter|ignorant]]; the Jewish character is more likely to be a bit nervous and [[Lovable Coward|unresisting]], but probably [[The Smart Guy|smarter]] and [[Genre Savvy|more aware]] of how [[Crapsack World|the world actually works]], as well as willing to [[Deadpan Snarker|say exactly what he thinks of it]]. In a way, this could be an oblique allusion to [[Brains and Brawn]], or [[Bully and Wimp Pairing]], but it's usually much more subtle (if it is noticeable at all).
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This trope was fairly common in the golden age of Vaudeville and still [http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=2601 persists in the theater today]; nonetheless, it has become much less prominent in recent years, as younger generations of each ethnic group assimilate to local norms and lose their distinctiveness. (This is particularly true of Jews, who mix with other ethnic groups through marriage more than any other American group, although paradoxically U.S. Jewish identity politics have grown stronger in the past decade.
{{examples
== Film ==
* The great [[James Cagney]] [http://www.mahnishmah.com/system/scripts/modules/admin/pages/show_page.cgi?p=13241 got a lot of laughs] in the 1932 film ''Taxi'' by launching into [[Yiddish As a Second Language|fluent Yiddish]] in the presence of an [[Officer O
* ''[[Take Me Out To The Ball Game]]'', starring [[Frank Sinatra]] and [[Gene Kelly]], features a musical number entitled "O'Brien to Ryan to Goldberg" on the subject of a double play; snippets of vaguely "ethnic" music are included.
* Jim and Michelle in the ''[[American Pie]]'' movies. (Jim is a nerdy, repressed Jew, while the stereotypically red-haired Michelle is equally nerdy but outspoken and bawdy.)
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[[Category:Race Tropes]]
[[Category:Irishman And A Jew]]
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