Irishman and a Jew: Difference between revisions

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(Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.IrishmanAndAJew 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.IrishmanAndAJew, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license)
 
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''I once heard Dave Belasco Say<br />
''You couldn't stage a play today<br />
''If it wasn't for the Irish and the Jews!''|'''From the song ''"If it Wasn't For the Irish and the Jews'''''"}}
 
No, this isn't [[I Thought It Meant|a place to list stale old jokes]], though it does have a very important connection to them. An [[Irishman and A Jew]] is much subtler (and older) variation on [[Salt and Pepper]] (by comparison, [[Black Dude, White Dude|think of the Irishman as the "black dude" and the Jew as the "white dude"]] -- [[Dissimile|although the Jew will usually have slightly darker skin]]); it is a fairly common but typically low-key form of [[Odd Couple]] pairing that largely originated in [[Vaudeville]], making it [[Older Than Radio]].
 
Simply put, it refers to any situation in which there is extensive collaboration or pairing between an [[Useful Notes/Ireland|Irishman]] or [[The Irish Diaspora|Irish-American]] (the latter is ''much'' more common) and a [[Useful Notes/Judaism|Jewish]] person. This can apply either to an onscreen pairing of two fictional characters or to a [[Show Business|behind-the-scenes]] collaboration in [[Real Life]]. Interestingly, the latter seems to be ''far'' more common, and the full [[Odd Couple]] potential of this trope is rarely exploited, probably ''because'' the ethnicities are those of the performers themselves, and not so important to the characters they play.