Monday, January 7, 2008

Jewish Cartoon Characters

Taken from Juf.Org

Cartoon Characters
Just because someone is two-dimensional doesn't mean they can't have character. In fact, some of your favorite cartoons are Jewish!

Fievel Mousekewitz, the cutest little immigrant ever, is the star of An American Tail and Fievel Goes West. The movies' director, Don Bluth, is Jewish, and so is their producer… you might have heard of him… Steven Spielberg.

Find Feivel here!

A Simpsons star, Krusty the Clown started life as Herschel Krustofsky before going into showbiz. His father is a rabbi who was played by comedian Jackie Mason… whose real-life father was a rabbi, too!

Heeere's Krusty!

Also from the creator of the Simpsons, Matt Groening, was a sci-fi show called Futurama, set in the year 3000. Katey Sagal was in that, but the Jewish character was a humanoid lobster named Dr. Zoidberg. He was a doctor who wanted to be a comic. Well, he had the Yiddish accent for it!

Check in with Dr. Zoidberg!

One of the four South Park kids, Kyle Broslofski, is Jewish. Matt Stone, one of the creators of the South Park series, does Kyle's voice. Like his alter-ego, Matt grew up Jewish in small-town Colorado.
Visit Kyle.
Maybe the Rugrats family has a surname like "Pickles" because they're kosher, I mean, Jewish. That's Didi Pickles and her kids Tommy and Dil (get it-- Dil Pickles!). The Rugrats have Chanukah and Passover videos, too!
Drop in on the Rugrats!
Then there is Harold from Hey Arnold! Here's what the only Jewish skateboarder we know of, Dave the Jewish Skater, says: "No one will ever forget the touching moment when Harold, the school bully, had his Bar Mitzvah on Hey Arnold! It's season 2, episode 11 and there is some great behind the scenes footage of the episode in the Seasons 1-3 box set. Highly recommended."
Some Jewish superheros include The Thing from Fantastic Four, and X-Men's Magneto, who survived the Holocaust. They were created by a Jewish illustrator named Stan Lee, who also gave us Spider Man, The Hulk, and Captain America… for starters!

Learn more about Stan's not-so-secret identity. And here is more on that magnectic personality, Magneto.

Lots of your other cartoon favorites have Jewish creators: Max Fleischer gave us Popeye and Betty Boop. The Warner Brothers were Jewish, and their studio came up with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, and Porky Pig… all of whom were voice-acted by Mel Blanc, who was also Jewish (Yup! Porky was kosher!)! And new movie star Shrek first appeared in a book by Jewish cartoonist William Steig.

Finally, Superman doesn't come from Krypton, but Cleveland-- where he was thought up by two Jewish guys, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, when they were still in high school! They said they based him on the first Jewish super-hero ever: Samson!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

From Jew Or NOt Jew:

Dr. Zoidberg is NOT Jewish!
Here's the proof!

In Futurama, a modern day dope awakens in the future and goes on hilarious adventures with his alien, mutant, and robot friends (similarities to our most recent presidency are purely unintentional). It's by Matt Groening. It's science fiction. We should love it.

But there's a problem: Dr Zoidberg, (quoting Wikipedia here) an ignorant, socially inept, disgusting, incompetent who lives in poverty (deep breath) AND speaks with a Yiddish accent, gets guilt from his parents, has a borscht-belt-comedian uncle... you get the point.

Just thinking that Zoidberg might be Jewish ruins the whole show for us. So what can we do about it? Jew or Not Jew powers... ACTIVATE!

Ok, first off, the show never outright defines Zoidberg as Jewish. That's good.

Second, Zoidberg is a kind of lobster/squid amalgam which means he's not Kosher. According to the Bear Corollary established by this website, a non-kosher creature is actually more likely to be Jewish since Jews do not consume each other. That's bad. (The Corollary is. The not eating each other thing is actually fairly beneficial.)

Zoidberg doesn't wear a yarmulke. Doesn't go to shul. Doesn't study Torah. Good, good and good.

Now, here's where our in-depth knowledge of xenozoology comes in handy; aka, watching Star Trek. Y'see, on Star Trek they encounter all sorts of "theme planets". There's the Greek planet, the Roman planet, the Native American planet, you get the point. None of the people on these planets are Greek, Roman or Cherokee, they just look and act that way.

The Enterprise has never visited a Jewish planet, but we must assume one exists and that's the planet Zoidberg is from (Decapod 10, for those of you planning a visit).

All of which brings us to the following happy conclusion (and not a moment too soon):

Verdict: Not a Jew.