Billy Eichner – Jewcy

On ‘Difficult People’ and Being a Dirt Person

Alexandra Pucciarelli — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 16:39:27 +0000

This year’s season of Difficult People is ending on Tuesday just in time for us all to reflect on our garbage person ways Pre-Yom Kippur. To quote Billy’s character, “we did the wrong thing and we still got nothing!”

Dear Billy Eichner and Julie Klausner,

Thank you for letting it be okay to be a dirt person. I constantly struggle to stay away from my garbage person impulses, but Difficult People really leans into the dirt person lifestyle. It is a celebration of all of the worst traits a person can have.

I would like you both to know that I am not planning to become an all out horrible monster, but just a person who occasionally thinks about herself before others. I really view what your characters do on the show as a form of self-care, because let’s be honest— they only really do care about themselves. It’s cathartic to watch you guys do the things I only dream of doing.

I appreciate your characters’ infusion of Judaism in their everyday activities. It’s not like we often see them doing Jewish rituals or celebrating holidays (though there are occasional examples— shout out to this season’s plot line where Billy’s Orthodox sister became convinced she had a Golem). Still, in the proud history of TV, their background, and sense of humor, infuses every part of their hilarious existence.

I also appreciate Jews mocking other Jews— it just feels right (you know you do it). You crafted characters whose Judaism is expressed through their love of pop culture, for example. Your characters watch The Real Housewives with the same fervor some people bring to Shabbat. They may not live Jewish lives in a traditional religious sense, but they still live Jewishly. The way they perform a Jewish life may feel wrong to some because it isn’t this idealized version of what we “should” be, but that makes it feel all the more real.

As the Day of Atonement nears, I think of when Billy tells his frum brother on Yom Kippur: “Here’s the thing. You know what the holiest day of the year for me is? The Golden Globes.” His niece exclaims in response: “That’s the most Jewish thing I have ever heard.”

As we move into Rosh Hashanah this evening we are told to be self-reflective and contrite. Difficult People has helped me do both. I am thinking more about how I interact with the world so that I can be less of a garbage person. In this reflection I am realizing all the ways I can be better in the New Year. I will apologize to those I have dirt-personed-to and hopefully be just a bit less like your characters in the horribleness in the New Year.

Difficult People asserts that we as Jewish people will always be the Other in society, and it’s better to just embrace rather than hiding from it. What I love about your show is that Julie and Billy are unapologetically themselves, dirt person ways and all.

Stay Jewish!

-Alex

Image via Hulu

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Katy Perry’s Yarmulke-Inspired Dress Wins the Super Bowl

Elissa Goldstein — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 12:00:21 +0000

Katy Perry’s yarmulke-inspired dress* (the “bramulke,” if you will) won the Super Bowl last night, obliterating all other competitors—including Perry herself, who put on a pretty good show.

[h/t to Esther Kustanowitz for supplying this instructive visual aid.]

But Idina Menzel (AKA Adele Dazeem) was a close second with her stunning rendition of the national anthem, which had just the right amount of theatrical trilling and drama. Love how she punches the air at the end! She knows she’s nailed it. Take that, Alicia!

http://youtu.be/_OM56DiHGUo

Comedian Billy Eichner received an honorable mention for a series of perfectly executed tweets:

At the end of the game they will announce who gets Israel

— billy eichner (@billyeichner) February 2, 2015

What if this whole game is just someone’s bar mitzvah party — billy eichner (@billyeichner) February 2, 2015

My wife and I LOVED that Scientology ad.

— billy eichner (@billyeichner) February 2, 2015

And apparently a bunch of dudes played a football game? I have no idea what the outcome was; sorry. I’m Australian.

This concludes your coverage of Super Bowl XLIX—and your sports news for 2015. See you next year!

(Main image: Timothy A. Clary/Getty)

* Editor’s note: You guys, for real, we know it’s beachball-inspired.

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Would You Have Sex With Paul Rudd For $1?

Elissa Goldstein — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 02:00:57 +0000

Here is comedian Billy Eichner racing around the streets of New York with a demure Paul Rudd, asking passersby if they’d have sex with Rudd for $1. Almost everyone said yes. Eicher did the hysterical propositioning, Rudd barely spoke—and really, he didn’t need to. Who could say no to that adorable punim? Not Cher Horowitz, nor I, nor you.

“Who wants to have sex with Paul Rudd? He has more money than Jason Segal!”

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Billy Eichner: The Ambushing Comedian

Lauren Schwartzberg — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 20:24:36 +0000

Unrestrained, in-your-face, New York Jew Billy Eichner pranks unassuming pedestrians by running up to them, shoving a microphone and camera in their face, and asking them to choose between Meryl Streep and Glenn Close. On “Billy on the Streets,” if your interests match with Billy’s, you might just win a dollar.

In a video taken backstage at The New Yorker Festival, Billy says that one of his favorite topics is playing on the misconceptions of Jews in pop culture. “It’s that classic thing, oh the Jews run Hollywood.” He says, “So I kind of like talking about Hollywood Jews.” He played “Media Mogul or Rabbi” with Nas and “Whisteblow that Jew” with Rashida Jones in which she had to guess if celebrities changed their Jewish birth names for Hollywood fame. Aside from inducing fits of laughter, this segment also revealed that Jonah Hill was born Jonah Hill Feldstein.

Beware: Once you start watching you will not be able to stop.

Billy and Rashida Jones play "Whistle-Blow That Jew!" from Billy on the Street

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Daily Jewce: Thief Steals Rabbi’s Car With Torah Inside, A Yo La Tengo Guide

Jewcy Staff — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:39:31 +0000

• Someone stole a rabbi’s car and made off with a $30,000 torah scroll (the vehicle and the scroll were found). [NYDN]

• The definitive guide to the Jewish band from Hoboken, Yo La Tengo. [BuzzFeed]

• Alec Baldwin does everything short of blackmailing Lena Dunham to get a part on her HBO show, Girls. [WNYC]

• Don’t take Joan Rivers to court, because you will lose. [THR]

• More about Network Jew extraordinaire Nick Kroll. [Splitsider]

• Billy on the Street, our favorite new show not starring Nick Kroll, debuts the Julia Roberts Obstacle Course. [Vulture]

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Daily Jewce: Gwyneth Paltrow’s Dancing Skills, Nick Kroll is Awesome

Jewcy Staff — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 17:41:42 +0000

• Gwyneth Paltrow, total mom dancer. [Hollywood Reporter]

• Narcissism is IN, courtesy of people like Lena Dunham. [Esquire]

• Nick Kroll might be surpassing Schmidt as our favorite Network Jew. Here’s a clip from his upcoming Comedy Central series, the Nick Kroll Show. [Vulture]

• Harold Bloom is God, says Tablet Magazine. [Tablet]

• The New York Times finally realizes Julie Klausner and her How Was Your Week podcast is awesome (we’ve been saying that for years.) [NYT]

• Drew Barrymore would hate going to Florida, and Billy Eichner knows it. [Funny or Die]

Billy on the Street: Billy and Will Ferrell play "Would Drew Barrymore Like That?" from Billy on the Street

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Daily Jewce: Notre Dame Coach at Summer Camp, a Prayer for Madonna

Jewcy Staff — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 15:49:01 +0000

• Wilhelm Brasse, the Auschwitz prisoner tasked with taking identification photographs of incoming prisoners, died Tuesday at 94.

• Before Brian Kelly was Notre Dame’s head football coach, he was head counselor at Camp Mah-Kee-Nac.

• A timeline of Lena Dunham’s in-poor-taste tweet, plus apology, courtesy of the New York Times.

• Zach Braff is back—with a comedy show he just sold to ABC.

• The Book Thief, a play based on a novel of the same name about a German family who hides Jews during the Holocaust, is running at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater.

• Madonna superfan Billy Eichner tells the Material Girl he put a note in the Western Wall before her Tel Aviv concert praying that she’d perform Vogue.

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