Like choosing between your grandmother and grandfather, here at the end of Jewish Celebrity March Madness, we asked you to choose between Mel Brooks and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Some of you were certain of your path. Some made your choice begrudgingly, tears in your eyes. Some of you even refused to vote when faced with such a difficult choice.  It’s understandable, but there can only be one winner this year.  And so, we present to you… your champion:

That’s right, after extremely strong leads every other round of the competition, the Notorious R.B.G. kept it going when it mattered most.  All hail your victor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg: SCOTUS judge, feminist icon, Bubby. Notorious.

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We’ve been through a lot over the past few weeks with Jewish Celebrity March Madness. We’ve seen underdogs rise and titans fall. Just last round we had to bid goodbye to both Natalie Portman and Bette Midler.

But now, the most difficult choice is upon us.

In this, our sixth and final round, we ask you to choose between two kickass native Brooklynites: Mel Brooks, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

So get out there and tell everyone you know why your pick should be our reigning 2017 Jewish Celebrity champion.

Polls close tomorrow night, Tuesday, March 4th, just before midnight.

Plus, if you want to know the winner before we make the results public, sign up for our email list. Learn the truth. Taunt your friends with your inside knowledge:

Let’s do this:

Images via Wikimedia

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After three rounds with some really close competitions, Round 4 was almost entirely landslides! Andy Samberg, Gal Gadot, and Steven Spielberg all did really well up to this point, but you wouldn’t know it from how hard they fell.

The only person who came even close to their opponent and lost this round was Daveed Diggs. Let’s raise a glass to the rising star.

And so, our remaining Top 4 are now all the heaviest of hitters: Mel “The Man” Brooks, Natalie “Natch” Portman, Bette “Beat You” Midler, and the Notorious RBG (OK, that last nickname is real).

Who will win? Who will lose? Who’s the best at singing the blues (OK, probably Midler, but still)? We need your help to decide.

(For your consideration, after polls we’ve added some relevant clips of the nominees being great.)

New subscribers to our email list will know who’s going to the finals before we announce the results:

You know the drill by now. Vote, and you have until Sunday, April 2nd, at 10 p.m. And the next day, THE FINALS BEGIN.

YOUR FINAL PICK FROM THE “ACTORS” SIDE:

YOUR FINAL PICK FROM THE “OTHERS” SIDE:

Image via Wikimedia.

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Round 3 of this bizarre tourney was harsh and unforgiving, like a 19th century schoolmaster before some Anne Shirley-type waltzes in and gently points out that you don’t need to strike children for them to learn in a classroom environment.

Anyway, what we mean to say is, Scarlett Johansson is gone. As is Daniel Radcliffe, Mayim Bialk, Lenny Kravitz, Rachel Bloom, Aly Raisman, Rachel Platten, and Mark Zuckerberg. A moment of respect for our fallen heroes…

OK, time to regroup. We’re voting to turn out remaining 8 into a Fab Four. That’s right; this is the quarterfinals. The competition is getting tighter. Choose wisely.

New subscribers to our email list will get the results of this round before we post Round 5:

ONWARDS AND UPWARDS!

Voting ends this Thursday night, March 30th, at 8 p.m. And you can still tweet us with why you think your fave deserves to go all the way to number 1!  For example here are a couple of reader arguments for (and against) two of our top competitors:

RBG is 84 but could beat up anyone else on that list. Also, she is basically standing between us and the apocalypse. She should win this award and also every other award.— Ayelet Parness

Mel Brooks will win. As great and awesome and Jewish as Ruth BG is, Mel Brooks’s career has done more for the culture, people, heritage, and world than any judge could hope to accomplish in a lifetime. — Dov Alpert

So how are you voting?

THE ACTORS:

THE MUSICIANS (For the last time!):

THE OTHERS:

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Is the Holocaust funny? That’s not a question asked too often in serious circles, but for comedians, especially Jewish comedians, it’s one of the most important things to know. The better or less outwardly problematic way to rephrase the question would be, “Is the Holocaust off-limits?” Documentarian Ferne Pearlstein addresses this very question in The Last Laugh, a feature-length documentary that had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival last week.

Who better to answer this question than some of the most notable Jewish comedians? Mel Brooks is the obvious starting point, since he was making jokes about Hitler back in 1967 when he wrote and directed the equally infamous and hilarious The Producers, in which two producers set out to make a guaranteed flop entitled Springtime for Hitler. Nearly every part of that Oscar-winning film was objectionable to someone, but it was still a hit! Brooks, who is interviewed extensively throughout Pearlstein’s documentary, explains that he knew he could get away with jokes about the Inquisition in his classic “History of the World – Part 1” because so many centuries had passed, and, as the immortal phrase says, “Tragedy plus time equals comedy.” In 1967, the Holocaust was just over twenty years old, and for many, that was enough elapsed time for them to be able to laugh.

Humor can be a therapeutic, and one of the most stirring examples presented is when “Saturday Night Live” aired its season premiere three weeks after the September 11th, 2001 attacks, and gave New Yorkers and audiences everywhere the sign that is was okay to laugh again. It didn’t mean that everyone was ready, but it meant that life could go on, and for many, comedy is the best way to deal with upsetting situations. Some comedians, like Susie Essman, argue that certain topics, like child molestation, should always be taboo, while others say that if it’s funny enough anything goes. Gilbert Gottfried, who has gotten himself into trouble for some of his button-pushing routines over the years, is one such comedian who feels that little should hold him back if he can make a joke about it.

There are those who believe that being told that anything is off-limits, whatever it may be, is akin to censorship. Sarah Silverman is interviewed multiple times throughout the film and makes a strong case for being able to say what you want and to allow others to be offended if they so choose. She also addresses the question of making jokes meant for an intelligent audience, like when she refers to the “alleged” Holocaust as a nod to the absurdity of Holocaust denial. To her, it’s worth the risk of a few ignorant people taking her at her word if she thinks it’s a funny joke. A clip of Borat singing “Throw the Jew Down the Well” argues the same point since it explicitly shows said ignorant people celebrating a song whose very purpose is to mock them— even if they don’t get it.

Then there’s the question of whether only Jews can make jokes about the Holocaust. The reasoning for such a “decree” is that there is a value to having collectively experienced something personally, and when an outsider makes a joke looking in, it can be interpreted as laughing at rather than laughing with. A few non-Jewish comedians interviewed dispute this objection, and suggest that if a joke is funny, it’s worth telling. That seems to be the prevailing thought throughout the entire film — comedy is comedy and shouldn’t be held back just because someone is offended.

Does this movie provide an answer to the question it asks? Not just one, certainly. It’s agreed that Nazis are fair game – the villains can be mocked while their victims are in grayer territory. This documentary is funniest not when it showcases the jokes about the Holocaust told by its subjects, but rather when the comedians get to be themselves and talk about how they connect to their heritage. We’re used to hearing their routines, but this feels like a more honest and refreshing take on the nature of comedy, with a few Yiddish expressions and quips mixed in.

Image: Mel Brooks in The Last Laugh

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Carl Reiner—comedy legend, avid tweeter, and Hillary Clinton supporter—turns 92 today.

Reiner was born in the Bronx in 1922 to Irving and Bessie, Jewish immigrants from Romania and Austria, respectively. He stumbled into the entertainment industry by accident when his brother told him about a free drama workshop being put on by the Works Progress Administration. (Thank you, Roosevelt!) Originally Reiner aspired to become a serious dramatic actor, but he switched to comedy during WWII, when he worked as an entertainer in the U.S. army. And the rest, as we all know, is history—he went on to star in Your Show of Shows, create The Dick Van Dyke Show, and play the straight man, brilliantly, to Mel Brooks’ 2000 Year Old Man:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGTPPrkgovw

In 1943, Reiner married Estelle Lebost, a visual artist (and later, cabaret singer). They had three children and were dedicated to each other until Estelle’s death in 2008. (Fun fact: director son Rob cast Estelle in When Harry Met Sally, where she famously delivered the “I’ll have what she’s having” line.)

Last year, in an interview with Moment Magazine, Reiner mused on the connection between Jews and comedy:

I think all people who are victims of prejudice, downtrodden people, have two things to do: They can moan or they can make fun, they can lift their spirits by finding the humor in the horror, and the Jews have been able to do it since Moses’ time. Some of the greatest comedians of all time were black: Burt Williams—he was a Broadway star in the Follies—Eddie Murphy, Bill Cosby and, of course, Chris Rock.

On God, he had this to say:

I became an atheist after Hitler came. I said, what is this? If there was a God, would he not be hearing 18 million people, 16 million Jews, or 20 million other people, saying, “Please God, don’t do this, make him stop?” God was so busy doing what? Striping zebras or fixing the long necks of giraffes?

And, happily, his friendship with Mel Brooks endures. They have dinner together every night, where they kvetch about their physical ailments and talk about what’s good on TV (they’re both fans of  Downton Abbey). Says Reiner of Brooks, “I’m so in awe of his brain that I flatter him within an inch of his life. And I mean it. There’s nobody like him.”

Until 120, boys.

p.s. Bonus clip! Carl Reiner tells William Shatner about his father’s insane but ingenious do-it-yourself dentistry. Amazing anecdote.

Related: The Last Of The Old Jewish Comedians: An Interview With Drew Friedman
Watch the New Mel Brooks Documentary Online

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There’s a lovely piece up on the Jewish Currents blog by L.A.-based Yiddishist Hershl Hartman, who had the privilege of tutoring the late Harold Ramis for a Yiddish-speaking cameo in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.

Ramis plays L’Chaim(!), the Hasidic music producer to John C. Reilly’s washed-up titular rock star. In the all-too-brief scene, L’Chaim and Cox revert to Yiddish to avoid being overheard by prison guards. It’s a really zany, delightful Mel Brooks-ish moment.

Writes Hartman:

I provided the producers of Walk Hard with a transliteration of the lines I’d re-written, and they brought me a tape recorder in which to read the lines for the actors, weeks before filming began. Reilly, as the star, had disdained to use those aids, so most of my day on set was devoted to drilling him. To no avail. Finally, director Jake Kasdan had “idiot cards” made to be held off-camera so that Reilly could read his handful of Yiddish phrases during filming.

Ramis, on the other hand, met me in his trailer with the lines already memorized. I had only to correct some slight errors in pronunciation. He explained that, though he didn’t speak Yiddish as a child in his native Chicago, he had heard enough being spoken around him so that the task was not difficult.

Reilly’s accent is abysmal (it sounds like he’s auditioning for the role of Hans Lada in Inglorious Basterds), but it’s worth watching for Ramis. Flawless.

The post Watch Harold Ramis’ Yiddish-Speaking Cameo appeared first on Jewcy.

Spaceballs, Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles. Every time I rewatch one of Mel Brooks’ films, I’m brought back to my grandfather’s house, where my siblings and I would sit in the living room, drinking hot chocolate, and demand a rewind so that we could watch the movie again, immediately. Seriously, let’s all just watch Robin Hood: Men in Tights tonight. We deserve it.

In honor of the funniest man alive, check out a nice, long interview with Brooks on Conan O’Brien’s Serious Jibber-Jabber.

(Photo by Mark Davis/Getty)

The post Watch Conan O’Brien Interview the One and Only Mel Brooks appeared first on Jewcy.

“Being rather bizarre-looking and being very short, I needed another tool so that I would be accepted,” Mel Brooks told the camera in 1981’s I Thought I Was Taller: A Short History of Mel Brooks. “I used comedy.”

The rest, as they say, is history—and now you can see it from start to finish. Brooks is the most recent inductee into PBS’ illustrious American Masters series, and PBS has graciously posted the entirety of Mel Brooks: Make a Noise online:

Mel Brooks: Make a Noise journeys through Brooks’ early years in the creative beginnings of live television — with Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows — to the film genres he so successfully satirized in Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, High Anxiety, and Spaceballs — to the groundbreaking Broadway musical version of his first film, The Producers. The documentary also delves into his professional and personal ups and downs — his childhood, his first wife and subsequent 41-year marriage to Anne Bancroft — capturing a never-before-heard sense of reflection and confession.

Watch it here:

Watch Mel Brooks: Make a Noise on PBS. See more from American Masters.

Previously: Mel Brooks’ Most Jewish Movie Ever
Why I Love Mel Brooks

(Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Viacom)

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• Beardless Matisyahu is so unrecognizable these days, he can’t even get into clubs. [NYP]

• Turns out not everyone is a fan of Mandy Patinkin’s memorable Princess Bride character, Inigo Montoya—a guy flying from Sydney to Auckland was asked to change his shirt, which said “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” [Gawker]

• Mel Brooks talks Catskills comedy and the garment district. [NPR]

• Gwyneth Paltrow does not tolerate slutty friends. [Jezebel]

• Adam Levine was spotted filming what looks like an SNL Digital Short with Andy Samberg and the Lonely Planet guys. [BuzzFeed]

• Children’s frightmaster and author R.L. Stine discusses the early horror classics that influenced him growing up. [MediaBistro TV]

The post Daily Jewce: Matisyahu Can’t Get Into Clubs, R.L. Stine’s Horror Influence appeared first on Jewcy.