Wex gets interviewed by the Australian Jewish News about Yiddish, The Stooges and stand-up comedy.
When people think of Moe, Larry and Curly, they rarely think of Yiddish. But should they?
In one of my lectures, I’ve focused on the pivotal role of the Three Stooges in transmitting not just Yiddish words but Yiddish values to millions of unsuspecting schoolchildren who didn’t always realise that what they were picking up, along with the physical violence, had deep-seated roots in Jewish tradition. One of the best was Curly’s routine about “the maharaja of mishigoss”. And some of their Yiddish was fairly spicy; my parents were far more upset about the Stooges’ Yiddish than the violence.