History Main / YiddishAsASecondLanguage

** "Stress Fracture" depicts Dee Castle's family as stereotypical American Ashkenazim (possibly as a reflection of author [[WriteWhatYouKnow Diane Castle's real family]], in much the same way the character's OCD reflects her own problems with the condition).
** At one point a character using a unfamiliar Yiddish word when speaking to Phase, which she then explains to him; he berates himself, as a native of New York City, for not knowing it before.
** Jericho (a BlindBlackGuy from Texas) refers to Peeper and Miasma as 'yutzes' while doing the color commentary on their combat final (he's using his cybernetic implant to watch it through the video link). When [[TheSpeechless Razorback]] calls him out for it, he says, "What? I don’t look Jewish to you?”, before explaining he'd picked it up a student codenamed Rabbinic ("I heard some way better words from him, but I don’t think the FCC would let me say them on the air.”)
** In "Razzle Dazzle", supervillain Mephisto (who [[UnreliableNarrator claims]] to have grown up in the Vaudeville community of the late 19th and early 20th centuries) uses a truckload of Yiddish in giving his biography. He even says he got called out for it by a [[StupidJetpackHitler Nazi scientist/supervillain]] he was working with against [[BigGood The Champion]] in 1938:

* [[WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}} Slappy Squirrel's]] eternal (And [[AlterKocker elderly]]) nemesis Walter Wolf speaks with a Yiddish accent and swears in Yiddish ''a lot''.

* One episode of ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'', about Nanami's [[EverythingsBetterWithCows transformation into a cow]], features the Yiddish folk song "Dona Dona," which is a popular song in Japanese schools. How they got it, no one knows. But pay attention to [[https://lyricstranslate.com/en/dona-dona-dos-kelbl-dona-dona.html the lyrics]]...

* Rivka's (Literature/TheSecondMango)unnamed native language contains several Yiddish words and phrases that she peppers her speech with.

[[folder:Theatre]]

--> '''Robin Hood''': You've just entered the territory of Robin Hood and his Merry Men.
--> '''Rabbi Tuckman''': (''waves his hand'') Feygeles?
--> '''Robin Hood''': (''the Merry Men react negatively'') No, no, we're straight, just merry.

--> "This is playing to his strengths, you PUTZ!”
-->
-->The Red Eagle glared suspiciously at Mephisto. “Are you by any chance… Jewish?”
-->
-->Mephisto glared back. “NO. I was in Show Biz - they use a lot of Yiddish, because Yiddish has so many great words for people who are being STUPID! If I was Jewish, would I be working for the fucking Nazis?”

::Even the NAZI speaks Yiddish in the musical.

--->*An odd case of semi-truth in television. [=LaGuardia=] really was half-Jewish in real life. But his mother was an Italian Sephardic Jew, who would have spoken Ladino, or Judeo-Spanish, not Yiddish. (It's possible [=LaGuardia=] learned Yiddish to speak on the campaign trail though, just as modern New York City politicians can mostly use a few words of Spanish at least.)

* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': Of [[TropeOverdosed the many tropes]] that this series invokes, this may be the most surprising, especially since it is mostly done with a LampshadeHanging.

* Creator/DashiellHammett used the word ''[[http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gunsel gunsel]]'' in ''Literature/TheMalteseFalcon''. It was actually Yiddish for "a young man kept for sexual purposes", but he knew that his editor would [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar misinterpret it as "gun-carrying hoodlum"]]; and indeed, as a result, the word now means that!

* Grunkle Stan of ''[[WesternAnimation/GravityFalls Gravity Falls]]'' occasionally uses "Oy!" and "Moses!" to express anguish. [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar Apparently, it's okay to cry to Moses in a kids' cartoon but not to Jesus.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKingOneAndAHalf'': Timon's mother (a meerkat).

** The Yiddish-speaking Indian chief in ''Film/BlazingSaddles''. His headdress actually reads "Posher l'Kesach": roughly, "Posher for Kassover." When he meets Bart's family, he says in Yiddish, "Blacks!" When one of the other Indians raises his tomahawk, Brooks says, "No, no, don't be crazy. Let them go!" After Bart's family has ridden away, Brooks mutters, "Have you ever seen in your life?" He finishes in very Yiddish-accented English, "Dey darkuh den us! Wuff!"

* The [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney version]] of ''Hercules'' managed to have ''Hades'' (and Phil) throw various Yiddishisms into his speech, despite ostensibly being from [[AnachronismStew ancient Greece.]]

** And in the ''Manga/KareKano'' anime adaptation, when Maho gets forced into participating in the play, very much against her will.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheMightyDucks'' featured a wise old duck who taught Grin how to keep his head while playing hockey. At first, he looks and talks like a stereotypical Fu Manchu Chinese-type, but suddenly shifts into stereotypical Yiddish blabbering without any warning. Keep in mind, he's from another planet, in a ''different dimension''.

* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': Common Yiddish-derived words occur prominently in two stories.

** This is actually a habit of Creator/BrianMichaelBendis, who does it with everything he writes.

** [=LaGuardia=], though raised Episcopalian, actually was half-Jewish--and while he would have learned Yiddish growing up on the Lower East Side, his mother was an Italian Jew who probably wouldn't have known it.

** It's James Woods [[LargeHam can get away with that.]]

* Timon's mother (a meerkat) in Disney/TheLionKing 1 1/2.

* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': Occurs prominently in two stories.

* In ''Discworld/FeetOfClay'' all of the golems' names are Yiddish; these names include Dorfl, Schmatta, and Klutz. The golem who goes mad is named Meshugah. Dorfl's speech patterns, first seen in writing and then in actual speech after he receives a tongue, are extremely Yiddish.

** It's James Woods. [[LargeHam He can get away with that.]]

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheMightyDucks'' featured a wise old duck who taught Grin how to keep his head while playing hockey. At first, he looks and talks like a stereotypical Fu Manchu Chinese-type, but suddenly shifts into stereotypical Yiddish blabbering without any warning. Keep in mind, he's from another planet, in a ''different dimension''

* In ''Film/{{Heavyweights}}'', Philip's bunkmates find him eating a [=McDonald's=] cheeseburger in a bathroom stall. Everyone is tense, as their summer camp's new health- nut owner has long declared junk food contraband. The other boys ask where Phillip got the cheeseburger and he lies that he found it, leading Josh to cry "Come here, you little putz!" and seize the burger.

* A common gag in Creator/MelBrooks films, usually doing them himself.

In Film/{{Heavyweights}}, Philip's bunkmates find him eating a [=McDonald's=] cheeseburger in a bathroom stall. Everyone is tense, as their summer camp's new health nut owner has long declared junk food contraband. The other boys ask where Phillip got the cheeseburger and he lies that he found it, leading Josh to cry "Come here, you little putz!" and seize the burger.

* Creator/EstherFriesner's novel ''Elf Defense'' includes among its minor characters a classic Tolkien/Shakespeare-style elf maiden whose speech is unexpectedly punctuated with the occasional bit of Yiddish. When called on it, she abashedly admits to dating a dybbuk (a possessing demon of Jewish myth).

* Grunkle Stan of ''[[WesternAnimation/GravityFalls]]'' occasionally uses "Oy!" and "Moses!" to express anguish. [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar Apparently, it's okay to cry to Moses in a kids' cartoon but not to Jesus.]]

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheMightyDucks'' featured a wise old duck who taught Grin how to keep his head while playing hockey. At first, he looks and talks like a stereotypical Fu Manchu Chinese-type, but suddenly shifts into stereotypical Yiddish blabbering without any warning. Keep in mind, he's from another planet, in a ''different dimension''.