Line #6 Main/YiddishAsASecondLanguage


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5	[[quoteright:183:[[ComicBook/HarleyQuinn https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/harleyandsy.png]]]]
6
7	->''"If you live in New York, even if you're Catholic, you're Jewish."''
8	-->-- '''Creator/LennyBruce'''
9
10	In some shows, the characters — some portrayed as being Jewish, [[AmbiguouslyJewish some not]] — will pepper their dialogue with words and phrases in Yiddish (or more specifically, in Yinglish). Translations and subtitles are not provided, and meanings must be inferred from context. This trope goes back quite a ways in American television, almost to the point of being a DeadHorseTrope, without passing through the stages of Clever Idea → Trope → SubvertedTrope → DiscreditedTrope. (Mainly because its roots are another fifty years back, in vaudeville.) It occurs in both dramas and sitcoms, sometimes without regard to the setting city of the show, though it most often appears in shows set in [[BigApplesauce New York]], where it's most common in actual speech, and UsefulNotes/LosAngeles, where ''schmooze'' — a Yiddish word if ever there was one — is a way of life. The criminal argot of East End {{London Gangster}}s has also absorbed a few Yiddish words, particularly "shtum" (keep quiet).
11
12	Thanks to this trope, however, several Yiddish terms have become a standard part of American English vernacular. Concentrated in large American cities and spreading out worldwide, common Yiddish terms like "putz", "schmooze", "WordSchmord", are slowly becoming standard English words. Even idioms that sound perfectly American, like "Eat your heart out" or "What's not to like?" are calques from Yiddish, still preserving the original Yiddish speech patterns. This trope evolved from the early movies and TV — censors were aggressive in editing out curses, sexual references, etc. However, most of these early censors did not speak Yiddish, so the writers, actors, and producers (who often did) used Yiddish curse words as a way of GettingCrapPastTheRadar. Similar linguistic absorption is observable in [[UsefulNotes/BritishAccents Cockney and related North London dialects]]. Essentially Yiddish is GratuitousGerman with a spoonful of Hebrew and a sprinkle of Slavic and Romanian.
13
14	If a character speaks in Yiddish as sole proof of Jewish authenticity, then they may be practitioners of InformedJudaism. If a senior character has the accent as well, they're an AlterKocker.
15
16	Yiddish as a first language declined a lot over the 20th century — [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust five million speakers were killed by the Nazis]] and those in other countries gradually switched to the local languages — many Jews arriving in Israel from 1948 onwards came from Arab countries where Yiddish was not used. (YIVO, the society that collects and preserves European Jewish cultural history, has lots of pre-war Yiddish works.) However, reports of the death of Yiddish are greatly exaggerated. It flourishes among the Chasidim, and there are movements to teach it to children and keep it going among Reform and Reconstructionist Jews; anyone can learn it through free courses online, formal instruction, or immersion — regular visits to a community where people speak it a lot. Of course the language has evolved a lot; pre-war "literary" Yiddish was much more influenced by German, and also a lot less "clean" than the version spoken by, say, Torah scholars.
17
18	Compare AllJewsAreAshkenazi, JewsLoveToArgue.
19
20	See AsLongAsItSoundsForeign, PardonMyKlingon, YouAreTheTranslatedForeignWord.
21
22	----
23	!!Moshln:
24
25	[[index]]
26	* [[YiddishAsASecondLanguage/LiveActionTV Telewisie]]
27	* [[YiddishAsASecondLanguage/RealLife Faktischs Lebn (Real Life)]]
28	[[/index]]
29
30	[[foldercontrol]]
31
32	[[folder:Animefilmen (Anime)]]
33	* One episode of ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'', about Nanami's transformation into a cow, features the Yiddish 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]]...
34	** This song turned up in Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex, as well.
35	** And the manga of Manga/AhMyGoddess...
36	** And in the ''Manga/HisAndHerCircumstances'' anime adaptation, when Maho gets forced into participating in the play, very much against her will.
37	* Meowth from ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' has been known to occasionally let loose an "oy vey" ever since [[Creator/JimmyZoppi Carter Cathcart]] started voicing him in the English dub.
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Karikaturschurnaln (Comic Books)]]
41	* ''ComicBook/Bodies2014'': To remind readers that Whiteman is Jewish, he'll frequently sprinkle Yiddish in his dialogue and narration, e.g. exclaiming "Gavalt!"
42	* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': Spider-Man, particularly the Ultimate universe version, is fond of peppering his speech with random Yiddish, especially during fights -- despite the fact that he's Lutheran, not Jewish. But then, he's from New York City. In fact, his home neighborhood in Queens, Forest Hills, is ''very'' Jewish.
43	-->'''Mary Jane''': Where do you know Yiddish all of a sudden?
44	-->'''Peter''': I picked it up.
45	-->'''Mary Jane''': You should put it back.
46	* The Thing from the ComicBook/FantasticFour ''is'' Jewish and often peppers his speech and battle banter with Yiddish words and phrases.
47	* Shaloman. All together now... "Oy vey!"
48	* ''ComicBook/{{Marville}}'' has ''hadrosaurs'' using the Hebrew word "mishbucha", ''during the Jurassic period''. If this strikes you as in any way coherent or logical, ''seek help''.
49	* Kate Kane, who is Jewish, occasionally uses Yiddish in ''ComicBook/BatwomanRebirth''.
50	* Many of the founding writers of ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'' were of Jewish ancestry and often snuck Yiddish into the magazine as a RunningGag. Words like "schmuck" tend to show up in practically every issue.
51	* Harley Quinn of ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'', first started using common Yiddish phrases like "Oy" when she first appeared in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' owing to Gotham City often being thought of as another expy of [[BigApplesauce New York City]]. Many thought she was only borrowing the language since Harley has blue eyes and blonde hair, but ''Gotham City Sirens #7'' confirmed that not only is Harley originally from New York, she is half-Jewish on her mother's side.
52	* One ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'' story arc has Rat teach himself to speak Yiddish because he thinks it's "by far the best language in the world for hurling insults".
53	[[/folder]]
54
55	[[folder:Onhengerarbetn (Fanfiction)]]
56	* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': Common Yiddish-derived words occur prominently in a few stories.
57	** Mittens uses the term "kvetch" in "The Coffee Shop." Bolt misunderstands the term as "kwetch."
58	** Blaze uses the words "schlep," "canoodle," and "verklempt" in "The Cameo." His girlfriend Tracey refers to him as a "putz."
59	** In "The Party," Mittens fakes a reason to excuse herself after meeting her now-morbidly-obese former fling Tom, claiming that her naturally white paws are actually cloth booties and that she needs to clean the "schmutz" off them before they get dirty.
60	* Roleplay/DCNation's Sue Dibny peppers her dialogue with a few choice Yiddish phrases, but only if she is ''really'' ticked. Dr. Light wound up with a real earful before she and Constantine all but tossed his sorry hide out an airlock.
61	* In ''Fanfic/{{Eleutherophobia}}: Back to the Future'', [[FirstPersonSmartass Tom]] mentions that his great-grandmother's rant contains just enough Yiddish words that he doesn't understand what she's talking about at first.
62	* In ''Fanfic/{{Flufferverse}}: The Countdown'', Rachel tells Jordan to "gey aroys", meaning "go away".
63	* In the AbridgedSeries ''WebVideo/RanmaOneHalfTheAbridgedChronicles'', Ryōga is Jewish. He often includes Yiddish in his lines, and his intro episode even had Yiddish-to-English subtitles on the Website/YouTube captions.
64	[[/folder]]
65
66	[[folder:Filmen]]
67	* One of the best examples is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynpOEcPdjdk this scene]] from the opening of the 1932 Creator/WarnerBros picture ''Film/Taxi1932'', in which a Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrant is frustrated in his attempt to communicate with a policeman, until Cagney interrupts in fluent Yiddish to offer the man a lift. Supposedly, the scene was actually improvised, to [[TheCastShowoff take advantage]] of the fact that Irish-American actor Creator/JamesCagney had [[IrishmanAndAJew learnt Yiddish from his playmates]] while growing up in [[BigApplesauce New York City]]. The presence of the perplexed [[OfficerOHara Irish cop]] only makes it ten times funnier.
68	* ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKingOneAndAHalf'': Timon the meerkat's mother. In the film proper, after she pulls Timon into a burrow when the hyenas attack, she asks him, "What are you, a meshuggenah?" In one of the special features on the DVD edition, she comments that she's "so excited I'm ''shvitzing''!"
69	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'' managed to have ''Hades'', of all characters, throw various Yiddishisms into his speech, despite ostensibly being from [[AnachronismStew ancient Greece.]]
70	** Philoctetes occasionally does this, as well.
71	* The Genie from ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' occasionally does this thanks to Creator/RobinWilliams, who, according to Supervising Animator Creator/EricGoldberg, would throw in Yiddishisms with his improv.
72	* A wonderful instance appears in the film ''Film/AMightyWind'': Ed Begley Jr. plays Lars Olfen, a first-generation Swedish-American Public Television executive who nonetheless laces everything he says with a vast amount of Yiddish:
73	-->'''Lars Olfen:''' The ''naches''[[note]]joy[[/note]] that I'm feeling right now... 'cause your dad was like ''mishpoche''[[note]]family[[/note]] to me. When I heard I got these ticket to the Folksmen, I let out a ''[[{{Squee}} geshreeyeh,]]''[[note]]squee[[/note]] and I'm running with my friend... running around like a ''vilde chaye,''[[note]]wild beast[[/note]] right into the theater, in the front row! So we've got the ''shpilkes,''[[note]]nervousness[[/note]] 'cause we're sittin' right there... and it's a mitzvah,[[note]]good deed[[/note]] what your dad did, and I want to try to give that back to you. ''Okeinhoreh''[[note]]not the word he meant to use; ''alav hasholem'' means "rest in peace," this is more along the lines of "knock wood"[[/note]], I say, and God bless him.
74	* A common gag in Creator/MelBrooks films, with Mel usually doing them himself.
75	** The Yiddish-speaking Indian chief in ''Film/BlazingSaddles''. His headdress actually reads "Posher l'Kesach": roughly, [[{{Spoonerism}} "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!"
76	*** This is also an obscure [[ShoutOut allusion]] to very old Western movies, where [[DeadHorseTrope Natives would often be played by Jews]].
77	*** Similarly, Hedley Lamarr calls Taggart a "provincial putz" and mutters "schmucks" during the RepeatAfterMe scene.
78	** Creator/MelBrooks as Yogurt in ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'' drops some Yiddish, such as, "The ring was bupkus!" Also, when about to translate the words on the medallion, he makes a bunch of croaking noises that are probably supposed to lampoon the fairly guttural sound of Yiddish. He's just clearing his throat.
79	** Rabbi Tuckman in ''Film/RobinHoodMenInTights''.
80	*** Interestingly, the Englishmen he's talking to understand some Yiddish words.
81	----> '''Robin Hood''': You've just entered the territory of Robin Hood and his Merry Men.\
82	'''Rabbi Tuckman''': (''waves his hand'') [[MistakenForGay Feygeles?]]\
83	'''Robin Hood''': (''the Merry Men react negatively'') No, no, we're straight, just merry.
84	** Van Helsing in ''Film/DraculaDeadAndLovingIt''.
85	** A ThoseWackyNazis TakeThat [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu2NqfISm9k rap music video as Hitler.]]
86	** Bigweld in ''WesternAnimation/{{Robots}}'' uses tochis (alternative spelling for toches which means butt in Yiddish).
87	* Creator/EddieMurphy's urban conman running for Congress in ''Film/TheDistinguishedGentleman'' impresses a Jewish senior citizen by contradicting her in Yiddish, which he apparently picked up playing gin on Miami Beach. He is also shown driving through several neighborhoods while talking on a megaphone using an accent common to each neighborhood, including sounding like an [[AlterKocker old Jewish man]] with Yiddish-peppered sentences.
88	* London hood Don Logan in ''Film/SexyBeast'' uses a little Yiddish during a MirrorMonologue.
89	* ''Film/LockStockAndTwoSmokingBarrels'' pokes fun at London gangsters not realizing the origins of their slang when Tom assures Nick the Greek that a deal is "kosher as Christmas," to which Nick answers, "Jews don't celebrate Christmas!"
90	* An extended joke in the erotic thriller spoof ''Film/FatalInstinct'': the hero's wife and the man she is having an affair meet in a park to discuss murdering the hero. She suggests they speak in Yiddish and they both converse fluently for several minutes in the language before the elderly black man on the opposite bench interrupts with a helpful suggestion. ''He'' can't speak Yiddish but he can [[FunWithSubtitles "read subtitles"]].
91	* Both of the old comedians in ''The Sunshine Boys'' (played by Creator/GeorgeBurns and Creator/WalterMatthau) liberally use Yiddishisms. Both of them are veterans of the old BorschtBelt comedy circuit.
92	* In ''Film/IndependenceDay'', Judd Hirsch plays a Jewish man and drops a lot of Yiddish.
93	* Used by every Jewish adult in ''Film/ASeriousMan,'' because they are all conservative Jews in the late 60s.
94	* ''Film/TopSecret'' uses Yiddish dialogue and signage to stand in for [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign actual German]].
95	* In ''Robin and the Seven Hoods'', Frank Sinatra at one point feels like he's being noodged. "It's an old Italian word."
96	* In ''Film/CityHall'', Mayor's aide Creator/JohnCusack (who's supposed to come from Louisiana) mispronounces "schlep" as "slep", prompting Creator/BridgetFonda to snap at him to "get the gumbo out of your Yiddish" if he's going to get anywhere in New York City politics.
97	** In addition to that, the Mayor (Creator/AlPacino) explains about ''menschkeit'', which he translates as honor and character between men.
98	* In ''WesternAnimation/MaryAndMax'', Max, who is Jewish, sends off his letters and packages to Marry with "Gey gezunderheit" ("Go in good health").
99	* ''Film/BatmanReturns'' villain Max Shreck (Creator/ChristopherWalken) was [[AllThereInTheScript originally supposed]] to sprinkle a few Yiddishisms into his dialogue. For example, he would have told Penguin to "be a ''mensch''," call people ''goniffs'' ("thieves") in one scene in his office, and later call Penguin a "''schmuck''." All of these were excised, perhaps to make his dialogue more clear and also avoid any GreedyJew connotations.
100	* In ''Film/ReversalOfFortune'', Alan Dershowitz explains to one of his students the reason why he decided to appeal Claus Von Bulow's attempted murder conviction; the family hired a private prosecutor to collect their own evidence and decide what to turn over to the D.A., and that if the conviction is upheld, "the next victim isn't going to be going to be rich, like Von Bulow, but some poor ''schnook'' who can't afford, or can't find, a decent lawyer." A schnook is Yiddish for dupe. Being a New York Jew born in the 1930s, it's almost certain that Dershowitz knows some Yiddish.
101	* In the movie ''Film/InTheLandOfWomen'', Phyllis asks Carter about his ex-girlfriend Sofia, "Was she ''zaftig''?" This is Yiddish for a large-statured or [[BuxomBeautyStandard 'curvaceous']] woman.
102	* In the ''Film/SteveJobs'' movie, Jobs asks his assistant Joanna Hoffman to get his estranged daughter Lisa to come backstage, and for Hoffman to use her "wise, old European act" to entice her. Hoffman replies, "You do know I wasn't born in a 19th century Russian ''shtetl'', right?"
103	* In ''Film/DieHard'', Ellis very famously calls Hans Gruber "''bubby''," short for "''bubalah''," a term of endearment. The line was ad-libbed by Hart Bochner, who is Jewish. That said, Ellis also casually drops an anti-Semitic slur in the same scene, so it's unlikely that the character himself is Jewish.
104	* 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.
105	* ''Film/RosemarysBaby'': Rosemary's husband tells her that his new part will grant them wealth, luxuries and "the whole ''schmear''."
106	[[/folder]]
107
108	[[folder:Literatur]]
109	* This abounds in the works of Creator/HarryTurtledove, most prominently in those sections of his ''World War'' series featuring the Russie family, and also in several sections of his American Empire trilogy. While what they say always fits with the meaning of the word, they are sometimes idiomatically incorrect -- no one would actually use the word the way the character does.
110	** ''Literature/ShtetlDays'': Veit and the other actors playing Jews speak fluent Yiddish in their roles and pepper Yiddish words in casual conversation.
111	* Creator/MichaelChabon's ''Literature/TheYiddishPolicemensUnion'', an AlternateHistory mystery featuring a Jewish refugee state in ''Alaska.'' Almost all the Jews who immigrated there are Ashkenazi and they interact with few outsiders, so Yiddish has been adopted as the standard language. There are even a few Yiddish/English puns, such as calling a handgun (a "piece") a "sholem," meaning "peace."
112	* ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'': Miles Vorkosigan uses a noticeable amount of Yiddish words, despite living around 1000 years in the future. He ''is'' portrayed as having an above average knowledge of the past, but it's interesting that this part of a High German language of Jewish origin was preserved.
113	* The classic science fiction short story "A Martian Odyssey" by Stanley G. Weinbaum includes a German engineer named Putz.
114	* Creator/EstherFriesner's novel ''Elf Defense'' includes among its minor characters a classic Tolkien/Shakespeare-style elf maiden named Loris 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).
115	* Literature/TheAmericanGirlsCollection features a character named Rebecca Rubin. She's a third-generation American of Russian Jewish descent who converses with her family in English and Yiddish, in addition to their having [[TranslationConvention several conversations where it's not clear which language they're using]].
116	* In respect to the influence of Yiddish on British criminal argot, this probably explains why a ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' character who was a LovableRogue ended up with the name Gonff (''goniff'' is Yiddish for thief). In a more general example, the phrase "keeping ''shtum''" (quiet in the sense of "not snitching") is much more likely to be heard from a LondonGangster character than a Jewish one.
117	* 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 misinterpret it as "gun-carrying hoodlum"; and indeed, as a result, the word now means that!
118	* In ''Literature/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.
119	* In Creator/JohnMoore's FracturedFairyTale, ''Literature/TheUnhandsomePrince'', Rumplestiltskin never actually admits to being Jewish (in a world where antisemitism is definitely a real thing), but he seems to drop a lot of Yiddish into his conversation, and he becomes much more interested in Rapunzel when he finds some clues that ''she'' may be Jewish.
120	* In Primo Levi's Holocaust memoir ''Literature/IfThisIsAMan'', many of the Jews in Auschwitz overcome the LanguageBarrier by using Yiddish. A certain tension rises between Yiddish speakers (mainly Poles and other Eastern Europeans) and non-Yiddish speakers (mainly Western Europeans, such as the Italian author).
121	* ''Literature/TheSecondMango'': Rivka's unnamed native language contains several Yiddish words and phrases that she peppers her speech with.
122	* In Romain Gary's ''The Dance of Genghis Cohn'' this is due to possession by the title character/narrator, the ghost of a Jewish stand-up comedian.
123	* In Lawrence Block's Bernie Rhodenbarr series Bernie's across-the-hall neighbor Mrs. Hesche refers to East Side residents as ''momsers''[[labelnote:note]]Bastards.[[/labelnote]] several times and calls a dead woman a ''nafkeh''[[labelnote:note]]Whore.[[/labelnote]].
124	* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': Of [[JustForFun/TropeOverdosed the many tropes]] that this series invokes, this may be the most surprising, especially since it is mostly done with a LampshadeHanging.
125	** "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). [[https://whateley.academy/index.php/read/story/stress-fracture]]
126	** Phase, as a native of New York City, gets a bit envious of Jade for having learned a significant number of Yiddish words after going on a Mel Brooks film binge, and decides to study the language just to one up her.[[https://whateley.academy/index.php/component/k2/story/ayla-and-the-mad-scientist-chap-20]]
127	** 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 from 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.”)[[https://whateley.academy/index.php/component/k2/story/a-view-to-a-smell]]
128	** 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.[[https://whateley.academy/index.php/component/k2/story/razzle-dazzle-part-2]] 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:
129	---> "This is playing to his strengths, you PUTZ!"\
130	The Red Eagle glared suspiciously at Mephisto. "Are you by any chance… Jewish?"\
131	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?”
132	* In the introductory note to the ''Literature/RiversOfLondon'' short story "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" in ''Tales From the Folly'', Ben Aaronovitch refers to the spirit of the river Wandle (which was once the centre of the London textile industry, as a result of which its GeniusLoci has an innate connection to cloth and clothing) as the Goddess of Schmutter.
133	* ''Literature/PrussianBlue'': The Krauss brothers, Jewish burglars and expert safecrackers, pepper their speech with Yiddish. Detective Literature/BernieGunther, who has liberated them from Dachau in order to open Karl Flex's safe, knows that their Yiddish is an act.
134	-->'''Karl Krauss''': That red Italian car? It's a nice car. But even in Italy it's just a ''noodge''. Not a car for ''gonifs'' like us....We ''gay avek'' in a car like that and the whole world sees, and hears, too, probably.
135	* The Scottish Jewish poet David Bleiman often uses Yiddish in his work. The poem "[[https://www.scojec.org/news/2020/20iv_yiddish/yiddish_1.html The Trebbler's Tale]]", from the collection ''This Kilt of Many Colours'', is written in what the lost Scots-Yiddish dialect of Jewish itinerant tradesmen in 1920s Scotland might have sounded like.
136	[[/folder]]
137
138	[[folder:Muzik]]
139	* Music/WeirdAlYankovic
140	** The song "Pretty Fly for a Rabbi" features Yiddish liberally sprinkled throughout the lyrics. When asked how he knew the Yiddish, Al replied: "A good percentage of my friends are Jewish, and most of those Yiddish words are fairly common usage -- in the entertainment industry, anyway. Also, I bought several English-Yiddish dictionaries for reference." Contrary to popular belief, Al himself is ''not'' Jewish.
141	** "Cavity Search" rhymes "x-ray" with "oy vey" and "The Plumbing Song" says to "call the mensch with a monkey wrench," while "eBay" states "I'll buy your tchotchkes."
142	* Used liberally in the Music/{{Voltaire}} song "[[http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858742436/ Coin Operated Goi]]," a parody of [[Music/AmandaPalmer The Dresden Dolls]]' song "Coin Operated Boy."
143	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe2UXccid40 "Bei Mir Bist Du Shein"]], a big hit for Music/TheAndrewsSisters back in the day.
144	* Music/TheBlackEyedPeas: "I Gotta Feeling".
145	-->''Fill up your cup! (Drank!)''\
146	''Mazel tov!''\
147	'''L'CHAIM'''
148	* The Vaudeville song ([[OlderThanTheyThink later used in]] ''Film/ForbiddenZone'') [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6e4GqUMYh0 "Yiddishe Charleston."]]
149	* Music/ElP[='s=] "The Full Retard" includes "oy vey", a very rare usage of the term in a hip-hop song. El-P himself, while a sworn atheist, is culturally Jewish to some degree, and the co-owner of a Jewish delicatessen/smoked fish emporium in Brooklyn.
150	* The Music/DavidBowie-led Tin Machine named their live album ''Oy Vey Baby''. This was in reference to Music/{{U2}}'s ''Music/AchtungBaby'' which, oddly enough, also had [[Film/TheProducers Jewish roots]].
151	* Robyn Adele Anderson's [[{{Retraux}} retro cover]] of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIzifKnRoNU Rich Girl]]" sees her perform one run-through of the chorus in Yiddish.
152	[[/folder]]
153
154	[[folder:Teater]]
155	* Played with [[PlayedForLaughs for laughs]] in "The King of Broadway" from the stage musical adaptation of ''Film/TheProducers''.
156	--> '''Max Bialystock''': I was a protege of the great Boris Tomaschevsky! He taught me everything I know. I'll never forget, he turned to me on his deathbed and said, "Maxella, alle menschen muss zu machen, jeden tug a gentzen pisch pippikachen!"\
157	'''Crowd member''': What does that mean?\
158	'''Bialystock''': Who knows? I don't speak Yiddish. Strangely enough, neither did he.
159	** Even the NAZI speaks Yiddish in the musical.
160	--->"So ve hop our hops, Und ve clop our clops, Und ve drink our Schnapps 'Til ve plotz!"
161	* In ''Theatre/{{Fiorello}}'', [=LaGuardia=] says he's half-Jewish when campaigning among the Jews, and sings a Yiddish version of his campaign song ("Ich zug tsu eye-ich, Tammany is nisht kosher").
162	-->*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.)
163	* In the musical ''Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors,'' the plant knows some Yiddish, like "Come on Seymour, don't be a putz". (I mean, come on, he even says "Feh!") He probably learned the Yiddish from the [[AmbiguouslyJewish likely-Jewish]] Mr. Mushnik, who uses "mensch" and "mishegas". The lyricist/composer team, Ashman and Menken, also did many Disney movies, and the same influence is seen there (Phil in Hercules, etc.).
164	** It's in the original film as well.
165	* The musical ''Theatre/InTheHeights'', which takes place in Washington Heights (upper Manhattan with a predominantly Hispanic community), has several Latino/Latina characters use Yiddish rather believably in their daily conversations, similar to their usage of Spanglish (although less frequently, for obvious reasons). Prior to a wave of Puerto Rican and Dominican immigrants into the area Washington Heights was a rather Jewish neighborhood (and still is, with even a Jewish university there), and the characters probably picked it up from one of the innumerable senior citizens with a rent-controlled apartment dating back to the 40s -- in which case the Lenny Bruce quote above becomes applicable.
166	** During "It Won't Be Long Now" Vanessa tells Usnavi he has "some schmutz on his face" from fixing the refrigerator.
167	** During "The Club," Usnavi and Benny are trying to drink away their troubles and Usnavi says "As long as you buy 'em -- L'chaim!"
168	* Music/StephenSondheim uses it in several instances.
169	** In "How I Saved Roosevelt" in ''Theatre/{{Assassins}}'' one of the witnesses of Guiseppe Zangara's attempted assassination of FDR says "I thought I'd plotz."
170	** In "It's Hot Up Here" in ''Theatre/SundayInTheParkWithGeorge'' Frieda complains that "The boatman schwitzes."[[labelnote:note]]Sweats.[[/labelnote]]
171	* The 1938 revue ''Hellzapoppin[='=]'' began with a film strip featuring UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler speaking in a Yiddish accent, to invoke the RuleOfFunny right off the bat.
172	* In ''Theatre/CityOfAngels'', Yiddish words are dropped by various characters, but mostly by Buddy.
173	* PlayedForLaughs in the crossover parody show ''Avenue Jew,'' where the casts of ''Theatre/AvenueQ'' and ''Theatre/FiddlerOnTheRoof'' mashed their shows together for Broadway Cares. In the original ''Avenue Q,'' Princeton sings about his useless B.A. in English. In ''Avenue Jew,'' his life choices get worse: "What do you do with a B.A. in Yiddish? [[LampshadeHanging Who the hell majors in that?]]"
174	* PlayedForLaughs in Monty Python’s ''Theatre/{{Spamalot}}'' when Sir Robin sings a song about the overwhelming Jewish presence in Broadway, dropping quite a bit of Yiddish along the way.
175	[[/folder]]
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177	[[folder:Internetkarikaturn (Webcomics)]]
178	* The Finkelsteins in ''Webcomic/TheSpecialists'' make use of Yiddish occasionally, such as in [[http://thespecialistscomic.com/page-9/ this breakfast conversation]].
179	* In one arc of ''Webcomic/SkinHorse'' Nick Zerhakker started swearing in Yiddish to bypass his profanity filter, but it adapted eventually.
180	* Sabra "Stick" Klein in ''Webcomic/PreTeena'' and her parents speak a little Yiddish.
181	* ''Webcomic/TrippingOverYou'': Both Liam Schwartz and his father Eli occasionally add some Yiddish to their lines. Cousin Alfons' native language is German, so it's a fairly safe bet that their family descends from German-Jewish emmigrants.
182	[[/folder]]
183
184	[[folder:Meyreve Karikaturn (Western Animation)]]
185	* The Joker, in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries,'' often threw in a Yiddish word when searching for another adjective to drive his point home, although probably out of many Yiddish terms being InherentlyFunnyWords. Harley Quinn being Jewish, used plenty too.
186	* In ''WesternAnimation/BigMouth'', the Hormone Monsters are known to drop a few Yiddish phrases from time to time.
187	* In ''WesternAnimation/BrandyAndMrWhiskers'', Mr. Whiskers' [[OrganAutonomy brain]] speaks with a Yiddish accent. Whiskers himself does not. Whiskers appears to be capable of thinking on a Whiskers level without the aid of a brain (the plot of at least two episodes revolves around Whiskers' brain getting fed up with being ignored, and leaving), so maybe it's not so surprising.
188	* [[WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}} Slappy Squirrel's]] eternal (and [[AlterKocker elderly]]) nemesis Walter Wolf speaks with a Yiddish accent and swears in Yiddish ''a lot''.
189	** Minerva Mink and Slappy herself are fond of the Yiddish insult "yutz", meaning "idiot".
190	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'''s John Zoidberg, from the [[SpaceJews Space Jew]] race of Decapodians: "Hello? Attack Earth! Yeah I know it's a schlep, just do it!" He also says "Mazel Tov".
191	* Irwin's grandfather from WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy is this, [[FridgeLogic even though he was an Egyptian pharaoh.]]
192	* Larry of ''WesternAnimation/TimeSquad'' often says "Oy vey!" when dismayed. Seeing as he was originally designed to be a polyglotic diplomat, this is rather appropriate.
193	* ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'''s Alice Tompkins: "Honey, we have a saying back in Tennessee: 'Be a mensch, not a schmendrick.'"
194	** Especially series star Jay Sherman, thanks to his being voiced by [[Creator/JonLovitz Jon Lovitz]].
195	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Krusty the Clown is fond of spouting Yiddish words, like ''ferkakta.'' Not very surprising, since Krusty is Jewish (his father Hyman Krustofsky is a rabbi).
196	* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/MightyDucksTheAnimatedSeries'' 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''.
197	* In ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'', Harold is Jewish and once used the word "Kibitzer" (Yiddish for a non-participant offering (often unwanted) advice or commentary) to describe Arnold's tendencies to butt into other people's business. "Yutz" has also been used by a few characters in the series, mostly by Helga. Gerald also recites a Hebrew prayer in the movie [[OutOfCharacterMoment even though he's not Jewish]].
198	* Lenny Turtletaub, the old Jewish tortoise movie producer from ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'', is known for peppering his speech with Yiddish phrases. This comes to a hilarious head when [=BoJack=] asks him if he's really Jewish, because it sounds like he's just making some of these up.
199	* Grunkle Stan of ''[[WesternAnimation/GravityFalls Gravity Falls]]'' occasionally uses "Oy!" and "Moses!" to express anguish.
200	* ''WesternAnimation/XavierRiddleAndTheSecretMuseum'': Owing to Brad's Jewish heritage, he often says "Oy vey" when he's frustrated, exhausted, or worried.
201	* ''WesternAnimation/MoonGirlAndDevilDinosaur'': Casey, being both Puerto Rican and Jewish, peppers her speech with Spanish and Yiddish.
202	* In the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode, [[Recap/PhineasAndFerbCandaceGetsBusted "Candace gets Busted"]], Doofenshmirtz's latest Inator backfires [[RunningGag predictably]] and Doofenshmirtz politely ask Perry the Platypus to "be a mensch" and press the reverse button. Perry does.
203	* In the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode [[Recap/FamilyGuyS7E3RoadToGermany "Road to Germany"]], Stewie, Brian, and Mort attempt to flee the Nazi-occupied city of Warsaw by disguising Mort as a Catholic priest. Unfortunately, the Germans ask him to give the Last Rites to a dying soldier and Mort begins to blows his cover by opening the prayer with:
204	--> '''Mort:''' Dear God, uh non-Jewish God, be a Mensch.
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Context Main / YiddishAsASecondLanguage