Series / My Nephew Bentz

An Israeli high school fantasy-comedy series taking place in a zany, heightened-reality high school, which started airing on Kan 11 in 2021. Two seasons have been aired so far, with a third on the works.

Yoni is a hapless history teacher dreaming of becoming the principal of the provincial Begirionit High School. Just as it seems he is about to finally achieve his dream, he is passed over in favor of hardass bureaucrat Vered, who has no educational experience and immediately starts ruling the school with an iron fist. After a day full of disappointments and humiliations, Yoni comes home and yells at the heavens that he wishes to become the best principal in the world. And his wish is heard…

…By Lucifer, otherwise known as Chezi (he considers “Satan” to have too many negative connotations), the laid-back Lord of Hell. Chezi is willing to give Yoni everything he ever wished for, provided that he enters a contract with him. Yoni is tempted, only to discover that instead of getting his wishes fulfilled immediately, he has to tutor Lucifer’s son, Bentzifer (shortened to Bentz), until he successfully matriculates - or Yoni will spend eternity in Hell.

Forced to host the young demonspawn, who just wants to go back home and torture lost souls like he’s used to, Yoni is pressed to pretend that Bentz is his nephew from North Korea (long story) and try and get him to behave like a normal person. Bentz, meanwhile, is at loss with human behavioral and social norms, but gradually makes some friends and begins to acclimate to his new environment… despite regularly causing mayhem with his magic powers and general cluelessness about how the human world works.

All episodes are available on YouTube (Hebrew subtitles only, so far).

This show provides examples of:

• Affably Evil: The Devil is not all that bad. Just call him Chezi.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Nimrod 9000, an AI built by Alex and Bentz (mostly Alex) for a school technology fair, turns evil after Bentz interferes with its programming and then resurrects it via hell magic. To be fair, it would have been fine without Bentz’s input.
• Aliens in Cardiff: The devil came down to Ness Ziona, he was looking for a soul to steal…
• Alpha Bitch: Yuli is a rich, vapid, social media-obsessed girl, surrounded by a posse of followers whose status she constantly shuffles on a whim.
  Neta: You can have more than one friend, you know.
  Yuli: No way. You have a friend, an assistant friend, and a deputy assistant friend. That’s how democracy works.
• Arson, Murder, and Admiration: Vered has some interesting workplace standards, carried over from her days on the police.
  Vered: So you want to tell me you spied on a student, entered another student’s house without permission, camouflaged yourself… This is exactly the type of teacher I’m looking for in this school!
• Bad Future: A two-parter in the middle of the second season depicts a dystopian future high school which was taken over by Lital's company, LitalCorp. Everybody wears black, students are forced to mine Litcoin instead of studying, and dissent is harshly punished. Bentz has to perform a Back to the Future homage to save the day and return everything to normal.
• Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad:
  • Bentz, obviously.
  • To some degree, Vered, who is delighted with any display of cruelty or scheming on the part of the teachers.
• Black Comedy: A fair share of it, but a special mention goes to Tommy holding up two disembodied mannequin’s arms and cheerfully declaring “and this is the story of the Levite’s concubine!” (Widely considered one of the most horrifying stories in the Hebrew Bible, read at your own peril.)
• Black Comedy Animal Cruelty:
  • Upon first arriving at Yoni's house, Bentz almost eats Yoni’s pet cat Henrietta (he is stopped with only her tail sticking out of his mouth). Luckily, she seems unharmed by the ordeal.
  • More tragic still is the fate of Yirmi the Hamsternaut, a hamster who was supposed to be launched into space on a rocket built as part of a school project. Unfortunately, the builders were all literature majors, and the result was predictably messy.
• Bourgeois Bohemian: The devil’s current schtick. He walks around barefoot, makes soothing herbal infusions (in physically impossible temperatures) and encourages everybody to be positive and openly talk about their feelings.
• Brainless Beauty: Lital is very handsome and very dumb.
• Character Catchphrase: Gary has "I'll be back!", usually followed by an Evil Laugh.
• Cain and Abel: With Satan as Abel and Poli as Cain, complete with white and black outfits respectively.
• Cats Are Mean: Yoni’s cat Henrietta responds to any displays of affection by mauling him.
• Dance Sensation: Hoppele Pop, a ridiculous traditional Belgian dance introduced by Olaf, becomes an instant TikTok hit.
• Deadpan Snarker: Neta’s best friend Nitzan, who looks and behaves like a mild Israeli version of Wednesday Addams.
• Deal with the Devil: Kick-starts the plot. Yoni signs a deal to get the devil’s son successfully through high school finals, or his soul is forfeit.
  • Later, it turns out Gary made a similar deal with Poli, Chezi's evil brother.
• Don't Fear the Reaper: The Angel of Death is a pleasant, rather laid-back dude named Dotan.
• Doorstopper: Yoni’s contract with the devil is absurdly thick and written in a tiny font. Yoni, who never even reads the terms of service before checking the box, signs it without attempting to read it.
• Drunk with Power: Nitzan goes completely over the top when given the power to decide which of her fellow students will pass or fail an assignment about Noah’s Ark. She eventually snaps out of it after realizing she has isolated herself from her friends, and lets everyone pass.
• Evil Doppelgänger: Bentz creates Evil Yoni, an evil but fun double of regular Yoni. Just so we know he’s bad news, he wears black and has a mustache.
• Evil Former Friend: Niv is a childhood friend of Yoni, but in the present day doesn't care for him at all and uses him to further his mission of exposing Bentz.
• Evil Principal: Vered, a police veteran and Pointy-Haired Boss extraordinaire who bullies the teachers and students relentlessly and sells out part of the school to a gas station company.
• Evil Uncle: Chezi’s brother Poli, who is trying to usurp his position as the devil.
• Faux Affably Evil: Poli initially seems like a Cool Uncle, but is manipulative, treacherous and power-hungry to the core.
• "Flowers for Algernon" Syndrome: Explicitly referenced after Lital eats the apple containing all human knowledge. He’s back to normal once Chezi wipes his memory.
• Foreign Exchange Student: Olaf is a Belgian exchange student who is stuck in Israel because his Israeli counterpart refuses to come back.
• Fruit of the Loon: Yohai has a habit of randomly offering people oranges, or else peeling oranges in the background.
• Funny Foreigner: Olaf speaks in hilariously broken Hebrew and has a bizarre “Belgian” custom for every occasion. It is implied that he is hiding something and may, in fact, not be Belgian at all (a lot of his mannerisms seem German, which is commented upon from time to time).
• Gender-Blender Name: Lital is normally a girl’s name, which is why he is regularly referred to as “Lital the boy”. Note that due to modern Israeli naming conventions which commonly employ unisex names, this sounds only slightly weird, not outlandish.
• Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: In the Bad Future, an extreme punishment for dissenters is getting their mind melded with Tommy's, upon which they become very happy, idiotic and easy to control.
• The Glomp: Tommy's signature move, as he really likes everyone and has No Sense of Personal Space whatsoever.
• Government Agency of Fiction: The Department of Superpowers and Marsupials, a rather pathetic secret division of the Israel Police in charge of investigating supernatural goings-on.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: Yoni and Bentz get stuck in one together, apparently until they learn a lesson about letting go. In reality, Chezi just accidentally placed a glass over the remote controlling time.
• Half-Human Hybrid: In the last episode of season 2, Bentz is revealed to be the result of an affair between Chezi and a human woman who apparently broke his heart.
• Hulk Speak: Biblical giant Goliath speaks like this when summoned to the school as part of Bentz's shenanigans.
• Humanity Ensues: Bentz’s character arc.
• Journey to the Center of the Mind: Bentz undertakes such a journey into Lital’s mind in an attempt to discover if he still holds onto the remains of the Apple of All Knowledge. The tour includes such attractions as the Hall of Hair, the Tunnel of Self-Love, and Lital’s suppressed nerdy personality.
• Kindhearted Simpleton: Tommy, a colleague of Yoni at the school who likes everything and everyone in an exceptionally dumb and annoying way.
• Kubrick Stare: Bentz’s default expression, especially in early episodes.
• Mistaken for Racist: When confronting Niv and his commander in the break room, Vered doesn’t quite pay attention to what she’s doing and ends up accusing them of misogyny.
  Niv: S-she’s Satan!
  Vered (eyes glowing red, items floating around her, Voice of the Legion in effect): What, Just because I’m a strong woman who wants her feelings to be taken into consideration, now I’m Satan? If I was a man, you would say I’m an ‘assertive and effective manager’, right?!
• Nice Girl: Neta is generally sweet-natured, friendly and helpful, as well as being a straight-A student.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Nitzan is obsessed with bees, seems pretty hyped at the idea of killing people and can hold a conversation with Bentz without being weirded out even for a second. Bentz says they have a lot of common interests.
• Non Sequitur: Olaf tends to drop a lot of weird statements with no follow-up, which are mostly ignored by everyone else due to Olaf being Olaf or just because they don’t know what to do with it.
  Olaf (explaining why he can’t participate in the school blood drive): If blood of Olaf spills, fall shall the Kingdom of Thousand Years!
• The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: The dreaded chief editors of the Hebrew Wikipedia (some would say that this is Truth in Television).
• Passed-Over Promotion: Yoni is convinced that he will be appointed principal as soon as the previous principal retires, but it turns out the municipality picked out Vered for the role. As he already wore his best suit and wrote an acceptance speech, he is sorely disappointed… which makes him an easy prey for Lucifer’s machinations.
• Playing with Fire: Bentz’s most basic power, since he comes from Hell.
• The Quiet One: Yohai the janitor. He always knows more than he lets on.
• Read the Fine Print: Yoni doesn’t, which the devil lampshades. To be fair, it’s all fine print.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Yuli’s mother is the Minister of Internal Security, and she milks it for all it’s worth.
• Sitcom Archnemesis: Gary for Vered. He's a rival from her police days who also became a high school principal, and is trying to upstage her at every turn.
• Soapbox Sadie: Nitzan is vegan and an avid environmentalist.
• Superhuman Transfusion: Vered ends up receiving a dose of Bentz’s blood, which gives her all of his hellish powers (that she doesn’t realize she has).
• Timey-Wimey Ball: Nobody is quite sure what's up with the time travel mechanics. Lampshaded with a reference to the Grandfather Paradox, which is explained as "your grandfather can't understand all those paradoxes, he's from another generation, he only likes linear narratives".
• Unlucky Everydude: What Yoni essentially is.
• Unrequited Love Switcheroo: Compressed to the point of parody. Neta initially has a crush on Lital, who seems to vaguely reciprocate but ends up rejecting her because her friends aren’t cool enough. Enraged, Neta declares that she can’t believe she was ever interested in such a shallow person, at which point he goes “Wait, you’re not interested in me anymore?... now there’s nothing in the world I want more than to date you!” (Neta isn’t impressed.)
• Very Special Episode: Parodied. An episode in the second season reveals that Alex is gay, but his actual coming out apparently happened a few episodes before: everybody cared so little it wasn’t even shown on-screen, only in a flashback. He’s pretty incensed about it.
• Villainous Rescue: At the end of season 2 Vered, hopped up on Bentz’s blood, saves the day by frightening the Department of Superpowers’ agents into backing off.