Laughter: it's good for the heart, it's good for the soul.

I don't know, but it's true.

After a frustrated search for a praiseworthy satire/parody/humor blog to profile, I stumbled upon funnyandjewish.com (formerly shylockslepthere.com). It was a good feeling finally landing on a satire blog that has a clear idea of what it is, and what it is writing about. The blogger of “Funny & Jewish” is not explicitly named, but on his former blog, he referred to himself as “Shylock”.

Shylock is a Jewish male who has a “wife and kids” and establishes his credibility as a Jew in one of the posts, saying “I propose that humor is an integral component of every Jew. It is embedded in our spiritual and physical DNA”, thus, being a Jew Shylock has relevant first-hand experience to the in and outs of the Jewish culture. This gives him the ability to effectively do the following on his own people: “Satire, Parodies, Jokes & Featured Funny Stuff” (as written in the blog description).

Browsing through his posts, I notice that it is being quickly and constantly occupied by clever observations, witticisms and light humor. The most recent blog post was 27 October 2010 and previous posts have been made once or twice a month. Technorati.com was not able to locate this blog and using Alexa.com, I determined his fandom. The popularity of the blog according to alexa.com as of November 18, 2010: Funny & Jewish is 5,272,814 in the Alexa Traffic Rank, but is 36,428 in Canada. Due to it being greater than the 100,000 rank, Alexa cannot provide any further statistical information. He is gaining traction in Canada and perhaps is picking speed on the global front.

Two of the most interesting and unique blog posts that caught my attention was “We Need More Laughter” (http://funnyandjewish.com/we-need-more-laughter/) and “Yellow Pages: Jerusalem” (http://funnyandjewish.com/yellow-pages-jerusalem/). Anyone new to the blog should probably read “We Need More Laughter” because it lays out the lifeblood of the blog, which is: here you will find humor, yes you take yourself too seriously, now stop it. 

Shylock’s vision for his blog and personal POV on the world are nearly identical with my own. It appears that the reason why he started writing this light satirical humor is because he wanted to shake up the stiff-necked and rustle the feathers of the up-tight. Like him, I also find it hilarious when people take themselves or an idea too seriously, and so, I always make it a point to (whether in speech or written prose) stretch the idea until it becomes so ridiculous and comical, that eventually the “tight-wads” can laugh at themselves. I do this because I care, I want people to lighten up a bit, and learn how to live. Shylock is outlandish, but knows that jokes, like everything else in the world, has its borders: “Don’t get me wrong. Religious Jews love to laugh. But there’s a fine line (I’m told) between funny and offensive...”

To my understanding, this blog is neither scholarly, academic or professional. Perhaps it may be considered professional in the sense that he may be receiving advertising revenue by writing professionally on a subject he knows best: being Jewish. His posts are short enough to be able to gulp down in one serving, but long enough to which the subject matter is inclusive of every possible facet of satire, clever, humor. One great example is in the post “Goliath's Report Card” where a principal writes to the parents about their behemoth son Goliath, recommending “The Army. He’s his own platoon. His love for taunting children with “sticks and stones may break my bones” is music to a recruiter’s ears. Because his promotion through the ranks is a ‘gimmie’ (would you say no?), I am in agreement in recommending a career as a Philistine warrior. Goliath’s arrogance will make us all very proud.” Even Shylock's enemies still need a good laugh at themselves.

He primarily “serves the greater community of 600,000 Jewish root souls” and targets them, although all walks of life can enjoy a good jab at another culture. This blog will feed my work in that, when I hit a blogger block or any other overused metaphor, the simplicity and directness of Shylocks blog will guide me to sniff out the sharpest satire/humor.

Though we stand on the same ground in our blog topics, my site will differ in the content I will choose to mock. There is a whole world of people that are begging to be satirized, I will pull out the ridiculousness of the things the “world/society” values, and I will be like a prophet holding up the sign:  “Warning: this will be the past if we don’t stop the future right now.”