Friday, June 1, 2012

Jackie Mason -- From Rabbi to Comedian

I love Jackie Mason.  Here's a short but funny one about how life can throw you a curveball...


How many of you started out doing one thing, but ended up on a different path? Are you happy with the outcome? I'm not one to live in the past or regret lost opportunities. The past is full of roads not taken, and regret will eat you up inside. I thank God for the twists and turns in my life, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

You can get your Jackie Mason fix at his You Tube channel, The Ultimate Jew.

40 comments:

Always On Watch said...

I love Jackie Mason! He's been around for a long time, and I "discovered" him when I was a teenager.

From the time that I was 4 years old, I wanted to be a teacher. Once I read Helen Keller's The Story of My Life, I just KNEW that I wanted to be another Annie Sullivan, that is, a teacher who held the line for the students' future success.

Regrets? Not about being a teacher for over 40 years. However, in some ways, I wish that I gone the route of teaching in public schools. I did that for 5 years and (short version) lost my job because I refused to pass the school's star football play; he had a 30% average and cut the midterm exam.

Private education doesn't pay well and often offers no health insurance. I DO sleep at night -- usually, anyway. In any case, my conscience is clear.

Ducky's here said...

Never found him funny.

I wanted to be involved in film from the day I went to the Brattle and saw Truffaut's The 400 Blows .

The eye is final.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Anonymous said...

I find Jackie to be hysterically funny, and I can see why a liberal pee-brain like Ducky wouldn't..

jez said...

pee-brain, or pea-brain?

I find Jackie Mason hysterical, and have made it my life's work to perfect my impersonation of him.

Anonymous said...

Pee brain fits

Thersites said...

It's not the size, it's the content. ;)

Anonymous said...

I feel very sorry for people who live the past of "what ifs". I feel that my live has been blessed. I have seen and done almost everything I ever dreamed of seeing and doing. But, I would be lying if I said I would not have made some changes given a second chance. However, I never dwell on such things.

Mustang said...

My life is the path presented to me by the Almighty, so how could I possibly regret any of it?

Ducky's here said...

Mason falls into that borsch belt humor group with Mel Brooks. Very obvious, soft targets and completely forgettable.

You remember routines by Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Steve Martin but with someone like Brooks or Mason it's pretty much fart jokes.

Ducky's here said...

Big fan of free will, eh mustang?

jez said...

I like Mel Brooks too, but I can't claim to be too sophisticated for a good fart joke.

J.O.B. said...

Fiddle- I only have one regret. That is the fact that I sat through Caddyshack 2. Other than that, no regrets. I do find Mason humorous though. That movie was just awful.

Ducky's here said...

You can enjoy them jez and still understand it's derivative comedy.

Lisa said...

What's funnier than this ?

Ducky's here said...

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost

------
Of course it's the most misunderstood poem in English or maybe in any language.
How did the speaker know it made any difference at all?

Ducky's here said...

Hilarious, Lisa. It gives insight into why the fringe right has a reputation for being humorless and lacking in creativity.

Anonymous said...

"Critics are those who have failed in Music and Art."

~ Albert Schweitzer

Submitted by FreeThinke

Anonymous said...

This one is for Jez.



RIDDLE:

Do you know why farts smell the way they do?
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So the deaf can appreciate them too.

~ FreeThinke

Silverfiddle said...

Humorless, Ducky? Have you taken a look at your constipated, vinegar faced confreres lately?

Kid said...

Life is what happens to you while you're making other plans.

Z said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

I remember him doing an Ed Sullivan imitation once and it almost made me wet myself. Actually, I think that he may have done it on the Sullivan show and it was that that got him banned for a while. Mr. Sullivan apparently didn't appreciate the imitation very much.

Z said...

Ducky, nobody can have a differing viewpoint without being called names and insulted. WHY? Do you really feel so superior to everyone?

Ducky's here said...

I live quite well thank you z.

I'm financially secure.

My friends are loyal, successful and leftist. We enjoy ourselves.

I still go out with someone I've known for some time and she and i are thinking about a trip to Paris this fall. We are both extremely independent and have found a relationship that works.

I'm pretty much retired but I still enjoy teaching a bit.

My photography is going well especially know that I've gotten back to B&W street photography.

I've set up a trust for my grand niece that will take care of her education and she is absolutely thriving.Cutey, heh?

I love living in Boston and the only thing lacking is for that stiff Adrian Gonzalez to stop acting like a banjo hitter so the Sox can get moving.


As for my comments, i stated that I don't find Jackie Mason funny. Not a minority view and I posted the Frost poem which is relevant to this thread since it's theme is the allusion of choice.
I apologize for setting a goal which requires NEVER backing sown from a right winger. I'm the Andrew Breitbart of the left.

Most Rev. Gregori said...

If one didn't have a multitude of roads (choices) in life, I would imagine life would be rather dull. And what would life be like without at least some regrets.

As for Jackie Mason, he has been one of my favorites since I was a teenager (I am 67 now).

Z said...

Ducky, WHAT? thanks for your life information but I didn't ask...

The question is why do you seem to feel so superior?

Silverfiddle said...

I'm the Andrew Breitbart of the left.

No. You're the Vladimir Lenin of the left.

Oh, they already got one of those...

I don't know who you are then.

Anonymous said...

"My friends are loyal, successful and leftist. We enjoy ourselves."

Loyal to whom?

Successful at what?

Enjoy yourselves? How?

From the performances we've seen from you at several internet venues for the past decade or so, you appear to derive pleasure only from endorsing bizarre, desperately unattractive, outré cultural phenomena, and indulging yourself in ceaseless displays of petulance and derogation in hopes of irritating others.

Where I come from that's a formula for living in misery.

You ought to write a book

My Life as a Prime Exponent of Critical Theory

The Autobiography of Bombardo Canardo, the Auntie Maim of the Internet

~ FreeThinke

PS: I'm not enchanted by Jackie Mason either. No one born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin could possibly develop a thick Yiddish accent like that legitimately, could they? Would he have achieved any degree of prominence without the accent? I'm not prepared to say, but no one should speak English in such a manner, unless it absolutely cannot be avoided. It has to be an affectation, right? Oh God! I certainly hope so.

=========================

ADDENDUM:

Jackie wrote an autobiography called THE ULTIMATE JEW, didn't he? Forget what I said above. Canardo ought to write one called THE ULTIMATE PRICK.

~ FT

Always On Watch said...

Duck,
How did the speaker know it made any difference at all?

The Butterfly Effect

I love Bradbury's short story "A Sound of Thunder". Surely, you have read it!

Always On Watch said...

Duck,
I live quite well thank you....

Careful there! "Pride goeth before a fall, and a haughty spirit before destruction."

Always On Watch said...

FT,
LOL to that addendum!

I could add something very sarcastic. But I'll be a lady and refrain from saying it.

Ducky's here said...

Hardly a matter of pride, AOW.

I am frugal and I enjoy simple things.
The irony is that if people lived this frugally the economy would collapse.

Ducky's here said...

@Freetinker - you appear to derive pleasure only from endorsing bizarre, desperately unattractive, outré cultural phenomena
-------------------

What might they be?

Odd words from a white supremacist.

Anonymous said...

AOW,

"The Butterfly Effect," eh? First I've heard of it. Seems a fairly complicated phenomenon and hard to describe easily.

Could I be correct in thinking it's closely related to this old saw?

"For want of a nail a shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe, a horse was lost.
For want of a horse, a rider was lost.
For want of a rider a kingdom was lost?


Or even to

"Little drops of water
Little grains of sand
Make the mighty ocean
And the pleasant land."



Or to put it in more mundane terms:

Even the tiniest action is important, because it has far reaching effects we can't begin to determine.

Everything -- absolutely everything -- we do has consequences. Ergo, it well behooves us to cultivate a conscious determination to act intelligently, constructively, and above all kindly and considerately.

God gave us Free Will. So in a sense every time we exercise our Freedom of Choice we may take one of two "roads." We can opt for selfish, grasping, shortsightedness, or we can attempt to weigh the needs and feelings of others against our own lust for immediate gratification.

I doubt if Robert Frost would approve of such a "preachy" interpretation of his work, but that's what I get out of it however clumsy the explanation.

We at least see one person nearly every day who deliberately chooses to use every possible opportunity to make flippant, sarcastic, insolent, unvaryingly derogatory remarks.

Thank God that's HIS choice, and that it doesn't HAVE to be ours.

~ FreeThinke

Always On Watch said...

Duck,
I am frugal and I enjoy simple things.

As do I, as you have probably deduced over our past 7 years of blogging interactions.

Frankly, I don't have the disposable capital that you have -- even before Mr. AOW fell permanently disabled.

The irony is that if people lived this frugally the economy would collapse.

I hate shopping! I hate buying anything because I'm just not a consumer. Hell, I'm still wearing clothes that my mother bought me before she died in 1987. Mom had a way of selecting classic clothing.

I also get clothes from the church's clothing ministry and my neighbor's castoffs. My neighbor is FOREVER buying new clothes.

Recently, I made two big purchases. (1) A new pair of shoes! Sadly, I had to make that purchase so as to have decent dress shoes for the funeral of the mother of one of my homeschoolers. (2) A new swimsuit! I hadn't bought a new swimsuit for over 5 years, and as one who swims almost every day during the summer, the old suits were worn out and deserved the trash can.

The irony is that if people lived this frugally the economy would collapse.

Yep. But no foreclosures or repossessions for those of us who have managed to avoid debt.

Always On Watch said...

FT,
God gave us Free Will. So in a sense every time we exercise our Freedom of Choice we may take one of two "roads." We can opt for selfish, grasping, shortsightedness, or we can attempt to weigh the needs and feelings of others against our own lust for immediate gratification.

I doubt if Robert Frost would approve of such a "preachy" interpretation of his work...


Frost probably would not agree. However, my interpretation is very close to yours -- although Frost may also have meant career paths.

Have you ever read Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder"? I recently read it again for probably the 3rd time. It's a short work worth reading.

Always On Watch said...

Full text of "A Sound of Thunder".

Anonymous said...

Thanks, AOW. I've bookmarked the story for future reference. I like Bradbury, though I'd not describe myself as fanatically devoted to him.

We sure moved far afield from Jackie Mason, didn't we?

Canards have a tendency to do that when dropped willy nilly into the course of otherwise normal conversation.

If' shaping up to be an early night at casa mia.

~ FT

Anonymous said...

Recently I run into him, he gave me his telephone number. Is he sick or what? I am too young for the old man like him. He is older than my grandfather. Stick to your wig, but don't bother. I don't go out with an old man with an unfit wig.

Silverfiddle said...

When you run into someone you're supposed to exchange telephone numbers for insurance purposes.