Last week I discovered Yehuda Devir, an Israeli comic artist. His blog comics are entertaining caricatures of domestic life with his wife (the other artwork in his portfolio is more…provocative). What with me not being Jewish, there are a couple of his comics that went over my head. Perhaps someone here can explain them to me? Here’s the two I don’t get:
IANJ either, but it looks to me like the typical married couple trope of one person absent-mindedly not sharing. Made more poignant that those Jewish holidays have a specific traditional family meal associated with them. That said, does every moment have to be a testament to faith and togetherness? All fundies kindly recuse themselves, we know your answer already.
I’d seen his work highlighted before. Its cute. Worth sharing with a significant other.
I’m Gentile as can be, but I think the joke here is that she’s eating leavened bread, and part of Passover observance is to remove all chametz (leavened bread) from the home, and to not eat it during the holiday.
Thanks, that makes sense. Now that I’ve looked up unleavened bread on Wikipedia, I see that the picture of matza is a pretty good match for what’s on his T-shirt.
I also didn’t catch the meaning (sheet of flatbread) of the speckled square in front of his shirt, or the implication that it was something that he was holding by a hand not visible in the panel.
In the other one, I believe that he is snorting cocaine off a potato, and she is upset because he promised that he would quit.
If it’s your standard Subway-type sub, it probably has pork products on it as well.
As for the second one … it looks to me like it’s a cream puff with powdered sugar on it. Is there some dietary law or holiday rule associated with this?
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EDIT:** Just read the above in re: jelly donuts.
If the artist is Israeli, chances are she *is *Jewish, but doesn’t keep kosher (for Passover or in general). That’s pretty much me and my wife, except that she’s usually decent enough not to eat her sandwiches to my face.
In the second comic, she’s either pissed off about the powdered sugar and jelly all over his face, or she’s jealous that he’s eating pastries while she’s counting calories.
Jesus H. Christ, this is what passes for Jewish humor these days? I grew up with New Yorker cartoons and my threshold for quality irony is spectacularly high. The first one clearly is her eating a sandwich with break that is leavened, i.e. basically all bread, because Jews are required to eat a cracker-like bread called Matzoh on Passover, and the husband or whatever he’s supposed to be is annoyed to see her doing it and therefore violating the tradition. The second one I have no fucking idea, I think he’s supposed to be cleaning cocaine residue off his face with a sponge?
It’s not Jewish humor - it’s Israeli observational humor. Different genre.
A Sufganiyah, actually. It’s a like a donut, only chewier. Similar to the German Berliner. It’s eaten around Hanukkah (Israelis are big fans of seasonal foods) and has a bazillion calories.
Yeah I figured it was likely she was Jewish (majority of my family lives in Israel so I get it), but perhaps not definitely, as a possible explanation. Could make sense if she wasn’t, that his unusual situation might inspire his cartoons.
Otherwise I guess goofy marital stuff makes more sense.
