What's the origin of the phrase "Funny you don't look Jewish?"

[levdrakon]

@Acsenray

I don’t buy that the origin of the phrase is in that joke. The joke itself implies to me that the phrase “Funny, you don’t look Jewish” is already familiar to the audience.

From the other thread:

@samclem

I can find it used in a story from 1934. Not quite as comic-ironic as we think of today, but close. From the context, it must have been a well-known line in the Jewish community. One mother talking to another about her son/daughter’s friend----"he/she doesn’t look Jewish.

How about meta-joke? The punchline of the original joke could be anything. "Funny, you don’t look gay / Canadian / like a lawyer / doctor / cop / sick.

It’s a standard joke about ignorance and misconceptions which is probably as old as language. Of course the Jewish community would be familiar with “you don’t look Jewish” but the meta part is when two Jews do it. Plus Jews are funny.

The other version with the woman pestering the guy until he says “fine, I’m Jewish” is meta I think because some people are so ignorant they’ll go out of their way to be ignorant even when it doesn’t make sense.

Just my guess.