Shame On Jew

All I know of Jackie Mason is that he was the shlubby Jew who occupied my grandma's television screen when I was a kid.  I distinctly remember him pacing back and forth in front of a black curtain dotted with lights (see above!), spouting political and cultural commentary sprinkled with Yiddish phrases.  So, basically, Jackie Mason was my grandparents, their neighbors, friends, tennis partners, and everyone else with whom I'd ever come into contact at Jericho, Long Island's own Piquet Lane Tennis Club.

When my friend Kyle heard that Jackie Mason's upcoming performance of Jackie Mason:  The Ultimate Jew would be his last, he nonchalantly visited Mason's website.  Lo and behold, he came across an item that signals what may be the Internet's own version of "jumping the shark."

Jackie Mason has discovered YouTube.

The first half of the video is only mildly entertaining, but for three reasons:  1) Jackie Mason is talking about viral videos (specifically, "Obama Girl"), 2) Jackie Mason's face lift should be enough to scare Lisa Rinna from any more dates with Dr. Rey, and 3) the stock graphics, "funky" background music, and awful lighting on Mason as he stands in what is likely the gaudy foyer of the Upper West Side townhouse/condo in Boca. 

But by the time you hit 1:33, you will witness one of the most horrid displays of senility to ever happen.  Not only will you learn that Jackie Mason owns a sheer shirt, but he also has itsy bitsy baby nipples.  The two cameras, both on tripods, capture every sickening moment of Mason's striptease to The Weather Girls's anthem "It's Raining Men" with exceptionally awkward purpose.  It's as if the camera operator (whose hands we see flail randomly at the very end) has awoken his/her mentally-decaying uncle, slipped some meth into his Metamucil, and told him to do his best impression of Marilyn Monroe.

My friend Brian recently referred to my longtime hobby of collecting lowbrow cultural artifacts on video as a form of "cultural anthropology," I couldn't help but agree.  Maybe - just maybe - a child will one day ask, "Who was Jackie Mason, and what was his most extreme and repugnant method for sharing his political views?"

Well, now you know, children.  Now you know.

Comments

[Carl]

Jackie Mason's dignity time of death: 10/12/07

[Mendel Potok]

Yikes! The plastic surgeon should have gone a bit further down south. Now why can't I stop watching this...