Characters
- Chaimi (Jamie Elman)
- Leyzer (Eli Batalion)
Mayim Bialik featured in one episode. [11]
| Yidlife Crisis | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Comedy |
| Created by |
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| Starring |
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| Country of origin | Canada |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | single-camera |
| Original release | |
| Network | YouTube |
| Release | 2014 |
Yidlife Crisis is a Canadian webTV comedy series starring Jamie Elman and Eli Batalion and launched in 2014.
The comedians of the show grew up together and studied Yiddish at Bialik High School in Côte Saint-Luc in the suburbs of Montreal. [1] Eli Batalion's elders spoke Yiddish at home. [2]
The show launched on YouTube in September 2014. [3] The duo decided to make this show in a move to do something related to their Judaism. [4] In April 2022, the show premiered its first episode in French. [5] In 2023, the duo announced they were working on a show that explores the Arab-Israeli conflict. [6]
Yidlife crisis consists of short comedy sketches about two 30-something Jewish friends. Most of the dialog is in Yiddish, which the two use as a secret language, but subtitles are provided in English and French. [7] The show evolves around the 21st century Jewish culture, and sometimes tackles topics such as antisemitism, [1] Jewish food, [2] Christmas versus Hanukkah [8] or marijuana [9] with a typical Yiddish satire. [1] The comedians were directly inspired by the sitcom Seinfeld . [2] [4]
The slogan of the show is "Sex, Drugs, and Milk & Meat. In Yiddish". [4] The series is humorously rated Chai (18 and over) [2] and gathered 200,000 views on YouTube for its first season. [10] Originally, Jamie Elman does not speak Yiddish (he speaks Hebrew), but he learned the phonetics in four days to act as if he did. [4]
Mayim Bialik featured in one episode. [11]
A live Yidlife crisis show was performed at Montreal's Segal Centre for Performing Arts for a week in January 2022 in front of an empty audience and broadcast online due to pandemic restrictions. [12] [13] The duo also performed in Krakow, Tel Aviv, Toronto, Montreal, Los Angeles and Birmingham (England). [11]
The word Yid, also known as the Y-word, is a Jewish ethnonym of Yiddish origin. It is used as an autonym within the Ashkenazi Jewish community, and also used as slang by European football fans, antisemites, and others. Its usage may be controversial in modern English language. It is not usually considered offensive when pronounced, the way Yiddish speakers say it, but some may deem the word offensive nonetheless. When pronounced by non-Jews, it is commonly intended as a pejorative term. It is used as a derogatory epithet by antisemites along with, and as an alternative to, the English word 'Jew'.
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Hayim Nahman Bialik was a Jewish poet who wrote primarily in Hebrew and Yiddish. Bialik is considered a pioneer of modern Hebrew poetry, part of the vanguard of Jewish thinkers who gave voice to a new spirit of his time, and recognized today as Israel's national poet. Being a noted essayist and story-teller, Bialik also translated major works from European languages.
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Eliyahu Noah "Eli" Staiman, professionally known as L.E. Doug Staiman or simply L.E. Staiman, is an American musician, actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He was the frontman and founder of the Jewish pop punk band The Groggers, which he formed with guitarist Ari Friedman in 2010. Outside of The Groggers, he has performed with artists including Aryeh Kunstler, Benny Friedman, and Dave Days, and released several solo singles, including with the short-lived duo 3 Day Yuntif. In addition to music he has pursued filmmaking, directing music videos and comedy sketches for various YouTubers and making his feature film directorial debut in 2022 with Love Virtually, starring Cheri Oteri, Stephen Tobolowsky, and Paul F. Tompkins.
The Jewish People's Schools and Peretz Schools, along with its secondary school Bialik High School, is a private co-educational Jewish day school system. It is located in Côte Saint-Luc, an on-island suburb of Montreal, Quebec.
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