Brilliant
Of course, I love the Simpsons.
And of course, I'm THRILLED that they just broadcast their seventeenth Treehouse of Horror. One of my favorite shows has been on T.V. for SEVENTEEN years! Kids that were born when the show went on the air, are about to be able to vote! But that's a different post...
I like being privy to the inside jokes that are sometimes on T.V. This Treehouse of Horror, they had a segment with Rabbi Loew's Golem of Prague. (A clay monster from the 1500s that supposedly saved the Prague Ghetto). First, I liked that the segment began by Simpsonizing the Altneueschul in Prague (built in 1270 and still active). When I went to the Prague ghetto, that was one of the buildings that had the strongest impact on me - I had never been in something so old and so Jewish, that was still in use. Most of our stuff in Europe was destroyed in the 30s and 40s, so to see something that had a connection to 800 years ago, that, possibly, my ancestors visited, was pretty awesome.
Furthermore, the episode had typical Borscht-Belt humor that, while dated, gives me warm fuzzies for some reason.
So, as usual, the Simpsons scores another point in my book for bringing an obscure Jewish legend that I'm sure very few Christians knew about, to American Pop-Culture.
And go to Prague. It's fabulous.
posted by SuperBee at 5:32 PM
3 Comments:
Back when I was a wee undergrad at UM and in charge of bringing guest speakers to campus, we brought the delightful Mike Reiss, Simpson's Producer and former writer. He was excellent. What I thought was more excellent, however, was the fact that he and his wife had decided that taking on speaking engagements would be a great way to see all 50 of the United States. Seriously. When they came to campus, they like, really wanted to just take a walk around the campus. Not have a cup of coffee or chill out before the lecture.. no, just take a walk, thanks. I also thought that it was kind of amusing that he sort of "bounced" when he walked. But I digress...
12:11 AM
Wasn't the Golem of Prague something like 17 feet tall? I remember (vaguely) reading about it in 7th grade or so. As I recall it was a big walking humanoid clay chunk O' Righteous Justice. Like the boogeyman only just to the bad guys.
8:04 AM
J.B. Thank you for that interesting tidbit. :)
RT: Yes, he was an extremely large clay monster.
Laura: I had COMPLETELY forgotten about that until now. We had to re-write the paper? That I don't remember. I only remember bringing in a tape and playing it for the class. That was my answer to everything, Senior Year. "Bring in a Movie." Mike and I created the masterpiece, "Phineas Gage, the Man with the Spike Through His Head," for Mr. Eldridge's Psych AP class. We even had my little brother squish spaghetti next to Dave L.'s video camera, when I was putting my fingers in the hole through Phineas' brain. We had awesome special effects.
7:44 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home