Old Jews Telling Jokes (2009/First Run DVD Set)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C     Extras: C-     Main Program: C+

 

 

Sam Hoffman’s Old Jews Telling Jokes (2009) features 18 different non-stand-up comics telling brief jokes with a sense of them being funny without toilet humor and in context to things that are actually funny.  Though I never laughed out loud in the 44 minutes here, I was pleasantly amused just the same and it makes for a better DVD release than most of the stand-up releases I have suffered through.

 

To its advantage, all the jokes are chapterized, so you get many chapters, but that is the way to do it and I hope we see more such comedy DVD releases.  It is great to have a record of comedy as art, especially when it is an art form that is always underestimated.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image is a little soft considering this is a stationary camera taping people telling each joke, but it is fine for simple viewing.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 is simple stereo at best and can be weak like location audio, so be careful of playback volume.  Extras include previews for related DVDs from First Run.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo