Jtube: The Colbert Report: Holiday Special

just a funny routine -- were you expecting more? Why?

I would tell him to avoid any Jews who claim that they "obviously" know anything more about yiddishkeit than he does.

Oh, just chill not everything is meant to be negative. It's just cute and funny. Take off your "I gotta be offended by anything hat". And just smile. And I'm generally known as a right wing Jew.

I enjoyed this for what it is. A Colbert parody on the sucky sugar cane serious Christmas specials on television and Stewart trying to show that not everyone in the world is Christian and celebrates Christmas. If you think Stewart was shallow on Chanukah, then Colbert was equally as shallow on Christmas. Consider it a tie and just enjoy.

I enjoyed Jons and Steve's comic routine We need to recognize comedy and bow music lead to humankind's salvation

I think that Jon Stewart is portraying the outermost layer of what Hanukkah is about, which is usually how it is perceived to the general public. I think it is funny, though, because I know he does have that deeper understanding. I think Colbert is representing that general view that people have of Hanukkah and that he doesn't necessarily agree with them. It's all just part of the comedy schtick. Whether you find it funny or not is based on opinion, but I don't think either one truly believes in the shallowest of Hanukkah perceptions.

a new low. gee, if there hadn't been a laugh track i wouldn't have known it was supposed to be funny.

this was not about competition; it was about awareness. As a 74-year old Jew, I have spent my whole life among non-Jews who knew nothing....and I mean ZERO about Jews or Judaism. and didn't especially care to. So here's Jon trying to increase awareness and here's Steven being so narrow-minded as to say "thank you; I'll pass". Certainly not very Christian of him.

you guys, it's satire.

I'd tell him how much I appreciate hearing words from my mameloshen (Yiddish) on mainstream TV. Your question implies that he's done something incorrect. He's not intending to offer a teaching about the holiday. He's being funny and rhyming, and that's what he gets paid for. Frankly, I enjoy that a Jewish holiday is well-known, accepted, and "normal" enough to be chuckled over in the maintstream. Cool!

Chanukkah isn't Yom Tov

Kudos.

Yes, but it makes the lyric rhyme, which makes if funny. The video is meant to be humerous! I think everyone needs to have a sense of humor when they watch this. Having a sense of humor isn't forbidden by the Torah!

Stephen Cobert is funny. The video is funny. At Channuka’s expense. The laugh here, from start-to-finish, is about the many ways Channuka is inferior to Christmas. It is about the many insecure thoughts and feelings of uneducated Jews when Christmas lights give them that warm, fuzzy Hellenized-Jewish feeling during the holiday season. Every Hellenized Jew and every Greek soldier that fought against, and was defeated by, Judah the Maccabee, would have loved this video’s Channuka spin. The Greeks did not want to wipe out the Jews. They wanted to Hellenize them, make them feel Torah is second-rate to the bright lights of Athens. Channuka is about cleaning the Temple in our heart and mind of images like the ones in this video. It is about understanding why the smallest spark of Torah can do more to light up spiritual darkness than any other light in the world.

You did it right, there is no reason to try to compete. If we try to compete with Xmas we will only lose for ourselves the meaning of Hanukkah. Then what, Charlie Brown will have to make a film, "Charlie Brown Hanukkah" and put it out there, "What's the true meaning of Hanukkah?" after it had been forgotten. Let's not go there, and we won't have to be brought back by Charlie Brown.