You are now entering the Jewish Currents archive.
October 5: “My Name José Jimenez”
lawrencebush
October 5, 2013
Comedy writer and stand-up comedian Bill Dana (Szathmary) was born in Quincy, Massachusetts on this date in 1924. Between 1959 and 1970, after several years as a successful comedy writer for Steve Allen and several other stars, he gained stardom of his own by portraying a heavily accented Puerto Rican (some say Mexican) character named “José Jimenez,” whose manner of speaking, naiveté, sweetness, and awkwardness non-Hispanic America found simply hilarious. (Tasteless or not, the character was endorsed by the The National Hispanic Media Coalition, on whose advisory board Bill Dana still sits today.) Dana is also founder of the American Comedy Archives at Emerson College, where he and Jenni Matz have interviewed some 60 living comedians. In addition to creating several best-selling comedy albums, Dana was a writer for the famous Sammy Davis Jr. episode of All in the Family. His books include the first environmental humor book, Ecolojest, published in 1972. As embarrassing and even biased as his dialect routines may seem today, they offer a skewering of pretension, formality, and masculine power that seem very in keeping with Jewish humor traditions. To hear Dana’s skit as an astronaut, look below.
“People of the United States of America: Please don’t let them do this to me.” —Bill Dana
I’m Arielle Angel, editor-at-large of Jewish Currents. Before you go, there’s something I need to ask.
We’ve seen over and over how the mainstream media falters in telling stories on our beats—whether it’s antisemitism, Israel/Palestine in American politics, Jewish identity, or the American left. At Jewish Currents we’re committed to uncompromising analysis and longform reporting on these issues and more—stories you won’t find anywhere else. In a media landscape that obscures injustice and flattens discussion, we’re changing the conversation. But we need you.
If you believe in this work, please consider making a donation—or even better, a recurring one—to ensure that we are able to keep publishing stories like this one. We can’t do it without you.
