SUPER SILLY INTRODUCTION

Comic enthusiasts weren’tready for a bonafideJewish clown until the

Simpsons’ animated Krusty theClown. Krusty was revealed inthe fifteenth season to beHerschel Shmoikel PinchasYerucham Krustofski, son ofRabbi Hymen Krustofski.Although Krusty’s characterwas not overtlycharacteristically Jewish,except for his occasional use ofYiddish expressions, theepisode parodied the reality ofscores of American Jewsthroughout the 19th and 20thcenturies who anglicized theirnames and distanced theirpersonal Jewish identities fromtheir secular professionalidentities. The Simpsons’creators had this unfortunatewidespread phenomenoncovered by revealing in theseventh season that the show’s

egocentric television anchor,Kent Brockman, was bornKenny Brockelstein. Larry Davis,on the other hand, was notdisguising a more Jewish-sounding name, his languagewasn’t peppered with Yiddishphrases nor was he revealed tobe the son of an observantfamily. How, then, is Funnymanconsidered to be Jewish andhow did he get to be attributedas the first Jewish superhero?

Speculating in Funnyman: TheFirst Jewish Superhero from theCreators of Superman aboutwhy the character wasunsuccessful, Danny Fingerothcasually remarks perhapsFunnyman was too Jewish orperhaps not Jewish enough.2

This contradiction is apropos indefining and understandingFunnyman’s Jewishness, if nothis unpopularity.

Funnyman’s character seems toavoid mid-20th century hyper-conscious stereotypessurrounding masculinity.However, while Larry Davis wascapable and smooth, it wasFunnyman, the hero, who wasphysically weaker and moreexposed than his adversaries,which nods to the socialhierarchy Siegel and Shusterlived in. If it weren’t forFunnyman’s humor and quickwit, he would not emerge asthe victor, yet his approach tocrime fighting never let himdown. Interestingly, Siegel hada life-long wish to be a comicwriter. Tom Andrae points outthat, in addition to being aknown prankster, in 1938Siegel wrote and copyrightedHow to be Funny, a PracticalCourse of Serious Study inCreative Humor.3 WhileSuperman’s overt virility was asymbol for Americanism,Funnyman’s humor andvulnerability mirrored Siegel’sprivate identity.

Andrae also indicates thatShuster adored Danny Kayeand longed to launch a projectthat channeled Kaye’s brand ofschticky humor.4 Not only wasKaye an entertainer whoconcealed his Jewish identity,he played buffoonishcharacters who did not fitmasculine ideals. Rather, basedon anti-Semitic Eugenicstheories of the time, Kaye’shumor possessed the neuroticcharacteristics that wereascribed to Jews. Funnyman’straits, therefore, were inspiredby a Jewish guy who outwardlydisguised his Jewishness, yetcould not escape being famousfor mannerisms stereotypicallycharacterized as Jewish.

Given that he was inspired byKaye, it is easy to overlookFunnyman’s Jewish qualities.He is not defined bystereotypically-derived cluesthat gentiles and Jews alikelook for regarding speechpatterns, bodily characteristicsand manner of clothing used invarious media to attribute

Jewish identity. Yet, Mel Gordoncalls attention to thesimilarities between Funnymanand badkhonim, Jewish enter-tainers employed duringvarious festivals andceremonies.5 Commonly, abadkhn was the master ofceremony at weddings whoused roasting-type humor,sarcasm and jabs. The role wasa core part of wedding rituals,and remained popular throughthe 19th century. Gordonasserts that the very origins ofJewish humor derive frombadkhonim, and that thebelligerent, deprecating typeof humor for which Jews areknown, and which Funnymanhimself uses, is rooted in thesetraditions. 6

Superman evokes numerouscultural issues that could beperceived as deriving fromJewish perspectives, includingimmigration, assimilation andoutsider anxieties. In someways, the contradictionsinherent in Funnyman —inaddition to the series short life-span— make his identityharder to pin down andposition in a fixed way. Theyalso make Funnyman complexand more human-like.

Although Funnyman was afailure, Super Silly brings to lightcompelling ideas aboutFunnyman and Jewish humorproposed by Gordon andAndrae while enabling viewersto fully take in Siegel andShuster’s final collaboration.

—Melissa Hiller, AJM Director

1James Paul Gee, What VideoGames Have to Teach Us AboutLearning and Literacy(New York: Palgrave Macmillan,2007), 17-18.

2Mel Gordon and Tom Andrae,Funnyman: The First JewishSuperhero from the Creators ofSuperman (Port Townsend: FeralHouse, 2010), ix.

3Gordon 54.4Gordon 51.5Gordon 12.6Gordon 14.

Funnyman, a buffoonishcrime fighter who useswit and gags for

weapons, is the antithesis ofnoble Superman©. Superman’sextraordinary abilities, selflessdisposition and humanitarianmission thwart all manner ofcriminals. Funnyman lacksthese traits, employing insteadshtick—pranks, put-downs andgags—to subdue his foes.Ironically, not only were bothcharacters created by JerrySiegel and Joe Shuster, but theduo created Funnyman in1948, on the heels of theunsuccessful Siegel & Shustervs. National Allied Publishinglawsuit for ownership rights to

Superman. A further indignity,the Funnyman comic was aflop both as a series, lasting amere six issues, and as a comicstrip. Funnyman was the lastproject worked on by Siegeland Shuster, a creative team forover a decade.

On display for the first timeever, Super Silly includes 50original Funnyman pen and inkstoryboards. Displaying 65-year-old original comic bookdrawings gives audiences theopportunity to observe theblemishes that make them feelone step closer to the artistsand their processes: erasuremarks, hand-written notations,stains and white-out splotches.

This tactile evidence of theoriginality behind comicdrawing is eliminated by themass-production process,which downplays the richnessof the imagery. The blemishesare also reminders that theseoriginal drawings were all doneby hand with exactingprecision and remarkablecontrol. These are the sameminds and sets of hands thatcreated the world’s archetypalsuperhero.

The multifariousness ofcontemporary society hasextinguished the hierarchy ofartistic modes, the primacy oforiginality, as well as the notionof comics as a sub-literate formof sophomoric entertainment.The McCarthy-era crusadeagainst comics, which claimedthey caused, at the very least,juvenile delinquency, is adistant, tarnished memory thatmost have long forgotten.Rather, the way comicsfunction aesthetically—howmeaning is created throughthe interplay of words andimages—has blossomed into a mainstream and acceptedcreative and scholarlyendeavor.

Viewing Super Silly! spread outin its entirety rather than incomic book form makes theintertwined relationshipbetween words and imagesmore concrete. Even thoughthe Funnyman stories werereductively rendered andnarrated, it is clear they mustboth be read and viewed forthe comic to make sense,which is why it is accurate toindicate interchangeablyreading or looking at comics.Furthermore, there areparticular visual and literaryrhythms at work. LinguistJames Paul Gee puts itsuccinctly: “In such multimodaltexts (texts that mix words andimages), the images often

communicate different thingsfrom the words. Further, thecombination of the two modescommunicates things thatneither of the modes doesseparately.”1 Unavoidably,consuming comics issimultaneously a literary andvisual experience. The capacitythis creates for discovery andimagination is part of the lureand staying-power of comics.

As the story goes, Funnyman isthe alter ego of professionalcomedian Larry Davis.Although having an alter ego isa convention associated withheroes, Davis’s originalintentions in assuming theidentity of Funnyman wereanything but benevolent. Intrue comic fashion, Davisperformed a hero-like stunt forthe sake of publicity.Unbeknownst to Davis, heactually walked into a realcrime scene rather than thestaged jewelry store heist hewas expecting. He thwartedthe criminal all the whileassuming he was appre-hending an actor. Afterwards,Davis realized doing gooddeeds is worthwhile, even fun.So the act he got into for thesake of self-interest took asincere turn when heproceeded to defeat villainsout of good will.

Panel after panel illustratesLarry Davis’s follies as he ekesout a living as a comedian.Others reveal Funnyman’sebullient persona, his slapstickuse of props and gags, and hisinelegant attempts toapprehend criminals. Whetheras Davis or Funnyman, there isdefinitely no shortage of tom-foolery going on. However, asentertaining as his anticsappear and despite thelegendary status of Siegel andShuster, Funnyman couldn’tfind his stride among readers.

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Funnyman #5 (July 1948), Wanted: One Corpse,image courtesy Adam Parfrey.

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Funnyman #2 (March 1948), image courtesyAdam Parfrey.