Tropes of Jewish Humor in Women-Led Digital Streaming Productions (2010 – 2019)

Abstract The influx of digital streaming platforms from 2005 to 2008 enabled more nuanced representations of Jewish cultures, rituals, and subjects than on traditional distribution platforms. In front of and behind the camera, Jewish women, once marginalized, are now taking center stage and portraying the complexities of Jewish American life. Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson (creators of Broad City) and Rachel Bloom (creator of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) successfully navigated open-access digital streaming platforms to promote their comedic work, then modified their content to meet the needs of broadcast and cable networks and later subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) platforms. These content creators adapted traditional motifs of Jewish humor by infusing their work with contemporary, popular feminist sensibilities and applying narrative tactics specific to digital technology. This article examines the new common tropes produced by these Jewish American women creators of comedic digital streaming content as well as the historical, technological, and economic factors that gave rise to those tropes. Glazer, Jacobson, and Bloom inspired numerous subsequent content creators such as Jenji Kohan (creator of Orange Is the New Black), Joey Soloway (creator of Transparent), Amy Sherman-Palladino (creator of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Tiffany Haddish (creator of the comedy special Black Mitzvah), and Natasha Lyonne (cocreator of Russian Doll), who have also incorporated these tropes and been at the forefront of Jewish comedy, particularly in twenty-first-century digital streaming programs.