ABSTRACT
Liat Steir-Livny analyzes representations of Holocaust humor on Israeli television in the 2000s. She makes the claim that twenty-first century Holocaust humor on TV, which is much more significant in terms of quantity than in the 1990s, follows in the footsteps of themes introduced in The Chamber Quintet’s skits in the 1990s, but also addresses topics that were not broached in the 1990s, thus expanding the scope of Holocaust humor on TV. Steir-Livny shows how on the one hand current TV satires continue to critique the acting out of the trauma by collective memory agents, the politicization and instrumentalization of the Holocaust by Israeli politicians and public figures, and castigate organized trips to the former concentration camps in Poland, all of which are themes that appeared in The Chamber Quintet skits. On the other hand, Holocaust associations are used in contemporary TV shows to critique other topics like social issues, the shallowness of the Israeli public and popular culture; addressing the combination of Holocaust commemoration and the Israeli ethnic conflict; and introducing iconoclastic Holocaust jokes.
