ABSTRACT
Black humor was mainly about psychology; antidefamation humor, however, used language and stereotypical images — as well as politics and the power of the microphone— to win the hearts and souls of listeners. The function of antidefamation jokes was to refute new and more pernicious stereotypical images, which spread like wildfire after the war. Traditional jokes about the army and about crafty Jews eager to avoid military service were funny; while not free of prejudice, they provided innocent fun for Jews and non-Jews alike. The most potent of all the new stereotypical images that emerged after the war equated Jews with communists. The stereotypical image of the communist Jew was new; however, its elements had been around at least since the late nineteenth century. The counterrevolution witnessed the birth of new images such as Jews as communists as well as the revival and transformation of older stereotypes, such as the one that treated Jews as foreigners and hostile aliens.
