http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BorschtBelt

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Cornfed, Duckman "It's Yiddish. An older generation of comics uses it to further distance itself from a young audience."

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"Borscht Belt" is a style of Jewish comedy. The actual Borscht Belt is a region in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York that was a popular resort destination in the 1920s through the 1970s for Jews who were excluded from other resorts. Due to the heavily Ashkenazi ancestry of New York Jews, the area is named for borscht, a type of beet soup popular in Central and Eastern Europe.

It was common for families to stay at such a resort for a month or more in summer, with the men working in the city during the week and driving out on Friday afternoons; this meant that even with performers moving between resorts, there was a constant need to develop fresh material since you'd be performing in front of the same audience every couple weeks. That made it an ideal training ground for radio and TV.

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The Jewish comedians who performed at these resorts developed a style of humor that became very popular in the entertainment industry. Borscht Belt humor is characterized by stereotypical Jewish traits, such as Self-Deprecation, insults, complaints, marital bickering, Hypochondria, wordplay and liberal use of Yiddish. The Alter Kocker character type was developed here as well.

Comedians who have worked in the Borscht Belt or have used the style of comedy include:

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Works featuring Borscht Belt comedy or characters include:

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Films — Live-Action

Coming to America features Eddie Murphy performing as an old New York Jew who tells a classic Borscht Belt joke: An old Jew asks a waiter to taste his soup, refusing to elaborate further. The waiter finally agrees to taste it and asks where the spoon is. The Jew smiles and says, "Ah ha!"

In Goodfellas, Henry and Karen watch Henny Youngman after their famous steady-cam walk into the theater. He tells the classic joke, "I take my wife everywhere, but she finds her way home!" Youngman's trouble with his lines was the biggest obstacle to getting the shot.

Any role played by Mel Brooks in his own movies is most likely an example. Most notable though is the Rabbi in Robin Hood: Men in Tights.

In The Princess Bride, Miracle Max and his wife are borscht belt-style characters, with their shrill bickering, haggling over money, complaining, and Yiddish accents.

Dirty Dancing is set at a Borscht Belt resort, though Borscht Belt comedy does not play a major role in the movie.

In Mr. Saturday Night, Buddy Young is a Borscht Belt comedian who made it big.

In A Walk on the Moon, a vast majority of the film is set in a Borscht Belt bungalow colony during the summer of 1969. There is a brief scene where several of the parents are in a ballroom watching a Borscht Belt comic: "Now I want to invite you all up on the floor to dance, because it's my turn to laugh!"

Catskill from Heartbeeps is a standup comedian robot modeled after a bad Borscht Belt comedian, complete with a database full of horrible Henny Youngman style jokes.

Mel Brooks' History of the World Part I features a lot of Borscht Belt style comedy, including a sequence where Brooks plays a stand-up comedian in ancient Rome. There are cameos by a number of Borscht Belt comedians, including Sid Caesar, Jackie Mason and Henny Youngman.

The blacklisted comedian Hecky Brown is forced to return to working the Borscht Belt in The Front.

Live-Action TV

Puppet Shows

Parodied in The Muppet Show with Fozzie Bear, whose entire identity is wrapped up in being a Borscht Belt style comedian who is so awful at telling jokes that his failures are hilarious.

Theatre

The musical Top Banana gives this sort of background to its comedian protagonist, Jerry Biffle, in the Opening Chorus: "He was found on a Catskill peak / Where they booked him for one split week."

Video Games

Fallout: New Vegas features Borscht Belt style comedian Billy Knight, complete with an inexplicable New York accent.

Web Videos

Game Grumps's Danny will invoke this at times and will often tell stories of his Fish out of Water father which can resemble this.

Western Animation