Submitted by PetyrDayne t3_z0xvlu in television
Bears_On_Stilts t1_ix8olih wrote
Reply to comment by barkbarkkrabkrab in David Baddiel explores TV's problem portraying Jewish life on screen by PetyrDayne
Midge Maisel, besides her involvement in the very Jewish comedy circuit, is embodying the mostly-forgotten archetype of "the Jewish Princess." Upper middle class to upper class, materialistic and pop-culture savvy, not especially interested in ethnic or religious tradition or history beyond a superficial level, somewhat apolitical, thoroughly Americanized and "white" despite her parents being much more entrenched in a lived traditional Jewish experience.
Remember that it's been over a century since the Jewish diaspora hit America in its biggest wave, and nearly a hundred years since the Holocaust. Jewish culture in America has become extremely secularized and mainstreamed, so the notion of "Jewish girl behaving like a white girl" doesn't really hold water anymore as a character archetype. But you get a lot of Jewish Princess jokes in the earlier works of Mel Brooks, Allan Sherman, Neil Simon (whose distinctive style is aped STRONGLY by Mrs. Maisel), etc.
BlackSpinedPlinketto t1_ix97vkf wrote
Oh lol like literally the princess in Spaceballs? I guess that was what he was doing. I loved that movie, even though I had never met or heard of many Jews. And I hadn’t seen Star Wars.
Bears_On_Stilts t1_ix991k7 wrote
Yes, the Drewish Princess is a pun on “Jewish Princess.”
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