Seeing Double, Feeling Single
Mark looking George Gurley-ish, Julia and her ta-da's, Chunky Checkers (Need context? Happy Birthday, Lindsay!)
Yet for all of this success, we seem to have squandered what was, in a more innocent era, one of our most treasured cultural resources: the nebbish, that klutzy, bespectacled mother-loving stereotype of the Jew, the nudnik with the big heart and two left feet who could never hang on to the girl. While we were busy buying khakis and correcting our vision with laser surgery, we let our guard down. We alienated the nebbish, pulling a Duddy Kravitz by looking to Jews who were distinctly anti-nebbish to hold up as role models. Anything that implicated us as fearful or non-confrontational came to seem outdated as Israel triumphed, tough Jews like James Caan kicked ass and the Beastie Boys fought for our right to party. We outgrew the nebbish narrative as a culture. Worse still, this banishment has allowed the gentiles to usurp our anti-hero, appropriating the old world power and counterintuitive charm of the nebbish to great cultural success.
