The Shamen With the Papillon

Pretty much every bad American TV show, as well as the good ones, are played on Israeli TV. When I first got here, Shiran and her sister were really into "Jack and Jill" a pretty lame show that was on the WB or something. You would've thought that Jack v'Jill was the new F*R*I*E*N*D*S the way they went on about it. They played the 10 episodes that aired, and then the 10 that didn't after the show got canceled, then on to the next silly show that never got past the first season. Such is Israeli TV. I watch it for the subtitles. In fact, I learned the word for appendix -- as in appendicitis -- by watching Commander in Chief. It's toseftan, which is cool, because tosefta means extra and is found in rabbinic literature. Get it? Extra organ? Oh, that appendix.

I have developed a large amount of love for the makers of Israeli TV commercials. Particularly, I like anything that is on Hot!'s BIP (pronounced, by little blue-and-white cartoon mouths superimposed on rocks, fruit and backs of people's heads, as beep), and the Hebrish commercials on Yes! Other commercials that I have enjoyed include the Natalie-Portman-is-an-Israeli-so-Happy-Independence-Day-Through-Her-Movies spot and the Four Sons (a Passover thing) commercial for the cartoon movie Ice Age.

Below are my three favorite commercials. I was able to find them on YouTube. The first is for Prison Break, featuring Dana International, who is a phenomenon in and of herself. I have never seen Prison Break, although as far back as my Penguin days, I was told it's the BEST.SHOW.EVER. Anyway, it's pretty great, with a nice mix of camp Hebrew -- throwing in Hebrew words with mostly English. You'd think it'd be the other way around, seeing as how this is Israeli television, but apparently that's not how they roll here.

See the seamless integration of Hebrew words into an English conversation. Camp Hebrew!

This got a lot of play in the Fall, when YES! started their HD campaign. One of my professors even sent it out to my school as evidence of comedy in Israel. It's hilarious.

Finally, this commercial is my total favorite. It's very Israeli to just announce your opinion to whomever is (or is not) listening. I LOVE this commercial, and this woman's hilarious. I believe this commercial is for one of the channels that always plays Law and Order and CSI and all of those. No matter, just enjoy!