“Nothing can be said today, everyone is offended,” Tal Friedman said in a conversation with Amir Ziv, deputy editor of “Calcalist”, at the national economic conference of Calcalist and Leumi, referring to the state of satire in Israel.
Ziv began by recounting his first encounter with Friedman: “Many years ago, when I was a young discharged soldier, I stumbled upon a performance of ‘The Plots of Moses in the Big City.’ To a certain extent, it shaped my perception of humor. ” Ziv said it’s closing the circle for him, and Friedman responded: “First of all thank you, this is the first job I did. After you learn acting, you learn what not to do – and then you do the opposite. The sketch was about a man who comes to the big city and can’t rent an apartment, and people abuse “Nothing has changed. Today it is even worse.”
What were you trying to do then?
“Then there was Dudu Topaz on TV, Manny Peer, it was conservative TV. We were surprised to see sketches that included imitations, we didn’t like these things. On the other hand, we admired Hanoch Levin and Moni Peyton, and we wanted to do similar things.”
Is it possible to make new humor blatantly today?
“There is no such thing as new humor, people go for the same frameworks – satire, I like social and not political satire. But you have to correspond with what is happening these days. And what is happening? In music you hear attitudes and strange sounds, but you can say nothing today. Even in ‘Dreams in the Summer’ we said it, and it was ahead of its time – today everyone is offended, nothing can be said. You have to find ways to say something without offending anyone. For example, Luba’s character is the victim, people did not understand it. “Luba was like my grandmother, a bad woman.”
In fact even when you go for weak characters, do you empower them?
“Yes. The intention is to put a strong character in a weak position.”
Friedman told of one case in which he was criticized when he published a video of ultra-Orthodox people dancing frantically. “I love metal, and ultra-Orthodox people are quite similar to metalheads in a sense – they are rejected and delicate people, and I feel that way too. I posted it on Twitter – I wrote ‘happy people that jellyfish came to the country’.
You have a program on the Knesset channel where you host politicians. The ability to mock politicians is also waning?
“Yes. First of all, the program started when I went to the Knesset to check from the inside what it is, if they really work for us? The good news is that I found out yes – there are people who do. Not all are 120 parasites. Stuff”.
Asked what makes Friedman funny in person, he chose to present the video “Moving Like a Comfort.” Ziv said of this: “This is a surprising choice, there is no such thing as the familiar Dew Friedmani madness.” Friedman replied: “Yes, in the end you make a plan for so many years, there are moments in the work that there are suddenly cosmic revelations. Zeev Nehama was a cute nerd, and suddenly he succeeded. He’s an anti – star, he’s a charming man. Molly called me and said to me: Let’s make a piece about Wolf Nehama, I barely worked on it, and this magic happened. It happens very little in my career, and these are the moments I love the most. “
Even though all your characters are on the verge of madness? Why do you come to these edges?
“Because a bit like a guitarist, I have to press the distortion. I don’t like clean, I like to attack. Then something electric happens to me in the body, these are moments like trance, I like them – it’s just therapy on people’s backs.”
You also play and sing in bands. What do you like more – satire or music?
I haven’t performed since the Corona. Music is something that saves me, I wrote an album in the Corona without feeling it, and next week a first song will come out of it. Most of the songs are serious and sad, and one song that was supposed to be happy. “Let him make voices. It’s a song that is supposed to be funny, and Moody passed away a month ago, and he came out sad. Before he passed away, I got to play the song for him for the first time.”