Arie Kaplan (USA)
The Wizards of Wit lecture would show the progression of comedy on a decade-bydecade basis, starting in the 1950s, when people like Sid Caesar created comedy that contained veiled references to Judaism (like the TV show Your Show of Shows); to the 1960s, when comedians like Jerry Lewis starred in movies (like The Bellboy) in which Jewish characters were in the background; to the 1970s, when people like Woody Allen confronted Jewish stereotypes head-on, in films like Annie Hall); to the 1980s, when humorists like Nora Ephron and Billy Crystal fused a neo-Borscht Belt act with a wise-guy cool (in When Harry meet Sally...); and finally, the more envelope-pushing
1990s and early 21st century, in which many of the characters and references are openly Jewish (i.e. Sacha Baron Cohen, Sarah Silverman, the films of Ben Stiller and Adam Sandler, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart).

Arie Kaplan – comic writer and comedian, the author of Masters of the Comic Book Universe Revealed! and From Krakow to Krypton.