When Jimmy McGill Renames Himself Saul Goodman ("Better Call Saul") to Make Himself Seem Jewish,

that should be called …

"adjudication."

Comments

[WJack]

"adjudication."

That one was so bad it was good!

[ToddR]

It's all good, man. Double-plus-good.

[DMSeattle]

It’s all good man.
S’all good, man.
Saul Goodman.

Clever.
But its a fig leaf. Done in retrospect. Not convincing.

[Alexander Campbell]

You really need to get a Twitter account!

[Eugene Volokh]

We have @VolokhC.

[Alexander Campbell]

Right--I just mean that posts like this one would fit very well as Tweets instead of blog posts. You have a lot of these-- it seems that you would really like Twitter's format.

[TwelveInchPianist]

"it seems that you would really like Twitter’s format."

C'mon now. Let's keep things civil.

[Ted Levy]

Never a bad time to recall this...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGkLjfPWqeI

[DMSeattle]

Maybe there’s something more than “the Jew thing” than is being discussed? Anywhere? By anyone? Even Terry Gross doesn’t get it.

I think it’s the elephant in the room that nobody sees.

[DMSeattle]

I probably should have written more to explain…

What I think is really weird is that the entire premise of the show is based on an anti-Semitic theme —- an Irishman can transform himself into a Jew and grow his law practice simply because everyone knows that Jews, especially Jewish lawyers, are tricky.

Yet while everyone gets the joke, no one actually is willing to admit the substance of it… Weirdest thing I’ve seen in a while.

My interpretation is that such a view of Jews is so deeply rooted, even among Jews, that nobody thinks anything of it...They get the joke but it doesn’t bother anyone because it’s so true to life....Jews are tricky so what’s to discuss?

[Eugene Volokh]

See, I was thinking that it was because everyone thinks Jews are smart! And, of course, smarts can be used for evil as well as good (but, more generally, smarts can be used for the benefit of one's clients). But perhaps I'm missing things ....

[apedad]

Kinda like only they can use the N-word. . . .

[Alan Vanneman]

Actually, I think Saul was originally written as Jewish--the bit surely began as a parody of the cheesy TV ads for (presumably) cheesy lawyers, who often are Jewish--but then Saul became so sleazy that the writers were embarrassed to have him be Jewish.

[DMSeattle]

So they make it even worse....validating the idea that Jews are smart and tricky...

Btw, where did you get the idea as you describe it above? “...Saul was originally...”

[Krayt]

I got that feeling, too, that it was a retread of leftover stereotypes, no longer acceptable at coctail parties, so they parodied it to have their cake and eat it too.

As social commentary, it is along the lines of Archie Bunker lite, but that is a very effective method to change minds because putting the bigotry on display in a funny manner makes people laugh then think that guy is not the right way to behave, whereas raw suppression is a preachy method that, because of that, gains few converts quickly.

[M L]

T'sall good, man.

So funny.

[Barry Sullivan]

Wait, shouldn't that be called "cultural appropriation"?