Purim will be celebrated this week, with costumes, hamantaschen, Megillah reading, and Purim shpiels. Purim has occasionally made an appearance in popular culture, including the 1960 movie Esther and the King starring Joan Collins as Esther, and The Bible Collection: Esther, a 1999 made-for-TV movie starring F. Murray Abraham as Mordecai. The most notable Purim story in a movie was For Your Consideration, the film written by Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy, which tells of three actors who are generating Oscar buzz for their performances in a “movie within the movie” called Home For Purim. But the studio decides the film is “too Jewish” and renames it Home For Thanksgiving. Purim has also been featured in what television series?
A. South Park presented a Purim episode entitled Cartmantaschen featuring Kyle, the Jewish character, as Mordecai, with Cartman (who is regularly portrayed in the series as antisemitic) playing the evil Haman. When Cartman/Haman kills Kenny (a character who was killed in almost every South Park episode) for refusing to bow down to him, Kyle/Mordecai decides that enough is enough, and that Cartman should be punished. He goes to Liane Cartman, Cartman’s mother, who plays the queen in this episode, and convinces her that Cartman should be hung on the gallows. She orders that this be done, but Cartman, like Kenny, comes back to life and returns to South Park for the next episode.
B. Sesame Street included a sketch about Purim, where Big Bird played Mordecai, Abby Cadabby played Esther, Oscar the Grouch played Haman, and Kermit the Frog played King Achashverosh. Oscar, as Haman, tried to convince King Achashverosh to throw a parade in his honor, but Esther, under urging from Mordecai, explained to Achashverosh that Haman yelled at all of the children when they asked him to share his hamantaschen. As a result, Achashverosh threw a parade honoring Mordecai and Esther instead and everyone on Sesame Street ate hamantaschen.
C. On the successor show to All in the Family, Archie has taken over Kelcy’s Bar and renamed it Archie Bunker’s Place. He is also raising his niece Stephanie, the Jewish daughter of Edith’s step-cousin. In one episode Stephanie complains to Archie that she doesn’t have any Jewish friends. Archie’s partner in the bar, Murray Klein (played by Martin Balsam) tells Archie that since it’s March, they should throw a Purim party at the bar. Archie doesn’t know what that is, but Murray starts calling his Jewish friends and relatives, and the following week, on Purim, the bar fills with Jewish people in costume. They put on a Purim skit, with Stephanie as Queen Esther, Murray as Mordecai, bar regular Barney Hefner as King Achashverosh and Archie as Haman. The play ends with everyone throwing popcorn from the bar at Archie while shaking greggars.
D. VeggieTales presented an episode titled Esther: The Girl Who Became Queen. VeggieTales was an animated video series retelling Christian Bible stories, with characters played by fruits and vegetables. In this Purim episode, Esther, a leek, and Mordecai, a grape with a Yiddish accent, overcome Haman, who is a gourd, leading to Haman’s banishment to the Island of Perpetual Tickling (the shows creators didn’t think it would be appropriate to hang Haman the gourd from a gallows as in the real Purim story).
E. In an episode of The Apprentice that never aired, host Donald Trump gave contestants the assignment of building a gallows. Trump explained to the contestants that the gallows were needed to be used against Mexicans who are “bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime.” When show producers stopped the taping and told Trump that this was not an acceptable program, he replied, “I’m just kidding. It’s not for the Mexicans. It’s for the Jews. I’m having a Purim party with my Jewish grandchildren, and I’m going to be Haman. I’ll tell my Jewish grandchildren that they will be hanged on the gallows, but don’t worry. Ivanka won’t let that happen. She’ll play Queen Esther and put me on the gallows. Even though I really think it should be Jared.”
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