Amir Blumenfeld and Jake Hurwitz are two funny dudes. Writers for CollegeHumor.com, they also have their own online viral series, “Jake & Amir.” Along with the rest of the CollegeHumor crew, they just completed their first season for MTV’s “CollegeHumor Show.”
I can tell you, because I just know these things, that these guys are the next big thing. They have Lonely Island (Andy Samberg’s crew on SNL) written all over them. Lucky for me, they were willing to sit down with me while they are still D-list celebrities. Soon though, they’ll pretend they never met me…
Jeremy: How did you guys make your way to CollegeHumor?
Amir: I started writing for them in 2003 as a college sophomore. I just emailed Ricky (co-founder of CollegeHumor) some possible article ideas. He found them funny, so he posted them on the site. A couple years later, in 2005, right when I was graduating college, CollegeHumor had some money to hire people to write CollegeHumor’s Guide to College. So, he hired myself and Streeter (of Prank Wars fame) to work full time, and we’ve been there since.
Jake: In 2005, when the book was finishing up, I started writing a column for CollegeHumor from school. Later I transferred to Hunter College here in New York, and I started interning for CollegeHumor. Then I never left.
Jeremy: You guys have some pretty Jewish sounding names. Do you have much of a Jewish background?
Amir: I come from an Israeli family. My entire family, my parents and two older brothers, were born in the same hospital, in Afula, then we moved to America when I was two. Then I went to Jewish kindergarten, Jewish elementary school, Jewish high school, all at the same temple (Stephen S. Wise in Los Angeles). We’re a Reform family. I’m not too religious. I don’t go to Temple every Saturday. I celebrate the holidays with my family. But I don’t keep kosher or anything.
Jake: My dad is Jewish, my mom is Christian.
Amir: She’s Protestant?
Jake: Uh..yeah?
Amir: You have no clue, huh?
Jake: None. Yeah, well, I went to Hebrew school and was Bar Mitzvah’d, but I also celebrated Christmas and Easter. My whole family is a mix of, well, we don’t really know what religion we are. You know when you’re watching the Super Bowl and you don’t care who wins? It’s kinda like that.
Amir: That’s how he felt when he watched The Passion of the Christ.
Jeremy: Passover just happened. Got any cool Passover stories? Go to a good Seder?
Amir: I went to my cousin’s friend’s place for Seder. He is a great chef. So he made everything look nice. I brought some Kosher for Passover dessert, which was a mistake on my part.
Jeremy: They should just call those Trans Fat Cakes.
Amir: Oh my God, they were so dry and terrible. But it was a good time. I like Passover.
Jeremy: I hate it.
Amir: Not a lot of religious stuff going on. It’s more cultural.
Jeremy: Yeah, but it’s like bad cultural stuff.
Amir: I mean, some people have like six hour seders. So that could suck. (Ed. note: My seder was more like 4 and a half. But close enough.)
Jake: My Passover was kind of thrown together. Two things can illustrate the fact. Number one, when I got to the seder, I legitimately asked if there was any bread to eat, not knowing anything. Then, I was sent out to the front yard to find a stick that looked like a bone to put on the seder plate.
Jeremy: It was a vegetarian Seder?
Jake: Nah, we had some brisket. Is that a Passover thing?
Amir: Sure. It’s a Jewish thing.
Jake: Oh! You know what was good? Chocolate covered matzah.
Jeremy: Eww. That’s just matzah with dark chocolate on top.
Jake: Exactly. Chocolate covered matzah.
Jeremy: That’s gross. You’ve been tricked.
Amir: You have been tricked. We don’t like that.
Jeremy: When I tell people I work at MyJewishLearning, they don’t automatically think it is a cool job, when actually it is. When people hear of CollegeHumor, they think it must be the best job in the world. But, I’m wondering, in what way does you job suck?
Jake: Actually, I think those people are right. We have fun all day. I don’t hate anything about my job.
Amir: I actually look forward to the week more than the weekend.
Jeremy: I mean, me too. But that’s more because I don’t have any human contact between Friday afternoon and Monday morning.
Amir: I hang out with my friends during the week and on the weekends I like to go home, do nothing and unwind. I don’t need to go out with them. We basically just went on a week long vacation. I don’t need to go to a bar with you and make the same jokes we made all week.
Jake: You’ll be drunker though.
Amir: We’re drunk at work.
Jeremy: In “Jake & Amir,” Jake, you play the straight man where Amir plays someone who defies logic in that he somehow graduated high school. Amir, what’s your favorite part about working with Jake and Jake, what’s the worst part about working with Amir?
Amir: I know that he will always be there for me and even if I annoy him, or hit him, I know that deep down inside he loves it. There’s nothing that I could ever, ever, ever, ever do that will change that.
Jake: My least favorite part about Amir is that he absolutely believes that.
Amir: If only people in real life knew that I wasn’t a complete idiot and that Jake wasn’t a ladies man.
Jake: I am a ladies man!
Jeremy: Being that this is for MyJewishLearning, I was wondering if you guys had a favorite Jewish joke.
Jake: This isn’t my favorite joke. But it’s the one Jewish joke I know. Did you hear about the Jewish car? It stops on a dime and picks it up.
Amir: I feel like that’s an anti-Semitic joke, not really a Jewish joke. Let’s just tell some Holocaust jokes and call it a week.
Jake: No, I think it’s just a playful joke. You know? Jews are cheap…haha.
Amir: That’s not playful. That’s a negative stereotype. First, he eats bread at a seder, now he thinks Jews being cheap is funny.
Jeremy: Don’t worry. I’ll just edit him out. “Interview with Amir!”
Jake: Do you have a joke Amir?
Amir: I don’t even know…
Jake: See, he doesn’t even have a joke.
Amir: Yeah, I only know anti-Semitic jokes…
Jeremy: Well, if you think of one, when I post the interview, you can write a comment or something…
Amir: I’ll email you later and we’ll pretend I said it.
Jeremy: Alright, “Do/Dump/Marry:” Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand, Sheri Lewis from Lamb Chops Play-a-long.
Jake: Dump Sherri Lewis cause she’s dead.
Amir: I’ll marry Barbra because she’s incredibly wealthy.
Jake: But so is Bette Midler.
Jeremy: Then it comes down to who is less annoying.
Amir: Right, Midler is loud. I’ll dump her. Marry Barbra. Do Sherri Lewis?
Jake: She’s a corpse.
Amir: Doesn’t matter. She’s soft!
Jeremy: Finally, Amir you sport the Woody Allen glasses. How does that help you pick up young, Asian women?
Amir: I’m currently dating an Asian girl who is 30 years younger than me.
Jeremy: You adopt her yet?
Amir: Yeah, she’s Negative 4 year old.
Jeremy: Gross.
You can catch “Jake & Amir” episodes a couple times a week on JakeandAmir.com or CollegeHumor.com.
kosher
Pronounced: KOH-sher, Origin: Hebrew, adhering to kashrut, the traditional Jewish dietary laws.
seder
Pronounced: SAY-der, Origin: Hebrew, literally “order”; usually used to describe the ceremonial meal and telling of the Passover story on the first two nights of Passover. (In Israel, Jews have a seder only on the first night of Passover.)
