Grace Kessler Overbeke discusses how American comedy has been strongly influenced by Yiddishkeit, specifically the sense of "laughter through tears" that is often associated with Sholem Aleichem. Starting with Aleichem's stories of "Tevye the Dairyman," this class follows motifs of Yiddish humor into the United States through the decades, examining the Marx Brothers, Fanny Brice, Woody Allen, Sarah Silverman and more to find the Yiddish roots of comedy in the United States.