Loyal TanakhCast listeners have asked: “Say, hey where did you get that clip of William Shatner…”

Or: “Say, hey, what’s that song that marks the transition between the recap bit and the chatty bit?”

Thus, I have decided to provide a list of “credits” and source all the little clips and snippets from the wonderful world of the Interwebs.

The list begins with the song that marks the transition between the recap bit and the chatty bit or the transition between the chatty bit and the closing bit:

“Alfie” by Lili Allen from her debut studio album, Alright, Still.  It can be purchased from iTunes here..

The “Y’all come back now, ya hear” at the end of each broadcast comes from the closing credits of “The Beverley Hillbillies” which can be heard at the end of the episode here.

Episode 1 did not have any samples.

Episode 2:

“Twinkle Twinkle” on the xylophone came from here.

Chekov says “This is Vodka” here.

Luis Esquivel’s “Mucha Muchacha” from the album Cabaret Manana can be purchased from iTunes here.

“Silly Rabbit, Trix are for Kids” came from a collection of Trix commercials here.

Episode 3:

“Let’s Get Ready to Rumble” by Craziewhite Peckawoods can be purchased from iTunes here.

Mitt Romney says “Corporations are people my friend” here.

Dana Carvey as “Saturday Night Live”‘s Church Lady says “Isn’t that special?” here.

“I Believe” sung by Andrew Rannells from the Book of Mormon soundtrack can be purchased from iTunes here.

William Shatner saying “Spock, are you out of your mind?” was here, but has since been taken down by CBS.  :(

The “Whatchu talkin’ bout Willis?” compilation from “Diff’rent Strokes” came from here.

The “Gilligan’s Island” theme came from here.

Bart Simpson says “Noah, save us!  …NO!!” in Season 3 Episode 6  entitled “Like Father, Like Clown” here.

Episode 4:

The French taunting comes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail here.

Peabody and Sherman head back into “Peabody’s Improbable History” here.

Nigel wonders “What’s wrong with being sexy?” from This is Spinal Tap here.

The London Fanfare Trumpets play their flourish here.

Jeff Spicoli says “You Dick!” to Mr. Hand in Fast Times at Ridgemont High here.

W.C. Fields observes “What a catastrophe!” in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break here.

Episode 5:

Biff says “Why don’t you make like a tree and get outta here” to McFly in Back to the Future here.

The theme song from “The Jetsons” came from here.

The “All Time Best Heroic Song” came from here.

Ali G says “Booyakasha!” here.

“Nudge Nudge” from the third Monty Python’s Flying Circus episode “How to Recognise Different Types of Trees From Quite a Long Way Away” came from here.

Heather Locklear says “And so on and so on and so on” in the Faberge Organics Shampoo commercial here.

Charlton Heston says “The Lord of Hosts will do battle for us!  Behold his mighty hand!” in a clip from Cecille B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments here.

Episode 6:

“The Haggle” comes from Monty Python’s The Life of Brian here.

Arnold Schwarzenegger needs clothes and offers assistance in clips from Terminator 2: Judgment Day here.

The medical disclaimer from a 2012 Cialis commercial can be heeded here.

“You Bastard!” as exclaimed by John Cleese in “The Restaurant Sketch” from the third Monty Python’s Flying Circus episode, “How to Recognise Different Types of Trees From Quite a Long Way Away” can be enjoyed here.

Mitt Romney reasserts that “Corporations are people my friend” here.

Butters sings “What What in the Butt” in Season 12, Episode 4 of South Park entitled ‘Canada on Strike’ here.

Episode 7: (…which will be go live tomorrow! Spoilers!!)

The rebooted McCoy says “Spock, are you out of your vulcan mind?” here.

Charlton Heston declares his legendary line from Planet of the Apes here.

Jeff Spicoli says “You Dick!” to Mr. Hand in Fast Times at Ridgemont High again here.

Law and Order’s “dun dun” came from here.

Jabba the Hut’s laugh from Return of the Jedi came from here.

Leonard Nimoy sings “The Legend of Bilbo Baggins” here.

Now that the hamatanshen crumbs have settled (and are soon to be vacuumed up in preparation for Pessach), a little reflection on what Jessica Williams at the Daily Show touted as “the tenth most important Jewish holiday”.

So synagogue brotherhoods and sisterhoods and Jewish flagship organizations all across North America, trying to galvanize the laity through harnessing the excitement and energy of the interwebs (and, hopefully, some engagement from the kids in the process), produced festive parody clips in advance of Purim.

Those wacky kids at Ein Prat Institute were also at it again – or was the clip from 2011?  (Which prompted me to wonder anew: Do these folks ever go to class?  Or are all their lectures delivered in the desert while they wear a wide range of costumes?   This Academy for Leadership seems to be incubating a curious cohort of future Jewish leaders… perhaps I might get some clarification on this from their advisors Mr. Shorofsky and Ms. Sherwood.)

Some of the clips were slickly produced, many less so.   Many even less so than that.  Ick.

Gevalt.

But what was most intriguing about this experience was not the lameness of many of the clips (and many were really lame, did I mention that?), but how quickly memes flare up and burn out.  (Not really a new idea, y’all, but particularly poignant in this context…)

While the various brotherhoods and sisterhoods met to plan out the video, thinking themselves hip for appropriating various internet memes, they failed to understand that by the time they uploaded the finished product, the referrents upon which they built their clips would already be stale and passe.

As part of the Purim festivities where I teach, we screened some examples for the kids.  When the overfamiliar chords of “Gangnam Style” kicked in in the middle of a clip parodying Maroon 5′s “Moves Like Jagger”, children between the ages of 9 to 12 groaned with world-weariness.  Really?  This?  Again?  Have we not seen this before and better almost a billion times?

(…Which is why, BTW, I have not even considered the possibility of writing a second book.  By the time any of the ideas put to paper would make it to the hands of readers, it would be on the verge of staleness, if not already crusted over.)

The ubiquity of memes breeds contempt – and it breeds it quick.

The internet is all about speed.  Jewish institutions (like synagogues, Federations, etc.) are all about not-speed.

Hence, these two entities, by their very natures, do not play well together.

Sigh.  On to the next one.

So despite protestations that the internet is destroying families and leading erlikhe yidden into the very pit of despair and all that, many folks were live tweeting the Asifa from Citifield last night … and it was not too long before the yiddishe kopf was busy at work coming up with tweet-cracks about the Asifa, including one from book-blurbster and all-around social media doyenne Esther K.

But what really kills me is that the linked-to YouTube clip of “40K Jews, Internet Asifa ASIFA KINUS ICHUD HAKEHILLOS” was taken down because … drum roll please:

If you do not believe me, follow this link.

“Hate Speech”?!  As in footage of Rebbe’im yelling “We HATE THE INTERNET!!!” in English and Yiddish?  YouTube really must have a weak stomach for criticism.  Yeesh.

Incidentally, here’s a piece by Adrianna Jeffries who pulled a Yentl to cover the event dressed as a man.  Papa, can you tweet me?  (I could not resist that one…  Sorry.)

A quick anecdote by way of introduction.

I am currently teaching some of the more riveting bits of VaYikra (Leviticus), particularly the ins-and-outs (or more like “ins”) of the sacrificial process… which animal, which internal organs, which blood, which fats, etc etc ad nauseam.

So…  in the opening of Chapter 1 of End Of The Jews, I allude to a YouTube video about the Korban Pessah, or Passover Sacrifice.  In ten not-that-bloody minutes, one gets a quick overview of the process from lamb grizzle to sizzle.

And… as a student had asked to actually see what was involved in offering a korban, I decided to screen that YouTube clip for my students.  After all, it’s Hanukkah!

So… I fired up the ol’ interwebs, typed in “korban” in Hebrew in the YouTube search window  and, as I had written in the book, expected that 10 minute clip to be the first hit.

But it was not the first, nor the tenth nor the thirtieth hit.  It was gone.  Removed.

And why, you may ask, would its creators, the fine, dedicated men of the Third Temple Institute, remove it from the site?

Well… it seems they did not remove it.

It seems that someone else did.  Or, more to the point, someone flagged it as inappropriate and the fine, dedicated folks at YouTube took the clip down.

And… here’s the rub, the “404″ message informing would-be korban aficionados (or, in my case, a group of very disappointed junior high students) of the clip’s absence did not simply flag the content as “inappropriate”.    The clip was removed as it violated YouTube’s policy on…

Yep, that’s right.   Shocking and disgusting content.

Mulling over what YouTube users (and by extension, YouTube) considers shocking and disgusting about the nature of animal sacrifice, I considered what other kind of content might be remove-able if flagged by users.  What could I achieve with this new-found power?  Could I get Rebecca Black’s execrable Friday clip taken down because, as content, I was concerned that it  just sucked too hard?   Could I apply the same standard to Rick Perry’s Strong clip and get that flagged too?

A quick click later, I discovered that YouTube does take into account many, many concerns users might have about content … Unfortunately, just sucking too hard was not one of them.   However, I could flag content that is sexual, as in (a) graphically sexual, or (b) just too nudie, or (c) too suggestive without nudity, or (d) (my personal favourite) “other”.

Or I could flag clips whose content I deem violent, as in (e) adults fighting, or (f) youth fighting, or (g) animals fighting, or (h) terrorists fighting.

Or I might express concern about content that is hateful and (i) promotes hatred or violence, or (j) abuses vulnerable individuals, or (k) bullies.

Or I could kvetch about content that is harmful and dangerous which may portray folks  (l) playing with drugs, or (m) playing with fire or fireworks, or (n) (my second personal favourite) “other dangerous acts”.

Then, of course, there is (o) SPAM (which some folks object to for reasons of kashrut or culinary snobbery), or (p) content promoting child abuse.

However, the last category was truly my favourite:  I am empowered to flag content which “infringes on my rights”.  Which rights, you say?  Dare I say Speech?  Religion? or Bad Lipsynching?  No, sir or madam!  YouTube will act and act swiftly to protect my right to (q) privacy, or (r) copyright or (s) (wait for it) any “other legal claim”.

Thank goodness YouTube is looking out for me and my rights!  Amen selah!

FOUR LEGS GOOD

If you click back to the previous post on the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption’s well-planned and well-argued campaign to woo Israelis back to Israel, you will discover the “Christmas” clip is… GONE.

Big thanks to Winston Smith for his diligent effort on this matter!