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Laughing at the Absurd

Kvetching

Squeezing a grievance out of any situation

Derived from the Yiddish 'kvetshn', meaning to squeeze, kvetching describes the ability to squeeze a grievance out of any situation, however favourable. The impulse to kvetch predates Yiddish by several thousand years. In the Book of Numbers 11:4-6, the Israelites, freshly liberated from slavery in Egypt, turn to Moses with a complaint: they miss the food.

We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost. Also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!
— Numbers 11:4-6

Clips

  • Fiddler on the Roof, 'If I Were a Rich Man' (1971)

    Director: Norman Jewison.

    The 1964 film adaption of the stage musical stars Chaim Topol as Tevye, a poor milkman in Tsarist Russia trying to hold his family and his traditions together against the weight of history. Tevye directs his kvetching at God. 'If I Were a Rich Man' turns the kvetch into theology: a detailed, rhythmic, joyful articulation of everything wrong with being poor, addressed directly to the Being responsible.

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  • Seinfeld, 'Estelle Costanza' (1993-1998)

    Creators: Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld.

    The character of Estelle Costanza, performed by Estelle Harris in the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, personifies kvetching in its purest form. She does not kvetch about anything specific. Kvetching is an intrinsic part of her nature. No matter how good something is, Estelle will be able to find fault.

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  • Annie Hall (1977)

    Director: Woody Allen.

    Woody Allen is among the most influential Jewish comedian-filmmakers of the twentieth century. The film opens with Alvy Singer (Allen) addressing the camera directly, immediately establishing the kvetching architecture of a Jewish complaint: the joke, the self-awareness, the inability to stop, and the awareness of the inability to stop.

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