23 totally accurate and sane Jewish pop culture predictions for 2023 By PJ Grisar
|
This week, we're reviewing the best (and worst) that 2022 had to offer, and anticipating the joys of 2023. Today: The pop culture predictions we feel pretty sure will definitely happen. |
The Jews were trending in 2022 in a way few could have predicted — but, I have to say, I came kinda close. At the end of 2021, I guessed that in the new year, Adam Sandler would start a “shlubleisure” line. That may not have happened, but at least Jerry Seinfeld became a fashion model. OK, sure, Steven Spielberg didn’t adapt the train-set-based musical Starlight Express, but there’s no denying the significance of model trains in The Fabelmans. And while Kanye West did not, as I imagined he might, release a diss track of Leonard Cohen, he sorta dropped a (highly hateful, very bigoted) diss track on the entire Jewish people when he threatened to go “death con 3” on us. And so I enter this year’s prediction business somewhat scared of my own powers. As I light latke-scented menorahs, parse the gematria of the opening lines of Leon Uris’ Exodus and play Debbie Friedman records at half speed, I will, as always, strive for accuracy, but also take care not to predict anything too egregious. Here are 23 definitely accurate predictions for 2023. Eight of our favorites are below. Read the full list here. |
|
|
Comedian Gary Gulman and Google co-founder Larry Page launch a Twitter competitor called Kvetch. The first Kvetch, sent from Gulman to Page, bemoans the beta’s user interface. |
| Paul Simon starts work on Graceland 2: The Return. He abandons it when he learns it’s no longer controversial to travel to South Africa. |
|
|
Following the success of Hanukkah on Rye, Hallmark announces plans for more Jewish holiday fare: Smooches in the Sukkah and Talk to You on Tisha B’Av. The Anti-Defamation League raves that these titles are “bizarre, misguided but not outwardly antisemitic.” |
| Months after announcing his shocking conversion to Catholicism, French Jewish comic Gad Elmaleh leaves the faith. When pressed, he said he missed adafina, found communion wafers bland and was misled into thinking conversion meant his own Pope hat. |
|
|
Kvetch is discovered by antisemites, who, in their eagerness to “troll the chosen” make it the third-most downloaded app on iTunes. Posing as Jews with names like “Sheldon Shekelstein,” many find themselves slowly charmed by the humor of actual Jews on the platform. The tide turns when Gab founder Andrew Torba, hiding behind an account called “Heeby Menorahberg,” makes and posts a picture of a challah recipe from Molly Yeh. |
| Taking their cue from Tumblr’s elaborate meme of the never-made Martin Scorsese crime film Goncharov, cinephiles on Letterboxd plant a false memory of a bogus 1986 Coen Brothers film, Hecky Plotz, about a shmatta factory worker (John Turturro) in the 1920s who becomes the fall guy for the Teapot Dome scandal. Also featured are John Goodman as Warren G. Harding and Frances McDormand as a narcoleptic flapper named Mabel Marfhan. |
|
|
Leaked production photos for the second season of Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal hint that the comedian-auteur has reconstructed the Temple Mount in a Bushwick, Brooklyn, warehouse as part of a dry-run for peace talks. |
| The Haim sisters reveal that there are also three Haim brothers, Ezra, Elan and Duvid. They have no musical ability to speak of, but play Magic: The Gathering competitively. |
|
|
Support Independent Jewish Journalism The Forward is a non-profit 501(c)3 so our journalism depends on support from readers like you. You can support our work today by donating or subscribing. All donations are tax-deductible to the full extent of US law. Make a donation ➤ Subscribe to Forward.com ➤ "America’s most prominent Jewish newspaper" — The New York Times, 2021 |
|
|
|
