Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

‘Saturday Night Live’ parodies ‘Fiddler’ — and a famous Hasidic-run camera store

(JTA) — (New York Jewish Week via JTA) — “Saturday Night Live” is famously “Live from New York,” and in the latest episode the show doubled down on the promise.

In a skit on Saturday’s episode, guest host John Mulaney led the cast in a parody of Broadway musical numbers that included an homage to “Fiddler on the Roof.” Mulaney plays a newsstand operator who sings about the horrors of the New York subway system, from erratic service to sketchy passengers to, yes, the “Mole Men” who are said to live in the tunnels.

“If I were a mole man,” he sings, adding in some “yubba-dubbas” from the “Fiddler” classic, “If I Were a Rich Man. “All day long I’d drink a shoe of rum, if I were a mole per-son!”

Soon Mulaney is joined by a chorus line of Hasidic dancers, who do a credible version of the tavern scene from the show. But wait, there’s more: When someone asks, “Was that the actual cast of ‘Fiddler’?”, Mulaney replies, “No, there’s just a lunch break at B&H Photo.”

Even many New Yorkers may need a footnote here: B&H Photo is an electronics megastore in Midtown Manhattan famously owned and staffed by Satmar Hasidic Jews. It was once even slapped with a lawsuit claiming it discriminates against non-Jewish employees (the suit was dismissed).

The skit, called “Subway Churro,” went on to include parodies of “South Pacific,” “Little Shop of Horrors,” “The Music Man,” “Les Misérables” and “Dear Evan Hansen.” The “Hasidic” dancers returned for the finale — based on, what else, “Jesus Christ Superstar.”


The post ‘SNL’ parodies ‘Fiddler’ — and a famous Hasidic-run camera store appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.