Too Gross for the 21st Century? Jewish American Cartoonist Milt Gross

Click for larger view
On February 7, at New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage, a new publication from New York University Press, “Is Diss A System? A Milt Gross Comic Reader” edited by Ari Y. Kelman, will be presented. Gross (born in 1895) of Russian Jewish ancestry, drew comic strips of wild slapstick energy, following in the violence-for-laughs tradition of “The Katzenjammer Kids.” A self-consciously low comedian, Gross drew racist images of black people and was not all that flattering about Jews either.
Gross’s defiantly insensitive gift for visual anarchy got him jobs in Hollywood writing and directing short films like “Izzy Able the Detective” (1921) and “Jitterbug Follies” (1939; see below). Gross was even reportedly hired by Charlie Chaplin to invent sight gags for the silent film “The Circus.”
#diss
Gross’s best book, “He Done Her Wrong” (1930), recently reprinted by Fantagraphics Books, consists entirely of images, sometimes startlingly vulgar ones.
“Is Diss A System?” avoids this whirling continuity of highly-colored energy and focuses instead on Gross’s use of language in individual black-and-white comic strip panels. Kelman points out that Gross’s comic characters speak with invented accents which, while owing much to Yiddish syntax, do not in fact reproduce the way any living person ever spoke. “Sotch a excitement wot is going on by you in the monnink, Mrs. Feitlebaum,” an average phrase uttered by a Gross character, corresponds to the Yiddish: “aza geruder vos geyt on bay aykh in der fri, Mrs. Feitlebaum.” Yet Gross’s characters never mix Yiddish with their English, or refer to Jewish culture or religious matters. In short, Jewish people are in no way accurately portrayed by Gross. While this is worth underlining, Kelman’s preface is elsewhere marred by errors, attributing D. W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation” to Cecil B. DeMille, spelling Eddie Cantor’s first name “Eddy,” and repeatedly spelling Al Hirschfeld’s last name “Herschfield.”
Gross’s texts seem painfully unreadable, like the once-popular writings in dialect by now-dusty humorists like Finley Peter Dunne. Dated language aside, Gross’s amazing gift for [action][3] and taste for puncturing pretensions are what keeps his artistry fresh, and these will continue to win him new fans.
Watch Milt Gross’s 1939 cartoon film ‘Jitterbug Follies’:
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture I have seen the future of America — in a pastrami sandwich in Queens
-
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
-
Opinion Gaza and Trump have left the Jewish community at war with itself — and me with a bad case of alienation
-
Fast Forward Trump administration restores student visas, but impact on pro-Palestinian protesters is unclear
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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 comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag 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.