Top 5 TV Bar Mitzvah Moments, Inspired By Hulu’s ‘Difficult People’

Image by Screenshot
This week, Hulu’s Difficult People starred Marilyn (the firebrand mother figure, played by Andrea Martin), throwing herself a Bat Mitzvah.
Which we found pretty inspiring.
In honor of this momentous occasion, we decided it’s time to do a wrap-up of the five best bar mitzvah moments on TV. Because, yes, in the goldeneh medinah, anything is possible – even your first time wearing a tallis gets on national television.

Image by Screenshot
“Ron the Man” (2003) Kim Possible
In this first season episode of the Disney Channel animated classic Kim Possible, Ron Stoppable (Kim’s sidekick/best friend/eventual boyfriend) has an existential crisis after he learns that his rabbi never signed his Bar Mitzvah certificate. After some hijinks involving a ring that gives Ron obscenely large muscles, Ron realizes, with help from Rabbi Katz, that you don’t need to be large and/or muscular to be a “real man.”
“Sister” (2014) New Girl
In this season three episode, proud Long Island Jew Schmidt and roommate/best friend/subpar wingman Nick crash a local Bar Mitzvah in order to win the heart of Rachel, an attractive He-brew school teacher. Unfortunately, Schmidt’s latest crush is the daughter of the rabbi, who isn’t a fan of Schmidt. While Nick and Schmidt do end up disrupting the proceedings in classic sitcom fashion, Schmidt never does get that date with Rachel.
“Gordo’s Bar Mitzvah” (2002) The Lizzie McGuire Show
Once again, Disney Channel comes in clutch with characters celebrating their journeys to Jewish adulthood. Lizzie’s friend Gordo begins questioning his manliness after his heartthrob-ier class-mate Ethan gets a dirtbike. His parents had originally given him the choice of whether to have a bar mitzvah ceremony, and after flirting with getting a tattoo, driving a car, and trying to shave (prematurely), our nerdy Gordo decides he’s going to become an adult by honoring his heritage and reading from the Torah.
“Today I Am a Clown” (2003) The Simpsons
Krusty the Clown has a less-than-traditional bar mitzvah ceremony in this episode from the fif-teenth season of The Simpsons. Notably, “Today I Am a Clown” centers on a adult Jew deciding to become bar mitzvah. After discovering that he can’t get a star on Springfield’s Jewish walk of fame because he never celebrated his bar mitzvah, Krusty (with the help of Lisa and Bart) reaches out to his father, Rabbi Krustofsky, to help him complete this rite, which ultimately ends up including Mr. T.
“Will Scarsdale Like Josh’s Shayna Punim?” (2017) Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Rachel Bloom’s musical television show is the perfect opportunity to incorporate some classic klezmer at a Bar Mitzvah ceremony. Patti LuPone guest stars as Rebecca (Bloom)’s childhood rabbi, who leads the Bar Mitzvah guests in a rousing original song, “Remember That We Suf-fered,” to make sure that no one is having too much fun.
Deborah Krieger is a curatorial assistant and freelance arts and culture writer. She has written for The Awl, Bust Magazine, PopMatters, Paste Magazine, Whitehot Magazine, and blogs at http://www.i-on-the-arts.com/.
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
Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
- 2
Fast Forward Ye debuts ‘Heil Hitler’ music video that includes a sample of a Hitler speech
- 3
News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
- 4
Fast Forward Student suspended for ‘F— the Jews’ video defends himself on antisemitic podcast
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion This week proved it: Trump’s approach to antisemitism at Columbia is horribly ineffective
-
Yiddish קאָנצערט לכּבֿוד דעם ייִדישן שרײַבער און רעדאַקטאָר באָריס סאַנדלערConcert honoring Yiddish writer and editor Boris Sandler
דער בעל־שׂימחה האָט יאָרן לאַנג געדינט ווי דער רעדאַקטאָר פֿונעם ייִדישן פֿאָרווערטס.
-
Fast Forward Trump’s new pick for surgeon general blames the Nazis for pesticides on our food
-
Fast Forward Jewish feud over Trump escalates with open letter in The New York Times
-
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.