And The ‘Best Jewish Mom Award’ Goes To Amy Schumer’s Mom

Image by Getty Images

By Jenny Singer April 18, 2018

The fact that so much of Amy Schumer’s comedy graphically exploits her own sexuality will surely be the topic of countless future college theses, but not of this article. The question of Schumer’s verbally exhibitionist style, like the recent appearance the comedian made on the Ellen show to divulge truths like “What’s the craziest place you’ve ever had sex?” (answer: “My butt”) is not for us to consider. We are instead here to investigate how Schumer’s mother deals with these utterances.

On a segment of the popular talkshow called “Amy Answers Ellen’s Burning Questions,” DeGeneres prompted Schumer, “My spouse gives the best…” Schumer, recently married to chef Chris Fischer, immediately supplied an answer that cannot be printed here. The camera panned to Sandra Schumer. Like a seasoned pro, she gently shook her head, and then burst into gentle laughter, like a mom from a Windex commercial, laughing while wiping up spilled juice. When DeGeneres noted Mrs. Schumer’s presence, Schumer lightly placed her hand over her mouth, turned a delicate shade of magenta, and acknowledged that she had “heard worse.”

Kol hakavod, Sandra! All the respect. We salute Jewish mothers everywhere who let their daughters’ dreams soar even when doing so means hearing about sex acts on daytime television.

Jenny Singer is a writer for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

Jenny Singer is a freelance writer with pieces in Vox, the Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Teen Vogue, and more. She was previously a staff writer at Glamour and the Forward, and she’s currently getting an MFA in nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa.

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.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re near the end of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO