Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015-2019) is a TV show centered on Rebecca Bunch, a Harvard and Yale-educated lawyer who fled her high-powered New York City life to follow her ex-boyfriend to West Covina, a distant suburb of Los Angeles. In this scene, Rebecca comes face-to-face with her lifelong enemy Audra Levine after finding out that Audra, who is also a lawyer, is representing the corporation that Rebecca’s client is suing. This parody rap uses Hebrew and Yiddish vocabulary alongside layered references to Jewish religion and culture to describe the scholastic, professional, and personal competition between the two women. In doing so, it paints a humorous but complicated portrait of the JAP, or Jewish-American Princess– a traditionally derogatory or offensive term to describe Jewish “daughters of privilege.”

discussion

What are some of the stereotypes associated with Judaism and Jewish culture that are represented in this song? How does gender connect to those stereotypes?

This song is described as a “parody rap.” What is being parodied in this song?

What is the role of race in this song? How does humor play into those racial representations? What are the different types of privilege in play in this video?

Have you heard the label “JAP” before? What do you think it means? Does it make you think of other derogatory labels applied to other identities?