What is up with this Jewish mathematician stereotype?

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I kept bothering my friends and coworkers about this a while back but they just couldn't see the conspiracy of bad writing. What's up with the super-intelligent Jewish mathematician stereotype in movies and television, and what is the relationship to Judd Hirsch?

Jeff Goldblum plays ridiculous mathematician in Jurassic Park. He then plays a computery dude in Independence Day. The actor portraying his character's father? Judd Hirsch. Currently Judd Hirsh is on the television show "Numb3rs" where he plays the father of two sons -- one is an FBI agent, the other is a MATHEMATICIAN.

Predictable casting or bad stereotype?

― mike h. (mike h.), Thursday, 12 January 2006 23:09 (twenty years ago)

Fuck this was meant to be posted to ILE, sorry about that...

― mike h. (mike h.), Thursday, 12 January 2006 23:10 (twenty years ago)

fuckin Einstein

― senseiDancer (sexyDancer), Thursday, 12 January 2006 23:12 (twenty years ago)

Kabballer

― Mike Hunt, Thursday, 12 January 2006 23:16 (twenty years ago)

this has to be stopped before someone mistakes us for asians

― yvette yreka (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 12 January 2006 23:18 (twenty years ago)

or black guys who wear glasses

― senseiDancer (sexyDancer), Thursday, 12 January 2006 23:23 (twenty years ago)

I don't know the answer to this, but what's the deal with the goth chick on Mark Harmon's NCIS?

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Thursday, 12 January 2006 23:27 (twenty years ago)

I know! I accidentally watched half an episode last year because I was flipping through and wondered what was up with her character. I always figured it was more armed forces crap but they have "alternative" characters! What a culturally diverse military we have.

― mike h. (mike h.), Thursday, 12 January 2006 23:30 (twenty years ago)

gothic marketing

― senseiDancer (sexyDancer), Thursday, 12 January 2006 23:30 (twenty years ago)

WE BEE ADDIN'

http://www.ihr.org/webpics/pacino-shylock.jpg

― titty sanskrit (sanskrit), Thursday, 12 January 2006 23:31 (twenty years ago)

oh and to tie this together with the w1gg3r thread:

http://www.matadorrecords.com/images/mc_paul_barman/mc_paul_barman.jpg

― titty sanskrit (sanskrit), Thursday, 12 January 2006 23:33 (twenty years ago)

It's Norbert Weiner's fault. He's the archetypal mathematician:

http://www.lib.cas.cz/kalendarium/img/norbert.jpg

Freeman Dyson on Norbert Weiner

― Mike W (caek), Friday, 13 January 2006 00:06 (twenty years ago)

"Pi" to thread . . .

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Friday, 13 January 2006 00:10 (twenty years ago)

blame it on Darren Aronofsky

― J. Lamphere (WatchMeJumpStart), Friday, 13 January 2006 00:15 (twenty years ago)

You've got it all wrong...it's a jewish mathemagician stereotype.

― drshill@email.com, Friday, 13 January 2006 00:17 (twenty years ago)

thread moved from ilm to ile.

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 13 January 2006 00:32 (twenty years ago)

Perhaps the stereotype probably goes back to the Kabbalists - they were always permuting numbers.

― ratty, Friday, 13 January 2006 00:38 (twenty years ago)

Are Jews Smarter?

― tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Friday, 13 January 2006 00:41 (twenty years ago)

It's weird that we still don't know if Cantor or Lobachewski were Jewish, but apparently attempts by historians to determine this one way or the other have not succeeded in generating definitive results.

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Friday, 13 January 2006 00:43 (twenty years ago)

I suck at math. :(

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 13 January 2006 01:25 (twenty years ago)

i hate to feed the stereotype, but my one jewish friend in high school (one of the few jewish kids in my school) was the school math whiz. took calc in 10th grade or something.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Friday, 13 January 2006 01:28 (twenty years ago)

i suck at math.

― yvette yreka (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 13 January 2006 01:53 (twenty years ago)

bad jews!

― tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Friday, 13 January 2006 01:58 (twenty years ago)

i think the stereotype only applies to guys though... all jewish girls are good at is nagging and spending money.

― yvette yreka (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 13 January 2006 01:59 (twenty years ago)

I thought all mathematicians had Aspergers.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Friday, 13 January 2006 11:13 (twenty years ago)

by the way, in the distant past didn't Jeff Goldblum get the occasional person of colour role, yet now he doesn't, like he has whitened up over the years. Am I imagining this? I'm thinking back to when he was a bit part actor (i.e. pre-Fly).

― DV (dirtyvicar), Friday, 13 January 2006 11:43 (twenty years ago)

No no no you're getting him mixed up with danny glover

― LC, Friday, 13 January 2006 11:45 (twenty years ago)

I think he is meant to be kind of African American in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers".

I tend to forget JG is Jewish, it doesn't seem important. But now you mention it, he did have that comedically Jewish dad in Independence Day. Wow, a Bruckheimer film with stereotypes in it, who would have thought it.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Friday, 13 January 2006 12:48 (twenty years ago)

not a Bruckheimer film!

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 13 January 2006 12:50 (twenty years ago)

It's still shit.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Friday, 13 January 2006 13:00 (twenty years ago)

And as for Judd Hirsch's character, oy!

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Friday, 13 January 2006 13:05 (twenty years ago)

Are Jews "people of colour"? I dinna know that.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Friday, 13 January 2006 13:06 (twenty years ago)

Some of them are

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Friday, 13 January 2006 13:07 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, but Jeff Goldblum?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Friday, 13 January 2006 13:07 (twenty years ago)

Nah

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Friday, 13 January 2006 13:11 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, but Jeff Goldblum?

I'm saying I think I saw a film where he played a guy of African American extraction. But I may have been hitting the crack too hard that day.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Friday, 13 January 2006 14:05 (twenty years ago)

That would seem to me like a stretch - it's not like he's even got a Jewfro.

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Friday, 13 January 2006 14:07 (twenty years ago)

He could pass for an Arab, if required (I imagine Jeff's agent's used that line on many occasions in the last few years)

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Friday, 13 January 2006 14:08 (twenty years ago)

Oh, the ironing. But don't get me started on various Hollywood films from Laurence of Arabia where "swarthied up" actors have played "Arabs". (Sorry, for the use of the term swarthy, which I know some find offensive, but I couldn't think of a better term.)

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Friday, 13 January 2006 14:09 (twenty years ago)

He did play an alien in Earth Girls Are Easy, I guess that might count as a "person of colour".

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Friday, 13 January 2006 14:10 (twenty years ago)

Aliens do not count as persons of colour! Except in Star Trek, I guess.

Anyway, what am I talking about? You've gone and distracted me with my Jeff Goldblum crush of shame.

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Friday, 13 January 2006 14:11 (twenty years ago)

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