Time to give credit where credit is due and call the ridiculous "You Don't Mess With the Zohan" a cult classic.














Adam Sandler's "You Don't Mess With the Zohan" is one of the strangest mainstream movies ever greenlit by Hollywood. It also, I think, should be known as a cult classic. Sandler plays an Israeli Special Forces Soldier that decides to fakes his own death so he can start a new life in New York as, wait for it, a hair stylist. 

Oddly enough, the whole thing does make you chuckle. It's absurdist cinema, using racially insensitive humor, the Israel/Palestinian situation and New York for giggles. My favorite scene is the Israeli guy selling a phone where you press a button and get free HBO, that same scene features a line that most Israelis, or Jews in general, might chuckle at: "Once you start in an electronics store, you never get out." Israelis and electronic stores go hand in hand. It's the national past time. 

















All kidding aside here are a few other memorable bits that have been noted down:

  1. Adam Sandler catches a fish in his butt. Part of Mossad training I supposed?
  2. John Turturro fistfights a fire. Spiritual wicka battle? Who knows, it's hilarious.
  3. Rob Schneider once again plays another ethnicity. This time a Palestinian whose goat Sandler stole back in the middle east. NEVER steal a man's goat over there.
  4. Sandler puts out a fire with hummus. In fact, Hummus is used for practically every possible situation including as a substitute for toothpaste.
  5. It features a jet ski action scene that is as ludicrous as Point Break's sky-diving shootout.
  6. Dave Matthews tries to blow up puppies. Just don't ask.
  7. Lots of elderly women get pleasured. I mean, like, a lot. 
  8. Disco Disco! An Israeli way to say "Hey, let's go clubbing"?
  9. Fizzy Bubbly! The fictional drink that is, by all accounts, a mockery of Israel's unadorned love for Fanta soft drink.
  10. There is an Israeli staffed electronics store named "going out of business."
  11. It is occasionally really funny.

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