Because the Jewish businessman would *never* give such a straight answer. He'd complain about something or brag on something.
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He's being a bit dishonest. It's funny because it's self depricating. Jews are so neurotic we'd never just say, "great."
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Since the joke is that gentiles don't get it, it's akin to the Platonic ideal in-joke. Only works if gentiles don't know how Jews are.
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Is it because jews would complain instead of saying "great"? Or is it because gentiles are not as good at business as jews?
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A Jew Wil kvetch no matter how good things are. American WASP businessmen will say "Great" even if they're going to jump out a window.
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its an implicit contrast between gentiles’ naive optimism vs unstated jewish pessimism
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gentiles miss the humor because the patter sounds like normal conversation, ie the actual answer (“great!”) matches the expected answer
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for jews, theres a marked & surprising mismatch between the given answer & the expected answer to such a question (eg “dont ask”)
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A jewish person would answer in a self deprecating way: Eg: "I can't complain", "I'm making a living" or "Could be worse", "Don't ask"
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I don't care about the joke, I just want to say that Norm MacDonald is a national treasure(Canadian)
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Two interpretations: Jew would want sympathy for bus. Not being good or wouldn't want his fellow bus. man to know true state of business
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Third interpretation : business is never good enough
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It's because the jew would be afraid to admit that things were "great", because then God/Fate would punish him by making his luck turn.
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No kvetching.
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A former Jewish friend who owned a quarter of the town told me business was so bad that if he didn't close on Sundays go broke
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