It was at that moment that I knew that no matter how hard I tried to be the funny, likable guy, I would never feel accepted. Never mind that there was a ten-foot Christmas tree in the cafeteria and Santa Claus decorations decking the halls. I was told that I violated the school district’s “separation of Church and State” rule. I said “Happy Hanukkah” and I was promptly relieved of my duty. I would do voices and put on sketches - it was my time to perform. By the time I became a sophomore in high school, I was the funny guy with the job of making the morning announcements. At my predominantly Baptist school, morning announcements included “Jesus is the reason for the season,” and Christian prayers were recited before every football game. ![]() on NBC.) The relief on the teacher’s face when they realized they never had to endeavor to pronounce that demanding name was all the thanks I needed. ![]() I could almost see a thought bubble over their head reading, “There’s no way this is a name! What am I looking at? Are those even letters?”īefore they attempted to say the “y” sound, I would jump in like a savior: “Call me Jerry.” (I even began to imagine that this would be the title of my sitcom. The teacher would reach my name and then freeze like a deer in the headlights but with slightly more panic. Without fail there would always be a moment … a moment of dread. At the beginning of every school year, the teachers would take attendance and get to know their new students. Why Jerry? Well, my father’s name is Gerardo and Gerry was his nickname, and also Jerry sounded like a comedian’s name. I announced to my parents that I wanted to change my name to JERRY. I switched to a different school in eighth grade and I decided that I no longer wanted to be called Yehudi. No one could hurt me if I was being funny - or so I told myself. If a bully was teasing me about my name, I could not only make him stop and laugh, but also show him that he couldn’t take me on in a verbal spar. I could take cadences and attitude from the sitcoms I watched and use them on the playground. But I had a magic trick that I could always play. There weren’t many Jews or Latinos in the school district where I grew up, so I never quite felt like I fitted in. Jews and humor went together like similes and metaphors. Maybe it’s because of all the Mel Brooks movies or Billy Crystal albums, or maybe because my synagogue had a stained glass triptych of the Marx Brothers. I always equated being Jewish with being funny. I also read comics from the funnies section of the paper, and I would draw while Young Frankenstein or Airplane played on a loop. We would rent VHS tapes and keep them for thirty days, watching them over and over again. On weekends we would see at least two movies at the theater. We kids had lots of time to watch Saturday Night Live and sitcom reruns. My sisters and I were latchkey kids due to Houston traffic, I never saw my parents at home on a weekday while the sun was up. I love comedy, and I was raised on television. I was a fat, Mexican, Jew with a unique name … I had no choice but to become funny. Growing up in Houston, Texas, I didn’t think it was. ![]() Ultimately, he realizes that his feminine name is exactly what made him so tough. 5.The Johnny Cash song “A Boy Named Sue,” written by poet-cartoonist Shel Silverstein, is about a tough guy named Sue who has vowed to track down his father and make him pay for naming him Sue. The song was originally inspired by a male friend of Silverstein’s with a somewhat feminine name-Jean Shepherd, the author of A Christmas Story. And not just the country charts-it held the #2 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks. They weren’t the only ones: "A Boy Named Sue" quickly shot to the top of the charts. Johnny wasn’t sure he could learn the lyrics fast enough, but he did-and the inmates went crazy for it. They were headed to California to record the famous live At San Quentin album. When the party was over, June encouraged Johnny to take the lyrics to “Sue” on the plane the next day. Everyone debuted a new song at the party-Dylan sang “Lay Lady Lay,” Nash did “Marrakkesh Express,” Kristofferson played “Me and Bobby McGee,” and Mitchell sang “Both Sides Now.” Silverstein, who was a songwriter in addition to an author of children’s books, debuted “A Boy Named Sue.” As you might imagine, it was a veritable who’s-who of music: Bob Dylan, Graham Nash, Joni Mitchell, Kris Kristofferson, and Shel Silverstein. In 1969, Johnny and June threw a party at their house in Hendersonville.
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