Passover 2011 = Social Media

I have found the best video on the internet. Here, just...watch. Oh my word.



For those who know the story of Passover (old traditions) and use a variety of social media (new traditions), this is the funniest video I have seen in a long while. I myself grew up with the story of the Exodus and Passover seders (usually on birthday, causing a quite atrocious Passover cake of the jelly roll variety) and, being a teenager, I find the mash-up of these social networking websites and a new coming of the Exodus to be a very clever way of relating old and new.

Passover is, in my opinion, a very tedious holiday. We read a very long and dryly written history of what happened when the Jewish people were forced out of Egypt, which is actually not done the least bit of justice. The story really is a very exciting one; complete with murder, water turning into blood, the parting of an entire body of water, and even some cool cracker-type things, but it isn't really something I would sit down and read on a rainy afternoon. So for people like me, as well as those who don't know the story of passover, a condensed version that is more relatable (word of the day) to topics and ideas that we are used to, is a refreshing change.

Can I add God on Skype? Does he have a webcam? What is his display picture? Maybe he is a plain Skype logo kind of guy. Who knows. All I can say is, Pharaoh never answers my wall posts. Even when I'm not asking him to let my people go. He must not use Facebook that much.

Based on my Facebook Un-friends post in March, what kind of Facebook friend do you think Pharaoh is? Does he answer your wall posts? Or does he just "like" all your statuses but never actually post any comments, like a creeper? Based on the story of Passover, I bet he is a Trigger-Happy Facebooker. The more Facebook friends he has, the more potential slaves he has, right? Makes sense to me.

But what about our old traditions? Let's not forget about those. No matter how much knowledge you have of this holiday, do you think that this video's use of modern technology to explain the story of Passover is disrespectful to the ancestors who actually trialled through these hardships? All in all, the Jewish people went through quite an expanse of hard luck in those times (to put it lightly) and even though we have a lot of good humour about it, it still is meant to be remembered as a time of strength in the face of adversity. So, is this kind of humour downplaying the actual seriousness of the events that took place?

And in every piece of media that plays down the seriousness of a situation in light of a humourous approach, is it better to learn about a terrible time in history through the use of misplaced and inappropriate humour than not to know of it at all? I think there are lines that shouldn't be crossed in using humour to bring light to serious historical situations, and sometimes those lines are too easily crossed. Maybe it all depends on our upbringing and our own personal experiences. Maybe we become less sensitive to these things as we grow older, or as new generations arrive. Maybe we become more sensitive. I want to add God on Skype. I bet he would always be online. And he could have infinity conversations at once without his computer lagging.