Roi Bar Natan in the role of Miriam Feinberg, "Wonderful Land"/Kshet 12
It is seldom pleasant for a man to sit and watch another while enjoying one of his hobbies.
None of us are waiting for an invitation to sit and look at the stamp collection of the neighbor from the next apartment.
Just like no one really wants to see the plaster sculptures that her aunt made in class at the neighborhood community center. However, it seems that there isn't a person with a healthy sense of humor who doesn't enjoy watching Roi Bar Natan frolic with his favorite hobby: doing imitations of older women in "Wonderful country".
Ever since his days in the Domino group when he became famous with the mythological character of Masha, Bar Natan managed to recreate himself in strong, smart and above all - laughable female characters. To distinguish from his genius imitations of Yair Netanyahu, Tsadi Zrafati and of course Gidi Gov - his female characters , even those based on real women, are not necessarily based on his ability to imitate, but on the perfection of marginal elements in the character (remember "Shema?" in imitation of Gali Atari?) that actually create a character that stands on its own. This happened with the character of Shush Polyakov Two weeks ago, and it happened again yesterday with the perfect impersonation of "Le Mayor de Netanya", Miriam Fierberg.
At one point I was laughing so hard at Fierberg's impersonation that I was afraid the neighbors would knock on the door to check if everything was okay. To Bar Natan's credit, it doesn't seem like he's asking to downsize the object of his imitation and to mock her, but on the contrary. He seeks to celebrate her. That is why the very choice of him to play a woman is an act of Monty Pythonesque mischief in nature - to contrast, for example, with the mocking (and rightly so) imitation of Miri Regev by Yuval Samo.
A hybrid of Sasha Baron Cohen and Nathan Fielder.
Tamir Bar, "Wonderful Land"/screenshot, Keshet 12
I would be happy to go on and on about how I howled with laughter in front of the screen from the little nuances that Natan gives to his female characters.
I also have quite a few compliments to shower on Tamir Bar, who is turning before our eyes into a kind of hybrid of Sacha Baron Cohen and Nathan Fielder - but this week too, reality penetrated the air-conditioned studio of Kitzis and friends and managed to ruin the whole business.
It started when Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the one whose followers were so offended when the program featured him telling a cute little boy the story of "Little Red Riding Hood", while he explained in a perfect parable that killing the wolf is more important than saving the girl and her Grandmaster.
Oh, how many on the right were fired up over this skit!
And here it is, a few months later, and Bezalel decides to say outright that returning the abductees is not the most important thing to him.
By the way, there are many who agree with him and claim that this is a legitimate opinion - so why the holy outrage over the wonderful imitation of Gia Baer Gurevich, who in all places a mirror in front of the celebrated public representative?
Reality continued to knock the fun with a whole week of heated network debates about the skit that opened the previous program of "Wonderful Land", with the knocking on the door of the casualty officers who accidentally arrive at the home of the fearful ultra-Orthodox who came to recruit him.
To me, this was one of the most powerful satirical moments of "Wonderland" ever, on a par with Shawley's "Civil War" - and for the same reason, because it touched a bare nerve.
Really we are all repressing.
This is probably also why he pissed off so many people.
Nobody said satire had to be pleasant to watch.
And now a week has passed and the show opened with a populist skit about reservists being fired from their jobs.
Perhaps few will turn their noses up at the fact that the punching bag of the sketch is the businesses that are forced to lay off workers (not only those who were in the reserves), instead of the state that does not support them while they collapse.
But no one will be upset, even though the skit depicts a reality no less boiling than the evasion of the ultra-orthodox sector from the IDF, simply because laughing at secularists is fine. No one will shout "racism" or say that dealing with layoffs and economic hardship is a wound that should not be touched during wartime. This is the repair that Eretz had to pay, after all a commercial channel in a crazy reality.
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This time no one will be upset.
From the opening skit of "Wonderful Land"/screenshot, Keshet 12
But the moment that boiled me, as usual it should be noted, came precisely when Shahar Hason appeared on the screen.
The truth is, if I hadn't committed to writing a review of the show I would have just turned off the TV right now.
I'll mention on a side note that Shahar Hasson is one of my favorite stand-up artists.
Not in Israel, in the world.
I saw him perform in the last two decades in several shows, and I was privileged to see him grow from a rather niche (and laugh-out-loud) comedian to one of the smartest and most popular voices in Israel.
Not that he needs my compliments, those who try to purchase tickets to his show will have to order a few months in advance, in light of the crazy demand for tickets to the show of someone who is already a serious candidate for the title of the GOAT of Israeli stand-up.
And yet, when he appears in "Aretz Terahed" in the character of Itamar Ben Gabir, he brings me the section.
Next to Benjamin Netanyahu's poor character in the show, Hasson's Ben Gvir is the biggest sin that "Eretz" brings to the screen.
She sins against her own brand, she sins against the viewers and above all she sins against the truth.
Humor, remember, cannot be based on a lie.
Itamar Ben Gvir is not the funny pitah singer of "Aretz Fahadal".
He is not the lovable jerk of Shahar Hason who jumps in the studio and calls Kitsis "Ditsis" and uses the word "my friend" in an infantile way.
Itamar Ben Gvir is not an evil clown who is obsessed with thoughts of the war of Gog and Magog, he is a dangerous person who sits in a critical government office at a time when yes, he is obsessed with thoughts of the war of Gog and Magog.
And yes, there is a difference.
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The biggest sin of "Great Country".
Shahar Hason in the role of Itamar Ben Gabir/screenshot, Keshet 12
Reminder: If Moli Segev, David Lifshitz and the other writers of "Artez" want to mark someone as dangerous, they know how to do it.
Ask Avigdor Lieberman.
When they want to tear someone apart and expose him naked, they know how to do it.
Ask Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid.
When they just want to make fun of someone because it's easy to make fun of them, they know how to do it - ask Aliko.
So why exactly is Ben Gabir, who is more dangerous than all these names combined, being imitated in such a clownish and self-indulgent way?
Mariano's imitation of Benjamin Netanyahu was born at a time when Netanyahu was a cynical politician from the opposition, and therefore his derisive character remained so even when over the years he became the prime minister with the longest mileage in the country's history, as well as the number of failures recorded in his name.
On the other hand, the imitation of Ben Gabir cannot win this protection.
From the first time he appeared on the Kitsis panel, he was already a dangerous man who was presented as a particularly lovable and harmless clown.
Much has been said about the normalization of Ben Gabir in the news studios, but his normalization in "Aretz Fehadal" is no less severe.
This is of course not the fault of Shahar Hasson (whom I personally believe that Beskhet has not yet scratched a percentage of his talent) but of the writers, who continue to insist and treat Ben Gabir as an extreme mischievous man who has gotten some power into his hands.
Except for one moment, when Ben Gabvir performed a homage to "Springtime for Hitler" by Mel Brooks, it seems that Israel fell a little in love with Ben Gabvir's childish aspects, perhaps because it is easier than dealing with the reality that such a dangerous person sits in the political-security cabinet.
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When they want to, they know how to mock.
Roi Bar Natan Kaiair Netanyahu, "A wonderful country"/screenshot, Keshet 12
Netanyahu himself was presented yesterday at the Kitzis panel as the holder of the Prime Minister's portfolio in the first Ben Gabvir government.
It would be funny if it wasn't a sentence that has already been written in dozens of commentary columns (including Ham's), simply because it's the reality. It would be funny if it wasn't the scariest thing that happened to our country alongside the arming of Hezbollah and Hamas. Some would argue that it's even more. Oh, here I can already hear the messianic sigh that is going to flow into the comments. This is how it is in the binary world of Ben Gabirists. The people who are trying to set the Middle East on fire even now.
Ben Gabir's character in "A Wonderful Country" shoots fireworks from her ass when she hears about the possibility of a great war -Scene. It's presented as a comedy for a reason. A famous Steve Allen saying holds that comedy is tragedy plus time. The funny sides of Ben Gabir's personality, if there are any, maybe we can laugh about in the future when his threat to our country is not so tangible. Right now , watching Shahar Hasson doing the Moki version of Ben Gabir in the studio is about as funny as laughing at the horrors of October 7. It's too soon. It's too close. It's too scary. And maybe there are tragedies that don't become funny with time, but just become more painful.
More on the same topic:
Wonderful Country
Shahar Hassan
Itamar Ben Gvir
TV review