Israel’s top comedy show, Eretz Nehederet (Wonderful Country), has managed to make Israelis laugh all through this war, and now that Israel is under heavy bombardment from Iran, it broadcast a show Thursday night on Channel 12 that found comedy gold and black humor in the current situation.
Host Eyal Kitzis was full of his usual befuddled energy in a broadcast that poked fun at virtually every aspect of the new and terrifying reality Israelis have been struggling with for the past week.
The show opened with a barrage – pun intended – of jokes about how punchy the news staff has gotten, with its cast doing impersonations of the channel's main anchor Yonit Levi (Alma Zack), the military affairs correspondent Nir Dvori (Lior Ashkenazi) and the Home Front Command representative Zviki Tessler beginning to lose their wits after spending dozens of hours on the air this week.
Nothing was taboo, and they even made fun of the new three-tier system of alerts, with Tessler losing patience, as he has generally somehow refrained from doing in real life, saying that by the third alert, the public had damn well better be panicking.
There were also jokes about punchy reporters and even military officials revealing exactly where missiles had just fallen, even as they warned viewers not to do what they had just done.
Politicians were mocked as always, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Marianao Edelman) appearing not to remember that there was still a war being fought in Gaza, and comparing the cancellation of his son Avner’s wedding to those who lost family members in the Iranian missile attacks, were injured, or whose homes were destroyed.
US President Donald Trump showed up, riding a missile decorated with the American flag, meant to be the one US weapon that can destroy the Iranian nuclear installation at Fordow. “Maybe I’ll bomb Fordow, maybe I won’t,” he said, as he took credit for all that Israel has accomplished so far, saying, “I did a great job, you gotta love me.”
This prompted Netanyahu to jump in and protest that he should also get some credit. Levi took over and questioned the president, trying to pin him down about the US’s intentions, and his response to every question was, “U turn!” followed by a complete reversal of what he had just said. In the end, he said he would head back to America and crash on Elon Musk’s lawn.
Omer Etzion continued his streak as one of the best Trump impersonators the world has ever seen.
Miri Regev (Yuval Semo), the transportation minister who seemingly made no provision at all for how to bring home Israelis who are traveling abroad, appeared on a jet-ski, towing five Israelis on a banana-shaped float from Cyprus.
Regev, who has been criticized for her frequent trips abroad during the war, told Israelis stuck far from home just to claim they were on a diplomatic mission and then all their expenses would be covered.
But it wasn’t only the Israeli and American leaders who were skewered. Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, alone in his bunker, asked for reassurance from ChatGPT and then sang a song to the tune of Yehudit Ravitz’s “Shabbatot and Holidays,” called “Explosions and Missiles.”
Sometimes, when a news event occurs, you just know it’s going to turn up on Eretz Nehederet, and that was the case when an Israeli missile interrupted the Iranian state broadcaster as a woman anchor was speaking earlier this week.
Portraying IRINN's hijab-clad anchor
Shani Cohen portrayed the hijab-clad anchor, who before she was rudely interrupted by a missile, showed footage from a monster movie of fire-breathing dragons attacking a city and claiming it was Tel Aviv being destroyed. As the missiles made her jump, she continued to claim that nothing had happened.
Beni Sabti (Eli Finish), Keshet’s current go-to Iranian expert, seemed elated with his sudden prominence and said that he planned to appear on Dancing with the Stars, and also that he had made a shampoo commercial.
And, of course, the show depicted a neighborhood bomb shelter that brought together all different types, like the couple who couldn’t stop talking about horrifying news reports in a loud voice and a mother who tried to stop her children from listening.
But the bomb shelter on Eretz Nehederet had a surprise guest from abroad: Caitlyn Jenner (also portrayed by Etzion), who came to Tel Aviv to attend Pride Month events and is still stuck there. Drinking a glass of wine and broadcasting on social media, the Olympic decathlon gold-medal winner was the only one who could open the shelter’s heavy door at the end of the missile attack.
That might have been a nice way to end the show, but Kitzis generally wraps up by saying some version of, “Despite everything, we still have a wonderful country.”
He seemed about to launch into the line, but instead the screen showed video from the deserted Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, to highlight the plight of those still held by Hamas in Gaza. It was a meaningful ending to a show that helped Israel get through one of the most difficult weeks in its history.
Even the Iranians seemed to understand how important a little laughter can be and refrained from firing missiles during the show.