Comedy Writer Rob Kutner Packs 5,000 Years of Jewish History Into a Fast, Funny New Book

Award-winning comedy writer Rob Kutner has taken on an enormous challenge: turning 5,000 years of Jewish history into something readers can actually laugh through. His new book, The Jews: 5,000 Years and Counting, released in March by the Jewish imprint Wicked Son, aims to cover everything from biblical beginnings to modern-day turmoil with a voice that is sharp, irreverent and still deeply informed.

Kutner, known for his work on The Daily Show and Conan, says this project was a way to channel the Jewish history he has absorbed throughout his life into something engaging and accessible. Speaking from his home in Los Angeles, the 53-year-old author explained that it feels especially important now to present a factual and balanced version of Jewish history that also invites readers in with humor.

The book opens at the very beginning — literally — with the stories of Genesis retold through playful first-person perspectives. Kutner gives voice to the serpent in Eden, Noah’s wife Naamah, who nicknames the ark The Wooden Box of Stank, and Abraham and Sarah, whom he imagines in a family therapy session. He says the goal was to break up the familiar stories and make them more engaging, especially because so many readers already know the biblical material well.

From there, Kutner moves through the major eras of Jewish history. He paints King David as a full-on “rock star,” reimagines the Maccabees trying to market the holiday of Hanukkah, and even includes a set of Talmud-sage trading cards, which he says tend to appeal especially to young readers. His approach, he notes, is intentionally a little “dangerous” for kids — enough to keep them hooked — while still maintaining a warm and welcoming tone for all readers, including non-Jews or allies interested in learning more.

As the timeline reaches the modern era, the book doesn’t shy away from darker chapters. Kutner’s section on the brutal Russian pogroms carries the tongue-in-cheek subtitle “It Takes a Village.” He imagines a sequel to Fiddler on the Roof where the iconic song Tradition becomes Expulsion and jokes that the early Zionist settlers who returned to the Holy Land in the 1800s were “the worst colonizers ever.” That line, he says, reflects his own unapologetic Zionism, shaped by a childhood in Atlanta and years of Jewish learning.

Kutner grew up in a Reform household but attended a K–12 Christian school, an experience he says strengthened his Jewish identity. He was active in Hillel at college, studied for a year in Israel at a yeshiva and at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, and today describes himself as “Conservadox.” Comedy, meanwhile, began at home. His grandfather was “a nonstop jokester,” and both of his parents were funny — his father, an ophthalmologist, was known for cracking inappropriate jokes.

Professionally, Kutner has written for major TV and animation projects, including Teen Titans Go!, Ben 10, and Angry Birds: Summer Madness, and has contributed to the Oscars, the Emmys, and two White House Correspondents’ Dinners. His earlier books include Apocalypse How and The Future According to Me.

The book concludes with the present day, including the Oct. 7 attack in Israel and the worldwide wave of antisemitism that followed. Kutner ends with an uneasy “Who knows?” when considering the future of Jews in America — a deliberately ambiguous warning not to grow too comfortable.

Kutner will be appearing as part of a national book tour: Dec. 1 at Congregation Beth Israel in Berkeley and Dec. 2 at the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, where he will speak onstage with CEO Zack Bodner. Event details are available at the Oshman Family JCC website.