Given their prominence in show business, is it possible there’s a connection between Jews and comedy? The answer is: What are you, meshuga?

The Jewish sensibility seems part of comedy’s DNA, or maybe it’s comedy that’s got Jewish DNA. In America, the influence is unmistakable; in the 1970’s, it was estimated that Jews made up about 3% of the U.S. population... and 80% of professional comedians. But why? Some say it’s due to Jewish history, though that history is hardly the stuff of merry-making. But comedy is one of the best ways to deal with tragedy; Nobel Prize-winning novelist Saul Bellow said “Oppressed people tend to be witty.”

Join comedy legend David Misch (“Mork and Mindy,” “Saturday Night Live,” “The Muppets Take Manhattan,” “Funny: The Book”) for a multimedia talk described by The Jewish Journal as “Insightful and hilarious.”

Although eternal outsiders (Groucho: “I would never be a member of any club that would have me as a member”), Jews have flourished in America beyond the wildest dreams of their immigrant forebears, and that goes double for entertainers. (Few people know that the word “humor” is itself Jewish; it used to be “humoroscowitz” but it was shortened at Ellis Island.)

David Misch, your tour guide through this merry minefield, is the author of “Funny: The Book” and has spoken at Yale, Columbia, Oxford, 92Y, the Skirball Cultural Center (L.A.), the Smithsonian, Grammy Museum, Midwest Popular Culture Association, CineStudio Paris, University of Sydney, VIEW Cinema Conference (Torino, Italy), as well as dozens of JCCs and lifelong learning programs around the country.