August 1, 2025 • 9 mins
Humorist and film producer, author Sal Litvak joins us to discuss the Sydney Sweeny "controversy" and what the Left doesn't get about sex-appeal and great marketing. Plus, the state of comedy today and how it reflects cultural attitudes.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
All right, Welcome back to America Today.
Yeah, we need, we need a little relief here.
Let's, let's move off to seriousstuff.
Guy that we've had on before. He's real funny.
Salvador Litvik. He's a humorist, author of Let
My People Laugh Greater, Greatest Jewish jokes of All
Times, and the director of the action film Guns and Moses, Last
time we talked to you, I think. Where are you at with that that
(00:31):
film? It's out in theaters right now,
and we have an imminent announcement that we're going to
be in a lot more in September. We're very excited.
The movie's doing great. And by the way, if I didn't
mention it, Salvador Litvik and he joins us here on America
Today. Let's talk about what's your
perspective about this, this whatever reason it's highly
(00:52):
controversial with Sidney Sweeney, I don't even know who
she was a week ago. And then the jeans commercial.
What's your take on all that? Why are people going nuts?
So it's highly controversial that a beautiful woman is
selling clothes to the American public.
The the state of America in 2025.
You know, American Eagle who launched this campaign?
(01:14):
If if you know, first of all, I give him credit that they stood
by their guns. They didn't issue the groveling
apology when they're called up by the left because they dared
to put a thin, voluptuous, beautiful, blonde haired, blue
eyed white skin women in jeans in their ads.
And then when they were called Nazis for doing that, they
(01:34):
didn't back down. Now if they predicted that this
was going to happen, that they were going to trigger the left
with this ad, then I give them all the credit in the world.
It's a brilliant campaign. You didn't hear about her
before. I never really thought about
American Eagle Jeans before and now they're everywhere.
Brilliant campaign. It's the exact opposite of what
(01:54):
Bud Light did with the trans woman or the trans guy.
Yes, exactly opposite, which shows you where America's head
is at, right? I mean, when we're not buying
what they're selling on the leftcoast.
And and as as a Jewish person, once you love it when people say
that as a Jewish person, becauseyou obviously go by a completely
(02:17):
set of rules other than everybody else, right.
So what was when people evoke Nazi stuff, how does that make
you feel? I mean, these days they'll drop
that term at the at the drop of a hat.
Anyone's a Nazi that disagrees with the left, right?
So I mean, what Nazis actually were, were genocidal, homicidal
(02:38):
maniacs who were totally normal people before that war began,
probably with some latent Jew hatred.
But they were, you know, they went to work, they went to jobs,
they had, you know, houses and cars.
They were seemingly normal people.
And then there was just the the the mass delusion of a crowd
following Hitler. And then they murdered 6,000,000
(03:01):
members of my family. And you know, when you going to
equate things that are going on today that you don't agree with,
that you politically don't agreewith, even when there's terrible
tragedies and people die, it's nothing like when 6 million
people are murdered. I mean, that's just an
unimaginable number. So yeah, I really resent when
(03:23):
they they drop the Nazi term so loose loosely.
Let's just remember what that was so that we could never have
that again in the world. And you know, if you ask me, I
think that the many of the, the behaviors that we're seeing
coming from the left, how they're, they will, they
completely followed whatever thegovernment told them what to do,
even though it didn't make any scientific sense.
(03:43):
I'm talking of course, about COVID and how they agree.
And in a lot of countries, they just they, they acquiesce to
whatever the government or whatever their institutions told
them what to do. That seems more like what people
in Germany did then, you know, right.
I mean, you know, people just did what Hitler said, OK,
because they've been so beaten down by the Weimer Republic and
(04:04):
all this stuff. I mean, their country was in
shambles. And people just got, I don't
know, they just like got in lineand said, OK, we're, we're
broken. So we'll let these guys lead us.
That's amazing to me, that to me, the most interesting aspect
is how normal people could turn the other way.
And they do it today with the, oh, for example, MAGA
(04:25):
Republicans. I mean, in many ways, MAGA
Republicans are viewed just likethe Germans viewed the Jews.
Am I? Am I getting this wrong?
I, I, I mean, what they resent right now is anybody who can
think for himself, right? And anybody who's going to get
their news by looking at multiple news sources and
triangulating the truth and figuring that there's bias
everywhere. So what's really going on?
(04:47):
I can only figure it out by reading multiple sources.
That's something they're very afraid of because for so long
they had the, the, you know, the, the, the, the Democrat
media arm, right, which is the whole mainstream media.
And they all have the same talking points.
Like, have you seen those videoswhere they have somebody on the
news, you know, issuing today's talking points, and then they
(05:07):
start adding frames of other news channels, other cities and
other networks, and they're all saying exactly the same words?
And we're just expected to consume that uncritically.
And people got sick of it. You know, I think people got
smart and they got wise to what was going on and they stopped
listening to the media handlers,you know?
(05:29):
Yeah, I know. It's, I'm hoping this this
period of whatever we're going through in America will go hurry
up and finish so we can get backto being normal.
And you're a humorist. So where can we find your
writings? I know you've got some books
out. What drives you?
I mean, what you you decided to become a humorist?
Why? Why I?
It was, you know, it's accidental.
(05:50):
I didn't mean to be a humorist. I, I've always loved jokes.
I, I really, you know, I feel like I'm an inheritor of an
ancient humor tradition of the Jews.
We've always told jokes. It said that the oldest joke,
the oldest recorded joke is in the Bible, right?
The Jews have come out of Egypt.They've got their backs to the
sea and the most powerful army in the world.
(06:12):
I'm think fighter jets, modern equivalent, right?
Pharaoh and his Chariots are coming after them.
The sea has not parted. It looks really bad.
And the guy next to Moses turns to him and says, so there
weren't enough graves in Egypt. You brought us out here to die
in the desert to Genesis, and you can.
(06:32):
That's exact words, right? I can really hear the tone.
Yeah, right. I know you're good.
And, and so I've always collected these jokes and I
started telling them I, I have anonprofit Jewish wisdom platform
called Accidental Talmudist who have a million followers on
Facebook, couple 100,000 more onInstagram.
And I wish I just share what's beautiful in the in the Jewish
(06:54):
tradition, in the Torah and the oral tradition.
And jokes were always a part of that that I just did for fun.
And so many, many of them went viral that Skyhorse Publishing
came to me and said, let's do a joke book.
So it came out at the end of last year.
It's on Amazon and it's been a best seller ever since Let My
People laugh. Greatest Jewish jokes of all
time. And it's a really useful book
(07:15):
because it doesn't just have great jokes, they're also
numbered and on lists. So it's got the best jokes for a
first date, for a wedding toast,for a business lunch, for a golf
outing. You know when you need a joke?
The right joke. You grew up in the era, I'm
guessing you're about same age as me, grew up in the era of
Blazing Saddles and Mel Brooks. There isn't that anymore.
There are a lot of things on TV or in the movies.
(07:37):
Like I was thinking to myself, Blazing Saddles could never be
made today. Oh my God, so.
Imagine that. Correct.
They would never allow it. No way.
But we laughed at everything, you know, And I, I grew up in
New York. I like, I don't know about you
and your buddies and your kids, but we were so mean to each
other. I mean, there was nothing off
limits, you know, like the way you showed love for your buddy.
(07:58):
It's just insult him in the worst possible way.
But that's how we were, you know, we were thick skinned and
you could take it and you just take the shot and get up and
keep going, you know, And kids have gotten so soft.
These. Days but I, I, but I do think I
do think we're, we're sort of like creeping back from the
edge, right? The pendulum is starting to
swing back. A lot of people went to the
(08:20):
movies this summer and I think that these movies are less woke
than they used to be. I think Hollywood's finally
getting the memo, you know, thatthe turning dwarfs into magical
creatures did not work for Snow White.
It's not going to work for othermovies.
And you know, it's more like theTop Gun maverick model.
You know, you just make a great movie.
(08:42):
Our movie Guns and Moses starring Neil McDonough, Mark
Foyerstein, Christopher Lloyd, Derrick Mulroney.
It's just a kick ass action filmwith a moral center.
You know, it's about a rabbi in a small high desert town whose
community is violently attacked and then the cops won't
(09:02):
investigate the crime because they think they got their man.
It doesn't smell right to the rabbi.
So he investigates. And as he gets closer to the
source of the true source of thecrime, the danger mounts.
People are shooting at him, his community, his family, and he
learns how to use a gun. What's interesting about our
movie is that so many times in movies, a guy needs to learn how
to shoot what happens and puts afew tin cans on a fence. 15
(09:25):
second montage, he's a dead shot.
So that's not the real world. It's very hard.
Just shoot straight. And we had real firearms
training in the movie. And I'll tell you, you know,
Jim, that's based on my own training in the real world
because the threat level to Jewshas been rising for quite some
time. I joined the volunteer
(09:45):
organization. I got trained and licensed and I
carry a gun. Yeah, let's take a quick break.
Salvador Ludvik is with me. We're talking about culture.
Hang on America's TODAY continues.
All right, Welcome back to America Today.
Yeah, we need, we need a little relief here.
Let's, let's move off to seriousstuff.
Guy that we've had on before. He's real funny.
Salvador Litvik. He's a humorist, author of Let
My People Laugh Greater, Greatest Jewish jokes of All
Times, and the director of the action film Guns and Moses, Last
time we talked to you, I think. Where are you at with that that
(00:31):
film? It's out in theaters right now,
and we have an imminent announcement that we're going to
be in a lot more in September. We're very excited.
The movie's doing great. And by the way, if I didn't
mention it, Salvador Litvik and he joins us here on America
Today. Let's talk about what's your
perspective about this, this whatever reason it's highly
(00:52):
controversial with Sidney Sweeney, I don't even know who
she was a week ago. And then the jeans commercial.
What's your take on all that? Why are people going nuts?
So it's highly controversial that a beautiful woman is
selling clothes to the American public.
The the state of America in 2025.
You know, American Eagle who launched this campaign?
(01:14):
If if you know, first of all, I give him credit that they stood
by their guns. They didn't issue the groveling
apology when they're called up by the left because they dared
to put a thin, voluptuous, beautiful, blonde haired, blue
eyed white skin women in jeans in their ads.
And then when they were called Nazis for doing that, they
(01:34):
didn't back down. Now if they predicted that this
was going to happen, that they were going to trigger the left
with this ad, then I give them all the credit in the world.
It's a brilliant campaign. You didn't hear about her
before. I never really thought about
American Eagle Jeans before and now they're everywhere.
Brilliant campaign. It's the exact opposite of what
(01:54):
Bud Light did with the trans woman or the trans guy.
Yes, exactly opposite, which shows you where America's head
is at, right? I mean, when we're not buying
what they're selling on the leftcoast.
And and as as a Jewish person, once you love it when people say
that as a Jewish person, becauseyou obviously go by a completely
(02:17):
set of rules other than everybody else, right.
So what was when people evoke Nazi stuff, how does that make
you feel? I mean, these days they'll drop
that term at the at the drop of a hat.
Anyone's a Nazi that disagrees with the left, right?
So I mean, what Nazis actually were, were genocidal, homicidal
(02:38):
maniacs who were totally normal people before that war began,
probably with some latent Jew hatred.
But they were, you know, they went to work, they went to jobs,
they had, you know, houses and cars.
They were seemingly normal people.
And then there was just the the the mass delusion of a crowd
following Hitler. And then they murdered 6,000,000
(03:01):
members of my family. And you know, when you going to
equate things that are going on today that you don't agree with,
that you politically don't agreewith, even when there's terrible
tragedies and people die, it's nothing like when 6 million
people are murdered. I mean, that's just an
unimaginable number. So yeah, I really resent when
(03:23):
they they drop the Nazi term so loose loosely.
Let's just remember what that was so that we could never have
that again in the world. And you know, if you ask me, I
think that the many of the, the behaviors that we're seeing
coming from the left, how they're, they will, they
completely followed whatever thegovernment told them what to do,
even though it didn't make any scientific sense.
(03:43):
I'm talking of course, about COVID and how they agree.
And in a lot of countries, they just they, they acquiesce to
whatever the government or whatever their institutions told
them what to do. That seems more like what people
in Germany did then, you know, right.
I mean, you know, people just did what Hitler said, OK,
because they've been so beaten down by the Weimer Republic and
(04:04):
all this stuff. I mean, their country was in
shambles. And people just got, I don't
know, they just like got in lineand said, OK, we're, we're
broken. So we'll let these guys lead us.
That's amazing to me, that to me, the most interesting aspect
is how normal people could turn the other way.
And they do it today with the, oh, for example, MAGA
(04:25):
Republicans. I mean, in many ways, MAGA
Republicans are viewed just likethe Germans viewed the Jews.
Am I? Am I getting this wrong?
I, I, I mean, what they resent right now is anybody who can
think for himself, right? And anybody who's going to get
their news by looking at multiple news sources and
triangulating the truth and figuring that there's bias
everywhere. So what's really going on?
(04:47):
I can only figure it out by reading multiple sources.
That's something they're very afraid of because for so long
they had the, the, you know, the, the, the, the Democrat
media arm, right, which is the whole mainstream media.
And they all have the same talking points.
Like, have you seen those videoswhere they have somebody on the
news, you know, issuing today's talking points, and then they
(05:07):
start adding frames of other news channels, other cities and
other networks, and they're all saying exactly the same words?
And we're just expected to consume that uncritically.
And people got sick of it. You know, I think people got
smart and they got wise to what was going on and they stopped
listening to the media handlers,you know?
(05:29):
Yeah, I know. It's, I'm hoping this this
period of whatever we're going through in America will go hurry
up and finish so we can get backto being normal.
And you're a humorist. So where can we find your
writings? I know you've got some books
out. What drives you?
I mean, what you you decided to become a humorist?
Why? Why I?
It was, you know, it's accidental.
(05:50):
I didn't mean to be a humorist. I, I've always loved jokes.
I, I really, you know, I feel like I'm an inheritor of an
ancient humor tradition of the Jews.
We've always told jokes. It said that the oldest joke,
the oldest recorded joke is in the Bible, right?
The Jews have come out of Egypt.They've got their backs to the
sea and the most powerful army in the world.
(06:12):
I'm think fighter jets, modern equivalent, right?
Pharaoh and his Chariots are coming after them.
The sea has not parted. It looks really bad.
And the guy next to Moses turns to him and says, so there
weren't enough graves in Egypt. You brought us out here to die
in the desert to Genesis, and you can.
(06:32):
That's exact words, right? I can really hear the tone.
Yeah, right. I know you're good.
And, and so I've always collected these jokes and I
started telling them I, I have anonprofit Jewish wisdom platform
called Accidental Talmudist who have a million followers on
Facebook, couple 100,000 more onInstagram.
And I wish I just share what's beautiful in the in the Jewish
(06:54):
tradition, in the Torah and the oral tradition.
And jokes were always a part of that that I just did for fun.
And so many, many of them went viral that Skyhorse Publishing
came to me and said, let's do a joke book.
So it came out at the end of last year.
It's on Amazon and it's been a best seller ever since Let My
People laugh. Greatest Jewish jokes of all
time. And it's a really useful book
(07:15):
because it doesn't just have great jokes, they're also
numbered and on lists. So it's got the best jokes for a
first date, for a wedding toast,for a business lunch, for a golf
outing. You know when you need a joke?
The right joke. You grew up in the era, I'm
guessing you're about same age as me, grew up in the era of
Blazing Saddles and Mel Brooks. There isn't that anymore.
There are a lot of things on TV or in the movies.
(07:37):
Like I was thinking to myself, Blazing Saddles could never be
made today. Oh my God, so.
Imagine that. Correct.
They would never allow it. No way.
But we laughed at everything, you know, And I, I grew up in
New York. I like, I don't know about you
and your buddies and your kids, but we were so mean to each
other. I mean, there was nothing off
limits, you know, like the way you showed love for your buddy.
(07:58):
It's just insult him in the worst possible way.
But that's how we were, you know, we were thick skinned and
you could take it and you just take the shot and get up and
keep going, you know, And kids have gotten so soft.
These. Days but I, I, but I do think I
do think we're, we're sort of like creeping back from the
edge, right? The pendulum is starting to
swing back. A lot of people went to the
(08:20):
movies this summer and I think that these movies are less woke
than they used to be. I think Hollywood's finally
getting the memo, you know, thatthe turning dwarfs into magical
creatures did not work for Snow White.
It's not going to work for othermovies.
And you know, it's more like theTop Gun maverick model.
You know, you just make a great movie.
(08:42):
Our movie Guns and Moses starring Neil McDonough, Mark
Foyerstein, Christopher Lloyd, Derrick Mulroney.
It's just a kick ass action filmwith a moral center.
You know, it's about a rabbi in a small high desert town whose
community is violently attacked and then the cops won't
(09:02):
investigate the crime because they think they got their man.
It doesn't smell right to the rabbi.
So he investigates. And as he gets closer to the
source of the true source of thecrime, the danger mounts.
People are shooting at him, his community, his family, and he
learns how to use a gun. What's interesting about our
movie is that so many times in movies, a guy needs to learn how
to shoot what happens and puts afew tin cans on a fence. 15
(09:25):
second montage, he's a dead shot.
So that's not the real world. It's very hard.
Just shoot straight. And we had real firearms
training in the movie. And I'll tell you, you know,
Jim, that's based on my own training in the real world
because the threat level to Jewshas been rising for quite some
time. I joined the volunteer
(09:45):
organization. I got trained and licensed and I
carry a gun. Yeah, let's take a quick break.
Salvador Ludvik is with me. We're talking about culture.
Hang on America's TODAY continues.
Host
JIM WATKINS
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