Mitzvah

**Mitzvah** is the fourth episode of Season 9 of *Letterkenny*.

## Cold Open

> Your pal's invited his sweetie out for a double date with you and your sweetie the other day… — Dan
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Dan wants to see how his sweetie, Ellen, would do in a "regular conversation," since all they ever talk about is sex, he explains to Wayne and Rosie at MoDean's. "Regular," they assure him, with "nothing creative" in the conversation. Ellen enters and Wayne and Rosie introduce themselves, and she offers to get them a beer. They cannot resist making puns on beer names, however.

> You Labatt your ass we do. — Rosie
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Trying to keep the conversation on the rails, Dan interrupts to ask for Gail, who comes over and joins in the riffing without skipping a beat. In fact, her arrival makes things worse, as she brings up her "Pabst smear" and how much toe-curlin' she's doing this quarter. Ellen jumps right in as well, reminder her to trim her Anheuser bush, and the gang dives into the hazards of Gail's lifestyle, from odors to drug tests.

Wayne tells Dan he likes Ellen. and for his part, Dan is relieved they skipped a beer: Red Stripe.

## Plot Summary

The Hicks are hung over, all too hung over to cook breakfast. They do establish that dudes who can cook can get it, however, from Wolfgang Fuck to Gordon Rams-Me. The good news is that Gail has started serving brunch that very morning.

They wonder about the term brunch, whether it's a little bit "Hmmm," i.e. pretentious, since you could just as easily call it late breakfast. Still, since no one is willing to book, they all agree to boot over to MoDean's for some "hmm, brunch."

Reilly and Jonesy enter the hockey arena discussing the international situation.

> Jonesy: Did you know that China's having a shortage of ninjas?
> Reilly: Well, should we go?
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The catch the Coach heading out, and look disapprovingly at the wheels on his bag. Coach drunkenly reports that the game is cancelled, because there's not enough bodies, because it's Sunday morning beer league hockey. He reminds them that beer league hockey isn't about hockey, but about having beers with the boys. He invites them out for the same, and they quickly resume walking past him, considering their Sunday "wide open." The obvious plan is sex—with girls—and each reports a winning streak with Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge as they retrieve their phones. Reilly fears, however, that they have been *too* successful, and will soon have "smashed every smashable broad within 100 fiscal kilometres of Letterkenny."

They are interrupted by another teammate, Avi Goldstein, who offers to help—though they do not recognize him, despite being linemates, as they had tuned out after they saw wheels on his bag. Avi informs them about the opportunities on "JSwipe," a dating app for Jews; while Jonesy and Reilly are not Jewish, they merely have to set their profile to "willing to convert." Avi reports that through JSwipe, he has smashed four Jewish women—and received 265–270 blowies. He pauses, as they seem confused by the concept, but they are not.

> Yeah, clueless is just kinda my resting face. — Jonesy
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Indeed, it seems there is a lot that Reilly and Jonesy don't know about Jews, and so Avi offers his knowledge to bring them up to speed and help them navigate JSwipe. They eagerly accept, except he carry instead of wheel his bag; finally, Jonesy picks up Avi's bag and carries it himself.

Bonnie informs Gail as she enters MoDean's that Victoria's Secret is having a shortage of models; Gail wonders if they should go. The Hicks arrive and take seats at the bar, and Bonnie warns them that Gail has the "hangover hornies." Dan says he loves meat so much, he'd wear it—like Lady Gaga at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, inspired by the Canadian artist Jana Sterbak, as Rosie points out. To cure the hangover hornies, they plan to get hangover-hammered, and do a shot together.

Avi begins his orientation about Judaism with Reilly and Jonsey, boasting about his success as the only "full Jew" in town, "wheel-snipe-cellying like my bar mitzvah money hasn't run out." He corrects some of their preconceptions—he crushes mad bacon, for instance, and does not have sex through a sheet. But he adds that as much as he wants to protect his ratio ("raysh"), his religion has the concept of a mitzvah, the act of doing a selfless good deed out of the kindness of one's heart. Sharing the secret of JSwipe is his mitzvah.

Over at the Skids' basement, Roald is giving Stewart a hand massage as he reports Ibiza is having a shortage of DJs; Roald wonders if they should go. Stewart wonders when was the last time they ate, having lost track of time after the "an exclusive conclave of cartridge gaming" the previous night. He decides what they need is sustenance, and not the rips that Connor and Darien had loaded onto a model train.

> Gail is hosting a post-breakfast pre-lunch over at MoDean's. — Roald
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"A brunch," Stewart scoffs—but agrees to, after a train rip.

The brunch crowd in their fedoras (and at least one trilby) is filling MoDean's.

> Y'know what? That's why brunch is so "hmm." Like, there's just something so fuckin' city about it. — Wayne
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Daryl agrees asking when anyone from town has said "let's do brunch," just as Gail unveils a "let's do brunch" sign. Bonnie adds that she knows lots of town folk who wear fedoras. Katy and Daryl retort that the problem is not with eating breakfast food after lunch, but that everyone who "does brunch" wants everyone else to know about it.

Stewart and Roald enter and attract the negative attention of the Hicks; they begin ducking and bobbing. Stewart explains that they are dodging their insults *Matrix*-style, but Roald groans, saying he was hit by ricochet. Stewart excoriates the Hicks for their lack of decency as Roald begs for mouth-to-mouth, and Stewart carries Roald away. Daryl asks if they have heard that there is a shortage of rodeo clowns at the Calgary Stampede, and Katy suggests that maybe the Skids should go.

Back at the arena, Avi begins his "Judaism 101" rundown at the whiteboard. He notes that only 0.2 percent of the world's population are Jews, and 40 percent of them live in Israel; still, they are small but very influential, "like Kanye." He proceeds to tell a highly elliptical version of the story of Abraham as related in the Torah (the Christian Old Testament). The hockey players agree that Abraham was a *Sopranos*-level baller. Avi closes by saying Jews have prevailed against all odds because they follow a few basic rules, from worshipping only one God to doing "hella mitzvahs." Declaring them "honorary Jews," he asks when they will perform their first mitzvah.

The Hicks and Skids have finished their satisfying brunch. Rosie calls Wayne away, and Roald and Stewart whisper "sex sex sex." Roald suggests they go and play the original Super Mario trilogy on NES. Stewart replies that the games are too slow. Roald suggests they add rips, and both leave the counter. Dan suggests that the rest of them go watch *Twister*, figuring like a baker's dozen channels loop it 24 hours a day. Only Gail and Bonnie are left, with Gail still suffering the hangover hornies, when Jim Dickens approaches the bar. Gail asks if he is hung over. The Skids whisper "sex sex sex."

Jonesy and Reilly walk through the hockey arena with four small boys in tow, to Avi's delight.

> Boys, minutes into honorary Jewhood, you're already rippin' hype mitvahs. — Avi
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He is talking about them carrying the kids' gear, as the "bagel bites" need wheels, which they hate. Reilly and Jonesy mutter to the contrary. Avi invites them to smash some JSwipe, but Jonesy and Reilly say there is plenty to keep them busy—the boy's mothers have come to collect them.

## Quotes

* Avi: Know how many Jewish broads I've smashed on there?
Reilly: How many?
Avi: Four.
Jonesy: Just four?
Avi: Guess how many Jewish blowies, though. Two-sixty-five, two-seventy.
Jonesy: Whoa, that's like a blowie every single day of the year!
* Daryl: Hey, Bonnie, you want me to help you unbox that before this place fills up?
Gail: There's so much for me to work with in that sentence, I may just fall over.
* Avi: LK's already got a major shortage of Jewish broads. I'm talking single dijjies, and I'm pretty much the only full Jew in town, which puts me in a very advantageous position.
* Stewart: A brunch: a feast for the Peter Pan-ian affected plebs. The meagre populace.
* Wayne: Town people don't say brunch, just like town people don't wear fedoras.
Bonnie: I know lots of town people who wear fedoras.
Wayne: But do you care to?
* Wayne: You're spare parts, bud.
Daryl: You're overstock.
Dan: You're clearance items on final sales.
Katy: You're the marked down floor model that won't even sell on Boxing Day, fuck.
* Avi: All right, this'll be as easy as 123, abc, aleph bet gimel dalet hay, How are ya now? Good 'n' you? Good. Ready to fuckin' learn.
Jonesy: Huh?
* Avi: Abraham had two sons, one with his wife named Isaac, and then, also at some point, he smashes his slave, has this other kid named Ishmael, who pretty much goes on to birth what we know today as Islam.
Reilly: Wait, wait, wait. Hold up. So, Abraham had a wife? But he also had sex with his hot slave?
Avi: Never said she was hot.
* Avi: Basically, Jews will always prevail… we believe it's 'cause we follow the simple rules: we worship only one God, we study the Torah to further understand His brilliance, we procreate and make new little baby Jews, and we do hella mitzvahs.

## Callbacks and Running Gags

* I'm surprised we're not [bootin' over] right now (Uncle Eddie's Trust)
* Game's cancelled. Why!? (We Don't Fight at Weddings)
* If you can't carry your bag, you shouldn't be playing hockey (Relationships)
* Jonesy refers to having a pic of a fish he once caught on his dating app profile; such a picture can be seen in the screenshot he presents in The Haunting of MoDean's II (The Haunting of MoDean's II)
* Choo-choo (The Letterkenny Leave)

## Cultural References

* Beer brands: Coors, Labatt, Moosehead, Carlsberg, Kronenbourg, Heineken, Modelo, Michelob, Molson, Beck's, Tsingtao, Carling, Guinness, Amstel, Dos Equis, Miller High Life, Pabst, Peroni, Bud Light, Strongbow (cider), Anheuser-Busch, Busch Light, Stella Artois, Alexander Keith's, Schlitz, Bohemian, Blue Moon, Pacifico, Bavaria, Harp, Old Speckled hen, Sol, Foster's, Rolling Rock, Kokanee, Corona or Coronado, Molson Dry, Smithick's, Red Stripe.
* "Ladies have first choice" is a reference to the model of the Bubmble dating app, in which men cannot initiate contact with women, and women must initiate contact with men.
* Both Reilly and Jonesy are waitlisted for Raya, a private, membership-based social network that requires an invitation to join.
* The government of Canada does not track the religious adherence of the population, but does record its ethnic origin. As of the 2016 census, the population of Listowel, Ontario, reporting European Jewish ancestry was zero.
* Avi's nicknames: Goldon Bombay (Gordon Bombay, main protagonist of the *Mighty Ducks* films); the Gold and the Beautiful (CBS soap opera *The Bold and the Beautiful*); Avenged SevenGold (American heavy metal group Avenged Sevenfold); "goal"-stein; Goldon Lightfoot (singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot); Goldzie Hawn (actress Goldie Hawn); Goldzie Howe (hockey player Gordie Howe); Goldza Meir (Israeli prime minister Golda Meir)
* Celebrity blowies: Chloe Sevigny, Zoey Deschanel, Davie Bowie
* "Jew" puns: edification, *Blues Clues*, Lou Ferrigno, Drew Barrymore
* Jana Sterbak is a Canadian conceptual artist known for her sculptures related to the body. The most famous of these is arguably *Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic* (1987), 50 pounds (22.7 kg) of raw flank steaks sewn together and hung on a hangar, which attracted widespread controversy when shown at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. The artwork is currently in the collections of Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and Centre Pompidou in Paris.
* The myth that members of sexually conservative religious minorities—Hutterites, Mormons, but most commonly Orthodox Jews—have sex through a sheet is a not uncommon trope in pop culture. This is how intercourse is done in the dystopian Gilead of *The Handmaid's Tale*, for example, and is lampooned in a much lighter way in the fourth season of *Curb Your Enthusiasm*, in which Larry David is invited to bed by his Hasidic dry cleaner.
* The Calgary Stampede is an annual ten-day festival held every July, one of the largest rodeos in the world.
* Aleph, bet, gimel, dalet, and hay are the first five letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
* *The Rundown* is 2003 adventure film. "Short William Scott" is a reference to one of main actors, Seann William Scott, and "rock with me" is a reference to the other, Dwayne Johnson, a.k.a. The Rock.
* American rapper and producer Kanye West, who in 2018 began using the stage name Ye, is 5 ft 8 in tall (173cm).
* *The Sopranos* was an HBO crime drama following a New York/New Jersey mob boss, Tony Soprano, who tries to balance his career in organized crime against his family obligations. "Christopher" is one of his rivals, cousin Christopher Moltisanti.

## Trivia

* This is the first time Squirrely Dan has given the opening line of the cold open.
* SBS titles this episode "Mitsvah" in Australia, reflecting the more common spelling in Australia.

## Reception

Reviewer Lola Newman, of the feminist Jewish culture site Alma, wrote a critical review of the episode entitled I Loved ‘Letterkenny.’ Then Its Jewish Character Broke My Heart. She criticizes in particular the portrayal of Avi, who is presented as religious, wearing a yarmulke and a Star of David on a chain, yet "crushes mad bacon" and acts misogynistically to Jewish women. She acknowledges that writer Jacob Tierney is a self-described "queer, half-Jewish guy from Montreal," but laments that Avi runs counter to the positive, empowering portrayals of members of other groups.

## Music

According to Tunefind, the following songs are featured in this episode:

* Slip Away by Favours
* Up All Night by Couriers
* Stop the Clock by Whiney
* Reason by Losers
* Tuscaloosa Bar by Indian Warriors
* On by The New Values

## Appearances

* Dan
* Wayne
* Rosie
* Ellen
* Daryl
* Katy
* Reilly
* Jonesy
* Coach
* Avi Goldstein (Daniel Harroch)
* Gail
* Bonnie
* Stewart
* Roald
* Connor
* Darien
* Jim Dickens

## Locations

* Farm
* Hockey arena
* MoDean's

## Gallery

*→ See **35** images from Mitzvah at **Images from Mitzvah**.*
## External links

* Mitzvah, IMDb
* Mitzvah, The Produce Stand podcast
* Mitzvah, the How Are Ya Now? podcast