Eretz Nehederet has often been funny and sometimes dark, but it’s been a long time since it’s been as darkly funny as it was on Wednesday night, when US President Donald Trump (Omar Etzion) and a group of Iranian men being hanged sang a song to the tune of “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” the great Monty Python hit.
It was a brilliant spoof of how both Iranians protesting the regime and Israelis hoping for the overthrow of the Iranian government feel frustrated and in limbo because, during a very tense month, Trump has refused to make good on his promise to strike in Iran.
The music and the whistling were the same as when the song was sung in the movie “Life of Brian,” but on Eretz Nehederet, the Iranians sang, “When you fight to change Iran/You need an ally with a gun/And wish that things will turn out for the best/So… always hope for the bright side of Trump.”
'It's like Bad Bunny'
Trump nodded and sang, “Always look on the bright side of me!” The Iranians sang in Farsi for a minute, and Trump crooned, “It’s like Bad Bunny/I don’t understand a word,” referring to the singer who performed in Spanish at the Super Bowl, much to Trump’s annoyance.
It was part of a sequence that started out by poking fun at Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu (Mariano Edelman) and his challenging mission of trying to get Trump to take a stand on Iran. Netanyahu was shown visiting Trump in the White House, as he actually did earlier on Wednesday, to try to influence the president. Bibi reminded him, “Promises need to be kept, at least, so I’ve heard.”
Trump complimented the Israeli leader lavishly, reminding him that he had brought warships and aircraft carriers to the region.
Bibi, looking to butter the president up, said that Trump had already won every honor Israel has to offer, such as the Israel Prize, and mentioned the actual plan to have Trump light a torch at the Independence Day ceremony, then offered to have him win the yearly Bible quiz for youth. “That’s nice, you gotta love the Bible quiz for youth,” said Trump.
Trump: 'I'm gonna make a beautiful peace'
But just when Bibi thought he had convinced the president to strike Iran, a second Trump walked in and said, “I’m gonna make peace, I’m gonna make a beautiful peace.”
Bibi, confused, asked what was up with the two Trumps, and it turned out that one was War Trump and the other, Peace Trump. The only thing the two Trumps could agree on was that they didn’t like Bad Bunny. Then they kicked Bibi out.
Host Eyal Kitzis asked the Trumps why they encouraged protesters in Iran to take to the streets, only to abandon them, and the Iranian men with nooses around their necks appeared and they all sang the “Bright Side” parody.
It was the highlight of the entire season of the comedy show, which also made fun at the documents redacted in a self-serving way that Netanyahu released this week to attempt to prove that he had nothing to do with the botched response to the October 7 massacre, and the usual suspects from the governing coalition who bandied about various conspiracy theories.
The show also slung some mud at former prime minister Ehud Barak (Tal Friedman), who was mentioned thousands of times in the Epstein files and stayed in apartments owned by the late billionaire pedophile.
In his defense, Barak said he was not a pedophile, that he was just attracted to Epstein’s money. A clip of Barak disparaging the Mizrahi immigrants who came to Israel in the 40s to Epstein was really unearthed this week, and on Eretz Nehederet, Barak said the only good thing he could say about Epstein was that he was Ashkenazi.
There were a few more references to Bad Bunny and his half-time show, and a short sequence about the “lost Banai,” a reference to the famous family of singers and entertainers that includes Eviatar, Ehud, Meir, Yossi, and Orna. But this lost family member turned out to be “Bad Banai,” another excuse to parody the flamboyant singer.
The show ended with a tribute to Matti Caspi, one of the great Israeli musicians of all time, who passed away this week.
Caspi was known to generally be poker-faced, but the show presented a clip of him doing a comedy skit while singing to cows. As the clip played, the cast joined in as he sang “It’s No Good to Be a Man Alone.” At the end, Caspi joked with the cows, saying, “So girls, what does the kibbutz mean to you?”
Kitzis revised his usual signoff, saying, “Thank you, Matti, because of you, we have a much more wonderful country.”