Jiaoza vs Kneydlekh: What's So Funny?

Much has been made, both in the scholarly literature and in popular media, of the affinity of the Jewish Americans for Chinese cuisine. Depicted in numerous ways in film and television, American Jews eating Chinese food is most often written with a humorous bent. Whether presented using coded or cloaked humor, or in a direct comedic manner, why is it funny when Jews eat Chinese food but other traditionally ethnic cuisines such as Mexican or Italian are not given the same treatment? What is it about this particular cultural gastronomic encounter that taps the American funny bone or is it more a case of “in group” humor that made it into mainstream media? I will offer a dim sum of multimedia examples to support my theories on the basis of the comedy of “safe treyf.”