Israel’s favorite sketch comedy show celebrates 20 years of political satire

Satirical sketch comedy show “Eretz Nehederet” (“It’s a Wonderful Country”) is marking 20 years on air, during which time it has pushed the envelope on the country’s most critical issues, holding up a mirror to Israeli society with smart, sardonic spoofs of local and global figures and characters.

The scripted weekly show, a mashup of “Saturday Night Live” and “The Daily Show,” is one of the most watched shows on Israeli TV. Impersonations of politicians and pop culture personalities are at its core, from former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah.

It’s been a long, laugh-filled ride for the cast and creators who show no signs of retiring the award-winning show that first began airing in 2003 on Keshet’s Channel 2.

Some of the newer cast members grew up watching it, such as Gaya Be’er Gurevich, who now regularly parodies right-wing politician Bezalel Smotrich and singer Shiri Maimon.

As new faces and names appear across the Israeli political map and the Middle East, the actors become their comic doppelgangers, such as Shahar Hasson impersonating hard-right politician Itamar Ben Gvir; he implicitly compared him to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in a recent song-and-dance number based on the iconic “Springtime for Hitler” number from Mel Brooks’s 1967 film “The Producers.”

Cast members have often said that good satire requires taking sides — any side — and then attacking with jokes and comedy.

Any news, from elections to funerals and even terrorist attacks, is fodder for comedy, said cast member Shahar Cohen in a 2010 interview with CNN.

No topic is considered too sensitive. In one skit depicting former prime minister Netanyahu and former US president Barack Obama, Netanyahu accidentally sets the American flag on fire; another spoof mocked Israeli-Palestinian peace talks as the video game Angry Birds.

The comedy show has always pushed against the boundaries of comfort, offering a place where Israelis could laugh at the surreal vagaries of their country and its conflict.

Tough subjects make for good source material, say cast members.

Created by Muli Segev, David Lifshitz and Asaf Shalmon, the show features a familiar cast of Israeli comedians and actors, some of whom have been with the show from the start.

The thin, balding Eyal Kitzis has been the host of “Eretz Nehederet” from the start, along with Tal Friedman, Alma Zak, Orna Banai, Dov Navon, Mariano Idelman, Eli Finish, joined later on by Yuval Semo, Eran Zarachovitch, Roey Bar-Natan, Yaron Berlad, Maor Cohen, Asi Cohen, Shani Cohen, Udi Kagan, Gaya Be’er Gurevich, Sharon Taicher, Shachar Chason, Ori Laizerouvich and at times, actor Lior Ashkenazi.

Everyone from Vladimir Putin and Hamas’s Muhammad Abu Tir to singer Adele and Dora the Explorer, along with every possible Israeli politician, are pilloried on the show.

This very Israeli creation of humor and satire is so well-known that Abu Tir once complained about his depiction on the program as a terrorist disguised as a party planner.

Obama quipped that any drama between him and Netanyahu was just a “plot to create material” for the show, while writer and podcaster Malcolm Gladwell has cited “Eretz Nehederet” as an example of political satire done right.

As the crew gathered in the Keshet Herzliya studio for an upcoming reunion episode, current and former cast members were filmed by Channel 12 news for a lengthy clip about the 20th anniversary.

Dov Navon (familiar to younger viewers as Amnon Titinsky from the populer Kan satire “Kupa Rashit”), and Alma Zak called the show a “startup that became a monster success.”

The cast members reminisced about Orna Banai being on the show nine months pregnant with her son who was recently drafted into the army.

They talked about complicated makeup sessions that went on for three hours and makeup mishaps that sometimes took place on the show.

Segev, one of the creators and head editor, said the very first meeting of the show’s cast and creators was between comics with different forms of humor who hadn’t worked together in the past.

“We wanted to create something new,” he said. “We’re all professional cynics, but this is a little emotional.”