Hasidic ad || Cute Yiddish laundry ad

**Turn on subtitles for my translation from the Yiddish**

This advertisement takes place at the men's mikvah, the men's ritual bath. The men's ritual bath is usually in the basement of synagogues. Men in Hasidic enclaves go every Friday before Shabbes. It's a very different kind of place than the women's ritual bath.

The men's bath attendant often doubles as a barber, giving haircuts to Hasidic men for a few bucks. They also sell essentials that people would need for shabbes, like liquor, yarmulkas, candles, and more. The particular attendant is very frazzled until he finds the help of one very special laundry company.

This ad follows the genre of Hasidic advertisements where bumbling, fumbling, cartoonish men go on a comical journey of misadventures. It ends when they finally find the aid of a Hasidic company that solves their problem by selling a product. I've seen numerous ads that follow this same story arc. There are often also child-boy actors who are the long-suffering partners of the bumbling protagonists.

The comedy is a big hit with the public, and it comes as close to creating a genre of Hasidic movie-making as would be allowed. These "business" videos are circulated to the public via Hasidic-populated channels like whatsapp, telegram, and twitter. One day I will take you on a journey of Hasidic internet, show you who is on it (mostly married people only) and what it's like. The ads like the one above are created for these channels but they are also an innovation in Hasidic entertainment and have spawned actors, celebrities and themes of media.