Shalom Shamericans: Hamburger Hummus Ep. 1

Hamburger Hummus is an improbable 7-part Web series about a group of American bloggers attending “BlogCon” (a blog conference – get it?) in Tel Aviv. “Their interests across technology, beauty, environmentalism, and shameless one-night stands lead to a bounty of Clark Griswold-like, fish-out-of-water moments,” according to the series description.

The series is lavishly filmed and includes some very well-known names, including director Jay Karas (“Workaholics,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”), and actors Jillian Bell (“Workaholics,” “22 Jump Street”), and Angela Kinsey (“The Office”). It was created by ad agency SS+K and facilitated managed/fiscally sponsored by the New Venture Fund. No one really knows who actually put up the seemingly very significant funding for this project but the New Venture Fund describes it as follows:

Hamburger Hummus is a comedy that showcases the innovative and culturally diverse aspects of modern Israeli life that are less well known outside the country. The goal of the project is to foster broader awareness of the people and culture of Israel.

Haaretz quotes SS+K partner and chief creative officer Bobby Hershfield described it further:

The target audience for the series is younger people who may not know very much about Israel… A web comedy series felt like a smart way to do it and we knew it would be a lot of fun to pull off… This idea came about because we wanted to create a fish-out-of-water series putting unsuspecting Americans in a country they’ve never been, while not taking ourselves too seriously and showing some very unique aspects of Israel.

This first episode introduces all the characters who will be appearing throughout the rest of the series. Hamburger Hummus is irreverent, amusing and sometimes a bit risqué. It’s unlikely that this was produced by any Israeli governmental entity. For a hasbarah product it’s pretty advanced, the question though is, is it compelling? Is it entertaining? You tell me!

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