Who is the successor to the world’s funniest Jew?

But with a record 16 nominations and three Oscars for best original screenplay, this is about the art as much as the artist.

So who else comes close to becoming the world’s funniest living Jew? Larry David perhaps? Not everyone’s cup of tea but from Seinfeld to Curb Your Enthusiasm, he is a cult comic and his humour resonates with the tribe.

As for Jerry Seinfeld himself, I never found him that funny but opinions vary, as they do with Adam Sandler (two good films out of what seems like 500 romcoms doesn’t cut it for me), Sarah Silverman and some homegrown examples such as Alexei Sayle, David Baddiel, Miriam Margolyes and Howard Jacobson.

With the exception perhaps of Sacha Baron Cohen, the funniest living Jews are almost exclusively American and, in Seth Rogen’s case, Canadian. Perhaps there’s an hilarious one in Russia or Poland we’ve never heard of – possible seeing as so many Jewish comics have their roots there.

But most people’s list would be US-dominated. This applies to film-makers from the satire of Albert Brooks to the madcap comedy of Airplane writers Jerry and David Zucker, all of whom are still with us.

Then there are those, such as Billy Crystal, who can be as funny off screen as on screen and at 78 years old now falls into the category of “veteran”.

It’s a shame many of Brooks’s contemporaries are no longer with us. Jerry Lewis, born the same year as Brooks, and Neil Simon, born the year after, never made it this far otherwise they would be in this list. And that’s without going into one of those other “funny Jews we have lost” from the Marx Brothers to Lenny Bruce (who would have been 100 last October).

So far this selection has been male-dominated and perhaps that’s because no one has ever really got close to being as funny as the late, great Joan Rivers. Amy Schumer (you guessed it, she’s from New York too) is right up there among the current crop. Bette Midler, of course, and Lisa Kudrow who, with David Schwimmer, made up the Jewish third of Friends.

But I’d throw in a curveball here and suggest, as funny as any of these is Barbra Streisand.

She may be best known for her singing, her love life and her diva-like behaviour but some of her best films have been her funniest.

I’m not dismissing the fabulous The Way We Were, which proved she could do straight drama as much as screwball comedy – though her version of A Star Is Born is probably the worst of the four versions made.

But she possesses a holy trinity of comedy movie gold in Funny Girl, Hello Dolly! and What’s Up, Doc? and she didn’t even get to sing in the last of those.

Like Woody Allen, Streisand is also 84 and like Brooks himself, all grew up in Brooklyn, New York around the same period.

Incidentally, this New York borough also produced Joan Rivers, Phil Silvers, Larry David and Mae West. It’s no coincidence. When you grow up in a tough, mostly poor neighbourhood at a time of rising antisemitism, you either fight to get by or make people laugh.

The wheel continues to turn and while there have been worse times, there’s precious little for today’s Jews to laugh about – which is exactly when our humour comes to life.

This list is subjective and, of course, one man’s Jackie Mason is another man’s Bernie Winters. Mel Brooks is the funniest living Jew. However many tributes he gets on his century, it won’t be enough.

From Springtime for Hitler to the Spanish Inquisition scene in his History of the World, Part 1, he has big shoes to fill.