There’s always been a method to Jackie Mason’s meshugas: slowly emerging punchlines, anecdotes as multi-layered as Bubbe’s steaming cabbage rolls. Like his contemporaries Milton Berle and Woody Allen, the pulpy-lipped former rabbi made a name for himself on the Borscht Belt circuit, issuing forth crackling monologues on such mundane activities as eating diner food and schlepping to the shrink, predating Seinfeld’s inane observations by a generation. He was a regular on The Ed Sullivan Show, cleverly skewering subjects from Jews to gentiles to Sinatra to Kissinger, until he was blacklisted for a misconstrued hand gesture he made to the host in 1962, which stunted his career for nearly a decade (Sullivan mistakenly thought Mason had flipped him the bird on-air). By the 1980s, he’d made a comeback, hitting Broadway, Hollywood and even fictional Springfield (Mason continues to provide the rusty pipes for Krusty the Clown’s estranged rabbi father). In his latest stand-up show, Freshly Squeezed, the New Yorker tackles new targets with his classic take-no-prisoners shtick.

Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks—why are Jews funny?
It’s a myth that Jews are funnier than other people. Jews were a beleaguered minority, and comedy was their outlet. Now there are 10 times more black comedians than Jewish comedians, because they, too, have found a way to express themselves. Now when you see a black comedian, he calls white people names for 20 minutes and it’s a great form of expression for him.

What do you think of young upstarts like Dave Chappelle and Jon Stewart?
There are so many young, bright comedians. When I started out, there were only 12. Now everybody goes to college to become an accountant and graduates a comedian. Instead of being stuck in an office, you’re in a bar.

In addition to Jews, you’ve been known to take on gays in your routines. What did you make of Brokeback Mountain?
I haven’t seen it. But I know what it’s about, and everybody has a right to do what they please. I think if a guy is in love with a horse, I respect that. He has the right to make love to a horse—unless it’s my horse.

In The American Spectator, you talk about the Danish cartoon fracas. Why do you think Jews would never kill over a cartoon?
I never saw a Jewish organization hire a death squad to go kill an Arab cartoonist. We have laws to protect people who say obnoxious things. That’s the whole idea of democracy.

Is Freshly Squeezed your last hurrah?
I don’t expect to retire unless I pass away. I’m always writing and working and thinking and producing and promoting and struggling, and I have the same ambition and drive and intensity as I did a hundred years ago.

Jackie Mason plays Roy Thomson Hall on May 6.