Yep, they said it.

– New Yorkers Rob Tannenbaum and David Fagin have been traveling the country lately introducing audiences to their irreverent musical-comedy act “Good for the Jews,” which visits the Soiled Dove Underground on Saturday. The Heeb-sponsored show, which has drawn praise in the New York Times, Washington Post and Village Voice, has been variously described as Tenacious D without the movie deal, or a sarcastic Simon & Garfunkel.

The song “They Tried to Kill Us,” for example, mixes history and humor, equating ethnic bondage with S&M and featuring the chorus: “they tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat.â€? Cultural references fly fast and furious but never seem like too much of an in-joke. To get to the bottom of it, we talked with co-creator Tannenbaum by phone yesterday about the roots of the show, its audience appeal, and the good thing about having a Nazi protester show up at your concert…

So what can people expect at a “Good for the Jews” show?

Besides the music and comedy we talk about the history of the Jewish people. It’s a comedy show, but in the context of comedy we try to talk about the sense of community that Jews have together.

How would you describe that sense of community?

Well, we talk about the fact that throughout history someone has always been trying to kill us. From the Egyptians to the Assyrians to the Spanish. It really would take less time to make a list of the nationalities that didn’t try to kill us. It’s pretty much the Canadians. That’s it.

Do people all over the country get it, even outside of areas where Jews have typically lived?

We’re always a little concerned when we leave New York because there is a very New York sensibility to what we do. So far on this tour we’ve played six cities and had a great response everywhere.

What does that tell you about the country?

What it shows is that the New York sensibility has really kind of spread. The most successful TV show of the last 20 years was “Seinfeld,” which was really a sitcom about being a New York Jew. I don’t know if it’s the most popular, but the most talked-about late night show is “The Daily Show with John Stewart.” If you’re a fan of “The Daily Show,” whether you’re Jewish or not, you’re a fan of the Jewish sensibility and the Jewish sense of humor.

Why and how do you think it’s spread?

Through our success in the entertainment business, and the wonderfulness of our food. I think we’re at a point now where pretty much even guys who are in the KKK eat a bagel and white fish on Sunday morning. Of course they’re probably not eating the pumpernickel bagel, for obvious reasons.

The music has tinges of traditional flavors, which begs the question: Do you have special training in Jewish music?

I don’t have any special training in that music or even particularly in Jewish history. I had a Bar Mitzvah, and I was raised a Jew, which means that I’m often hungry and feel guilty without knowing why — without even having done anything wrong in fact. But we don’t perform traditional Jewish music. We’re not dancing the Horah on stage. We’re not setting verses of the Talmud to ancient Middle Eastern modalities.

Right, you’re not trying to educate people on traditional Jewish culture…

We’re a pop-rock duo and we write really catchy songs about Bar Mitzvahs and Manischewitz wine and the story of Passover. Our credentials for this are really just being funny, being Jewish and being able to make funny rhymes. But to me the great thing about singing is it’s the one occupation I can think of where you don’t need any training in order to beign. You don’t need a degree and if you’re bad at it, no one dies. You can’t wake up one morning and say, “I’m a lawyer and I practice law.” But if you’ve got enough chutzpah you can get up on stage and be a singer.

Do you consider yourself musicians or comedians first?

I think of it as momedy, or cusical. Basically we’re a funny band. For awhile we were being described as a cross between Simon and Garunkel and Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Then we got a lot of people who were like, “It’s Tenacious D but thinner and without a movie deal.” Then the more recent one is that we’re like Flight of the Conchords but without the cute accents and the HBO deal.

So people filter you through whatever prisms they have available at the time.

It’s in the tradition of two guys standing on stage making fun of one another and singing songs. It’s a very old and great tradition. It goes back to the Catskills, the essence of vaudeville and Borscht Belt humor. And then rock bands came along and did away with that. We’re trying to be the rock duo that brings back the Borscht Belt.

Do you only get young people or hipsters at your shows, like an indie comedy act?

We get very diverse age groups. We played in San Francisco last night and we had parents who brought their teenage kids. We also had a woman how told David that she was a wealthy widowers. She had that sort of white-blue hair that you only see on Jewish women of a certain age.

Is the show for “everyone,” as they say?

It is an adult show and there are adult themes and language, but nothing worse that what you’re going to hear on cable TV. Also last night in San Francisco we had a Nazi protester outside the show.

No way. Did you confront him?

I did talk to him for a little while. I wanted to know what he was doing there and what his objections were. He was dressed up as Uncle Sam, although he looked more like Apollo Creed form that “Rocky” movie. He was a white guy, kind of portly, in his 60s and was carrying a sign about how Israel was going to be the cause of World War III and the U.S. was run by Jewish conspiracies.

Yeesh.

Obviously he was wacko. The nice thing about it is — if you can say there’s a nice thing about having a Nazi protester at your show, is that at one time a Nazi who hated the Jews would have been a serious threat, but people were just laughing at him.