Whether it’s the price of lox or a place to pee, one of the latest TikTok trends features old dudes kvetching for a cause.
“Make lox $2.99 per pound again,” gripe the elderly social media stars of @oldjewishmen, who take videos of the “protests” they stage around the city.
The lifestyle brand from director Noah Rinsky, who has worked for international production company Bazelevs, features a clothing shop, memes and snapshots of “Old Jewish Men” — some of whom are comedians or actors.
The brand has over 46,000 Instagram followers and 38,000 TikTok followers.
They air their grievances about the price of pastrami — wielding cardboard signs saying “the top 1% owns 99% of the pastrami” — or the lack of public toilets in New York City.
In one video, they chant: “2, 4, 6, 8, we just want to urinate!”
People are getting behind the protests en masse, too, enough for the brand to start a petition with about 3,700 signatures for more public toilets on its website.
“There’s some sort of truth to old Jewish men,” Rinsky told The Post. “When you see guys like this pop up on your feed, they come as they are, it’s not sanitized, it’s not glossy. Their [complaints] might be small and futile to some but they’re real. We do need more toilets and lox is too expensive, these sandwiches are built for tourists.”
People are generally sick of being lied to, believes Rinsky, 32, and when they see old Jewish men, “for better or worse, they’re going to get the truth.”
Rinsky said he started the Old Jewish Men account to share photos and videos of his own 71-year-old Jewish father. It grew to include pictures of more old Jewish men over the years and evolved into the brand he created with Bryan Seversky.
Old Jewish Men has a show in the works about old Jewish men working at a hedge fund, “OJM Capital.”
The elders behind the Old Jewish Men skits said they can relate to the protests. Actor and stand-up comic John Ordover, 59, of Brooklyn, said his favorite lox or pastrami is “lox — or pastrami that someone else bought.”
“Prices are way too high and the lack of public toilets is a big problem in New York, especially when your prostate becomes the size of a watermelon,” Ordover quipped.
The skits come naturally to the men.
Actor Eric Howard, 63, of Rockaway Beach, who has appeared on “Impractical Jokers,” told The Post he doesn’t follow any particular religion.
“My religion is comedy and making people happy,” Howard said. “That’s probably why I don’t have any money, but it’s too late now to change religions.”
Aaron Cohen, 69, of Brooklyn, said the brand is “very relevant” as an Orthodox Jew.
“People see me in the street and say, ‘Hey, you’re the toilet man,’ so I know we’re having an impact,” he said.
