August 18, 2024 - 8:00am
Considering that stand-up comedy is by common consent a form of social commentary of largely Jewish origin — albeit with just a slight admixture of Celtic peat — Jews might be excused for registering the serpent’s tooth of ingratitude this week.
The latest expression of what looks uncomfortably like antisemitism came during a set by Reginald D. Hunter at the Edinburgh Fringe. Not, in my view, in the joke itself. Comparing Israel to an abusive spouse that herself complains of abuse might be a bit route one, unpolished, in need of a twist or extra barb to elevate the wound from blunt-force trauma to duelling scar. But it is probably fair comment in the licensed arena of the stage. And from all accounts, it seems to have landed.
The tricky part came with the subsequent inflaming of the audience reaction, when a Jewish audience member had what is universally referred to as the “temerity” to complain.
Events then unfolded in an almost eerie replay of those which attracted controversy in the Soho Theatre in February, when Paul Currie oversaw the expulsion of two Jewish audience members who had refused to applaud his waving of the Palestinian flag.
Yelling, snarling, jeering and generally threatening behaviour from a large audience drove the couple, who didn’t find the joke funny, back out onto the streets, and led Dominic Cavendish, Chief Theatre Critic of the Telegraph and a very experienced comedy-goer, to describe it as “without doubt… the most unpleasant comedy gig I’ve ever attended”.
Hunter, on the other hand, seems to have rather enjoyed all this. The audience reaction told him, he confessed, that he still has “voltage”. And in all honesty, in the heat of the moment, I do understand his reaction.
Churchill famously said there is nothing in life so exhilarating as to be shot at without result. The dangerous, adrenalising thrill of hearing a heckle and at once realising that the audience is on your side is the comic equivalent of that whistling miss.
Hunter has since issued a statement regretting the “incident” and in particular any stress caused. I am inclined to believe and accept his claim, though I note it is not enough for many online who are convinced they see two-tier comedy just as so many of us see a split-level arrangement in, well, everything else.
But that at least is more mollifying than Currie, who has not so much doubled down on his stance as shuffled the decimal point one place to the right. His Instagram even warns “Zionists” to not buy tickets to his Edinburgh show.
Israel is first and foremost a foreign country, a political entity with a government and a military and many critics both domestic and overseas. It should be no more protected from comedic critique, whether clever satire or straight-up bodying, than would Russia, America or Chad.
But equally, you don’t need a PhD in Middle Eastern or 20th-century history to understand that Jews might feel more personally attacked by such material than, say, Americans during Operation Desert Storm.
This iteration will soon blow over. The police have confirmed that they will be taking no action under the particularly draconian hate speech legislation effective in Scotland — which is a relief, both for Hunter and comedy generally. Though it would, I think, have taken a heart of stone not to laugh had the legislation so doggedly pursued by Humza Yousaf found its first high-profile victim in telling a pro-Gaza joke.
But I have a horrible feeling we will be back here, sooner than we think or hope. God, I miss Jerry Sadowitz and his cheerfully waggling cock.
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SubscribePoking fun at Israel is fair game in comedy. Warning Zionists not to come to your show is beyond contempt. I don’t think the douche should be cancelled, but I hope no one goes to his shows. Imagine the crap storm if he warned any other minority group not to attend his show.
Such as racist rioters? Outside of the bubble of racist geriatrics who comment on unherd, people are disgusted at the genocide that Israel is committing. R.D. Hunters audience will grow after this..
How not to win friends and not to influence people – shout at them with unhinged smears about completely unrelated issues.
Israel is a member of the UN. Zionism would currently mean Israel continuing to exist. So does that mean the UN is zionist and need to be boycotted.
Yes. The zionist state should never have been admitted to the UN in the first place, not least because it was visibly an edifice erected by terrorists with nazi sympathies.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-06-21/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/zionist-military-org-efforts-to-recruit-nazis-in-fight-against-the-british-are-revealed/00000188-d93a-d5fc-ab9d-db7ae0ea0000
Be careful what arguments you chose lest they have wider implications
I know when I’m talking to a trained anti-Israel activist.
Joke about anything but allowing the hounding of two individuals having to listen to an audience scream anti semitism at them while leaving can’t possibly be ok. Especially when same week (or so) sticking someone posting Islamophobia on Facebook in prison for years. If that’s not double standards I don’t know what is.
The double standards are racist apologists like yourself comparing incitement to riot,murder and arson to people expressing their horror at the genocide in Gaza by counter heckling to hecklers who are part of that genocide!
The ignorance summed up in that statement, is beyond parody. Indeed, I’m sure Karl Roland Friesler would have been proud to have called you his friend and compatriot.
You may have to explain that to him.
Exactly, making jokes about Jews or Christians is ok.
Why not about Islam and Muhamed?
We know what happens to teachers and other people who upset islamofas***t.
While state stands by.
The state is frightened.
A man with a mic raised a frenzy amongst a crowd. That crowd, egged on by the man with the mic, began verbally and physically threatening other people. As events escalated, the man with the mic stood silent and watched. The man with the mic later explained he enjoyed it.
This isn’t comedy. This isn’t freedom of speech. He crossed a well established legal line. He encouraged others to commit criminal acts. That’s the problem.
Hunter didn’t explain he enjoyed it. There author of this article has concluded that Hunter seems to have rather enjoyed it, at least in the moment. He may be right, but Hunter described the incident as “unfortunate” and said he regretted any stress caused. In that regard Hunter cuts a very different figure from Paul Currie, and possibly should get a little more latitude.
Yes, but these sort of criminal acts are approved by the state.
Bur when you criticise mass immigration etc, state is after you.
Two Tier Kier all over.
Intolerance is ever present. In a person deficient in a steady, insightful personality, or in a mob, it spills over in to hatred. From there it is a short step from violent language to physical harm. The whole Jewish-Palestinian hatred is too complicated for me to adjudicate on individual kerfuffles such as this. The more one delves, the more vocal shouty activity one finds from the players involved. The whole world is a stage, and the stage and the audience are the world, shrunk to react violently at the drop of a comma. I just wish it would all go away, the violence, the hatred and the shouting.
Opposition to tolerance of terrorists is not intolerance. It is the right course of action.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-06-21/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/zionist-military-org-efforts-to-recruit-nazis-in-fight-against-the-british-are-revealed/00000188-d93a-d5fc-ab9d-db7ae0ea0000
As a free speech near absolutist (there are things apart from shouting fire in a crowded theatre when there is not one that should be criminal), we have to accept that free speech means hearing things we don’t like and needing to grow a thicker skin as a result.
Errr, the subsequent joke he told about the jewish newspaper is what is getting this chap cancelled. Not sure I can repeat it on here but it is definitely anti-semitic. This is reporting by omission.
A plague on both their houses
Witnesses have claimed Hunter then told a joke about the Jewish Chronicle website putting a review of one of his previous shows behind a paywall, saying: “Typical f—— Jews, they won’t tell you anything unless you subscribe.”
The Jewish Chronicle does not currently have a paywall.
The essential rule in comedy is to be funny first, politically correct second. Sadly, many contemporary standups think that if they adopt the right stances then the laughs will automatically follow. The laughs might appear, but they are joyless and hollow.
Re: Humza Yousaf.
I had a real chuckle to myself when I read that a large number of complaints submitted to the Scottish police after the hate speech laws came into force were against Yousaf himself for his whiteness speech/tirade in 2020. Who needs a comedy show when you’ve got Humza Yousaf and the SNP?
There was a brilliant meme doing the rounds at the time which was Yousaf superimposed on a pic of a camping vehicle. The caption was “RV parked in Sturgeon’s driveway: white.”
Gold, I tell you.
The audience must have all been English. The whiter than white (I appreciate an unfortunate turn of phrase in this instance, if Humza has anything to say about it), according to the great and the good of Scottish politics, haven’t a prejudice bone in their bodies ( Unless, of course, it’s that rabble from south of the border, in which case it’s somehow ok).
Have you considered remedial English classes?
Beyond help I’m afraid !
Paul Currie is a nasty piece of work.
I don’t care much for the Reginald D Hunter joke and I’d understand if some Jews in the audience would regret paying their ticket price just to be insulted in this currently emotive times (a year ago, prior to Oct 7, I might have felt differently).
He has a rape joke routine which I don’t like and I simply would avoid his shows just for that. However, I Hunter’s had the guts to make a trans joke before so, fair enough. That’s braver than that woke ginger obscenity Frankie Boyle.
Simple solution: send Mossad after him. The Nation of Islam won’t be able to hide him for long with those boys on his trail.
Reginald Hunter is lucky to have a clever chap like Simon Evans defend him here.
I actually like Hunter – he’s one of the few comics I’ve seen live – but I can’t wholly side with him on this incident. No matter whose side you’re on, the facts are that two members of his audience were driven from the room by a hate mob. Nobody should be defending that, nobody should be benefitting from it, and nobody ought to get away with it.
But does it take a PhD to understand that the Palestine flag is a symbol of resistance to terrorism in general and to the operation of a state organised by a bunch of murderous terrorists with Nazi sympathies in particular?
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-06-21/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/zionist-military-org-efforts-to-recruit-nazis-in-fight-against-the-british-are-revealed/00000188-d93a-d5fc-ab9d-db7ae0ea0000
Calling Israelis ‘nazis’ is stupid and ahistorical. It was, after all, Palestinians who went to Germany to help with the holocaust. Stick to ‘Zionist’.
No. Instead cancel him for singling out audience members and allowing them to be bullied from the auditorium.
I’m entirely against ‘cancelling’ people, but what’s sauce for the goose… If the bulk of comedians and their fans are going to insist that right-wingers, Jews, feminists etc should be banned then they can expect the same.