Comedy's Jewish problem

Reginald D Hunter has been on Twitter again

Reginald D Hunter has been having a grand old time (picture: Becky Lovell)

“I will see you and your kind ended, even if it costs me EVERYTHING.” Taken on face value, this would pass for the ravings of a white supremacist. In reality, however, the statement was made by a BBC comedian this week.

Step forward Reginald D Hunter, the very man who sparked controversy at the Edinburgh festival in August when two Israeli citizens were hounded out of his show. (In his response to that furore, Hunter reportedly joked about the Jewish Chronicle website. “Typical f***ing Jews, they won’t tell you anything unless you subscribe,” he said. The Jewish Chronicle does not currently have a paywall.)

Were you aware that the Have I Got News For You star had made such a disturbing public remark on Wednesday, the anniversary of 9/11? Probably not. But one thing is for certain: if the target had been black people, gay people or trans people rather than the Jews, you’d know about it all right. So would the rest of Britain.

The context – if it is possible to use that word these days without a little bit of sick popping into the mouth – was a testy exchange with Gaza hostage campaigner Heidi Bachram on social media.

“Hey sugar,” Hunter tweeted, in full view of his 124,000 followers. “You being a liar, a persistent liar KNOWING the truth, is why I will see you and your kind ended, even if it costs me EVERYTHING. You are not even a JEW. Run tell that.” This being the weirdness of 2024, he ended with a kiss emoji.

“The word ‘ended’ felt deeply sinister,” Bachram later told the Jewish Chronicle. “I was scared.”

Questioning the Jewishness of the Jews is a theme upon which Hunter appeared to elaborate in another tweet. “THIS is why I HATE these people and am committed to their destruction,” he wrote. “Not because JEW hatred. Not even because they are European Nazis pretending to be JEWS. Because of all the lying. Mama HATED liars and bequeathed that hatred to ALL of her children.”

Thanks for clearing that up.

Quick question: why is Hunter still gigging? Quick answer: because the world of leftwing comedy is rife with this stuff. The day after Hunter dropped that tweet, the Father Ted writer Graham Linehan shared a screengrab of a message apparently sent to performers at an Irish comedy night.

“For jokes we don’t tolerate racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, sexist, or generally any bigoted, punching down comedy,” it stipulated, before adding: “For reference, attacking Israel is NOT antisemitic [and almost encouraged]).”

Almost encouraged. Imagine hearing that with the ears of a parent whose daughter had been raped and mutilated on October 7, or whose son had been killed fighting to defend his people from jihadi butchers in Gaza.

This is the climate in which Britain now laughs. In February, the Soho Theatre banned comedian Paul Currie, who had displayed a Palestinian flag and asked the audience to stand and applaud; when an Israeli software engineer remained seated, Currie – who has also appeared on the BBC – told him to “get the fuck out”.

Nazi troops burn books on Kristallnacht, to the amusement of the man on the left

In May, comedian Dane Baptiste, who starred in a BBC programme and has been nominated for an award at Edinburgh, told a Jewish comedian on Instagram: “I want you to sit down with your husband and kids and imagine what their lives will be without you, because north London is a quick trip to make.”

As if that wasn’t enough, Baptiste added: “Ask about and comedians will tell you I will be at your literal doorstep. Your agent won’t keep you safe. Your act is dumb but don’t be a dumb woman. I will sit in prison while your family sit at the cemetery.” (He later claimed to have “no ill intention towards the Jewish community”.)

This isn’t just about the comedy circuit. Since October 7, much of liberal Britain has become an environment of two-tier racism, in which the war in Gaza has provided handy cover for indulgence of the oldest bigotry.

Show me a left-wing bastion and I’ll show you hatred of the Jews. Universities; the arts; trades unions; the darker corners of the Labour party; comedy.

One can’t help but recall how mockery and laughter has accompanied antisemitism through the ages. Flick through photographs of the Nazi pogroms, for instance, and you will see much joviality.

German soldiers and civilians in Łódź enjoy forcing Jews to shave each other, 1939

In his upcoming book, Israel Alone, the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy writes of “a colony of germs that were already present in the sewers, not only of Gaza but of the world”. After October 7, it did not take much for it to swarm into the open and spread through society. The open manholes were found on the political left.

Perhaps times have not changed as much as we had thought for the Jews, who now find themselves hounded from performances in Britain with laughter ringing in their ears.