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| Did Trevor Noah and Lena Dunham’s jokes offend Jewish people? It depends | Did Trevor Noah and Lena Dunham’s jokes offend Jewish people? It depends |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Trevor Noah, the new host of the Daily Show, caused a real shanda on Monday after tweets emerged from several years ago that contained eyebrow-raising jokes about Jewish people and women. | Trevor Noah, the new host of the Daily Show, caused a real shanda on Monday after tweets emerged from several years ago that contained eyebrow-raising jokes about Jewish people and women. |
| Last week, Lena Dunham faced a controversy of her own when she published a Shouts & Murmurs column in the New Yorker satirically comparing her Jewish boyfriend to her dog. | Last week, Lena Dunham faced a controversy of her own when she published a Shouts & Murmurs column in the New Yorker satirically comparing her Jewish boyfriend to her dog. |
| Much debate has ensued about whether or not this humor was offensive to Jews. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) was swift to call Dunham’s column “tasteless”. On Tuesday, they released a statement on Noah: “We hope he will not cross the line from legitimate satire into offensiveness with jokes calling up antisemitic stereotypes and misogyny.” | Much debate has ensued about whether or not this humor was offensive to Jews. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) was swift to call Dunham’s column “tasteless”. On Tuesday, they released a statement on Noah: “We hope he will not cross the line from legitimate satire into offensiveness with jokes calling up antisemitic stereotypes and misogyny.” |
| Barry Kosmin, research professor of Public Policy & Law at Trinity University in Connecticut, pointed to one of Noah’s problematic tweets from January 2012. “Messi gets the ball and the real players try foul him, but Messi doesn’t go down easy, just like jewish chicks. #ElClasico,” Noah wrote. | Barry Kosmin, research professor of Public Policy & Law at Trinity University in Connecticut, pointed to one of Noah’s problematic tweets from January 2012. “Messi gets the ball and the real players try foul him, but Messi doesn’t go down easy, just like jewish chicks. #ElClasico,” Noah wrote. |
| “You have to consider the cultural background,” Kosmin told the Guardian. “Underlying this comedy is a long tradition” of stereotyping Jewish women – and men’s – sexuality, he said. | “You have to consider the cultural background,” Kosmin told the Guardian. “Underlying this comedy is a long tradition” of stereotyping Jewish women – and men’s – sexuality, he said. |
| But some Jewish comedians are greeting the alleged transgressors – who both have partial Jewish heritage – with a little more than a Seinfeldian shrug. | But some Jewish comedians are greeting the alleged transgressors – who both have partial Jewish heritage – with a little more than a Seinfeldian shrug. |
| “I think light poking of archaic Jewish stereotypes in the context of a joke column is completely fine,” Tovah Silbermann, a New York comedian and host of the podcast Making Ends Meet said of Dunham’s piece. “I’m more offended that it wasn’t funny than it being antisemitic.” | “I think light poking of archaic Jewish stereotypes in the context of a joke column is completely fine,” Tovah Silbermann, a New York comedian and host of the podcast Making Ends Meet said of Dunham’s piece. “I’m more offended that it wasn’t funny than it being antisemitic.” |
| Silbermann said she was much more concerned about what she called the “policing of comedy” she’s seen on display in recent days. “If a Jew can’t poke a little fun at her Jewish boyfriend about being Jewish, then what can any of us say any more?” | |
| Others said that critics failed to take into consideration comedy’s culture of experimentation and natural fallibility. | Others said that critics failed to take into consideration comedy’s culture of experimentation and natural fallibility. |
| Sam Morril, a New York-based comedian, said that standups needed space to be a little provocative. “Jokes that excite me have a little bite to them,” he told the Guardian. “There’s something that’s not gonna please someone in most jokes. | Sam Morril, a New York-based comedian, said that standups needed space to be a little provocative. “Jokes that excite me have a little bite to them,” he told the Guardian. “There’s something that’s not gonna please someone in most jokes. |
| “You don’t realize where the line is until you try the line, and comics get a rush out of that line.” | “You don’t realize where the line is until you try the line, and comics get a rush out of that line.” |
| Morril said when judging comedians like Noah, the audience had to take intent into consideration. If the intent of the comedian is to exclude a particular community, it would be one thing, he said, but usually comedians’ intent is just to be funny, and that sometimes doesn’t work out. | Morril said when judging comedians like Noah, the audience had to take intent into consideration. If the intent of the comedian is to exclude a particular community, it would be one thing, he said, but usually comedians’ intent is just to be funny, and that sometimes doesn’t work out. |
| “People now think that complaining and being offending is being progressive. It’s not progressive thinking to try and shut somebody up,” comedian Liza Treyger said of the backlash against him. “I’m Jewish. I’m not offended.” | “People now think that complaining and being offending is being progressive. It’s not progressive thinking to try and shut somebody up,” comedian Liza Treyger said of the backlash against him. “I’m Jewish. I’m not offended.” |
| Noah and Dunham are far from the first comedians of Jewish ancestry to incite public ire when it comes to humor about Jewish people. In 2013, Joan Rivers, (TZ”L), caused an uproar when she made a Holocaust joke about Heidi Klum’s Oscar dress. “The last time a German looked this hot was when they were pushing Jews into the ovens,” she said. True to form, she refused to stand down after public outcry. “It’s a joke, No 1. No 2: it’s about the Holocaust,” Rivers later told HLN. “This is the way I remind people about the Holocaust. I do it through humor.” | Noah and Dunham are far from the first comedians of Jewish ancestry to incite public ire when it comes to humor about Jewish people. In 2013, Joan Rivers, (TZ”L), caused an uproar when she made a Holocaust joke about Heidi Klum’s Oscar dress. “The last time a German looked this hot was when they were pushing Jews into the ovens,” she said. True to form, she refused to stand down after public outcry. “It’s a joke, No 1. No 2: it’s about the Holocaust,” Rivers later told HLN. “This is the way I remind people about the Holocaust. I do it through humor.” |
| Similarly, Sacha Baron Cohen’s satirical film Borat, whose buffoonish character exhibited antisemitic characteristics, raised eyebrows at the ADL, which said it was “concerned ... the audience may not always be sophisticated enough to get the joke, and that some may even find it reinforcing their bigotry.” | Similarly, Sacha Baron Cohen’s satirical film Borat, whose buffoonish character exhibited antisemitic characteristics, raised eyebrows at the ADL, which said it was “concerned ... the audience may not always be sophisticated enough to get the joke, and that some may even find it reinforcing their bigotry.” |
| Other forms of Jewish humor have escaped such criticism. Jon Stewart’s nasally caricature of a Jewish bubby (or any Jewish public figure. See also: his Chuck Schumer) is one of his most tried-and-true comedy techniques. Lewis Black profanely lamented celebrating Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, however self-deprecating, are deemed kosher. | Other forms of Jewish humor have escaped such criticism. Jon Stewart’s nasally caricature of a Jewish bubby (or any Jewish public figure. See also: his Chuck Schumer) is one of his most tried-and-true comedy techniques. Lewis Black profanely lamented celebrating Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, however self-deprecating, are deemed kosher. |
| Back in 2012, Rachel Shukert took a closer look at the phenomenon of Jewish humor’s emergence in popular culture in Tablet magazine and whether or not it was cause for concern. “For comedians, the Jewish joke is a slam-dunk. Low-risk and high-reward. Blunt enough to shock – and in many cases, still feel authentically subversive – but without any worries of nasty boycotts or protracted Twitter wars leaving millions of lost followers in their bloody wake,” she wrote (this was, of course before Dunham and Noah both found themselves in the midst of one such protracted Twitter war). | Back in 2012, Rachel Shukert took a closer look at the phenomenon of Jewish humor’s emergence in popular culture in Tablet magazine and whether or not it was cause for concern. “For comedians, the Jewish joke is a slam-dunk. Low-risk and high-reward. Blunt enough to shock – and in many cases, still feel authentically subversive – but without any worries of nasty boycotts or protracted Twitter wars leaving millions of lost followers in their bloody wake,” she wrote (this was, of course before Dunham and Noah both found themselves in the midst of one such protracted Twitter war). |
| She went on to explain that this embrace of Jewish jokes wasn’t necessarily a bad thing: | She went on to explain that this embrace of Jewish jokes wasn’t necessarily a bad thing: |
| There are those who might claim this belies a latent antisemitism that it has only lately become fashionable to air, and at the very least, might be infectious ... I think it’s actually symptomatic of the opposite: that the generation currently ascendant in the entertainment industry, Jews and non-Jews alike, is the first to be truly, publicly comfortable with Jewishness. | There are those who might claim this belies a latent antisemitism that it has only lately become fashionable to air, and at the very least, might be infectious ... I think it’s actually symptomatic of the opposite: that the generation currently ascendant in the entertainment industry, Jews and non-Jews alike, is the first to be truly, publicly comfortable with Jewishness. |
| “I think comedy is a field that attracts a lot of Jews, and therefore we’ve grown accustomed to poking a little fun at ourselves, which opens the door for others to poke fun of us as well,” said Tovah Silbermann. | “I think comedy is a field that attracts a lot of Jews, and therefore we’ve grown accustomed to poking a little fun at ourselves, which opens the door for others to poke fun of us as well,” said Tovah Silbermann. |
| However, that open door can lead to lines being crossed, even unintentionally. “At a show the other night, a black male comic casually referred to ‘Mark Zuckerberg and his Facebook Jews.’ And it wasn’t even part of the joke,” writer and comedian Lynn Bixenspan told the Guardian. | However, that open door can lead to lines being crossed, even unintentionally. “At a show the other night, a black male comic casually referred to ‘Mark Zuckerberg and his Facebook Jews.’ And it wasn’t even part of the joke,” writer and comedian Lynn Bixenspan told the Guardian. |
| “I tend to find casual antisemitism like that more disturbing than a pointed joke, even a failed attempt at one. I think it’s because Jews are sort of The Other when it comes to white people, but not totally. So it’s somehow seen as not quite as bad to insult them. Almost as if Jewish is a quality a person can have without actually being Jewish,” she said. | “I tend to find casual antisemitism like that more disturbing than a pointed joke, even a failed attempt at one. I think it’s because Jews are sort of The Other when it comes to white people, but not totally. So it’s somehow seen as not quite as bad to insult them. Almost as if Jewish is a quality a person can have without actually being Jewish,” she said. |
| “People can feel a kinship to Jews. And think that gives them a right to talk about them in certain ways when it’s actually still weird and uncomfortable.” | “People can feel a kinship to Jews. And think that gives them a right to talk about them in certain ways when it’s actually still weird and uncomfortable.” |
| Whether or not this impacts Noah or Dunham’s careers has yet to be seen. Comedy Central has said that they’re standing by Noah. | Whether or not this impacts Noah or Dunham’s careers has yet to be seen. Comedy Central has said that they’re standing by Noah. |
| “Like many comedians, Trevor Noah pushes boundaries; he is provocative and spares no one, himself included,” the network said in a statement on Tuesday. “To judge him or his comedy based on a handful of jokes is unfair.” | “Like many comedians, Trevor Noah pushes boundaries; he is provocative and spares no one, himself included,” the network said in a statement on Tuesday. “To judge him or his comedy based on a handful of jokes is unfair.” |