As someone who is deeply involved in the support and aid of Holocaust survivors, as well as making their voices relevant to this and future generations, I am compelled to jump into the controversy surrounding Larry David’s “concentration camp dating joke” on last Saturday’s “SNL.”
Get over it, it was a joke.
To those who came down on David with righteous indignation, may I ask:
Where were you when the Trump administration omitted any reference to Jews in the official U.S. government statement on International Holocaust Day, just this January 27? When groups like the ADL registered their complaints to the White House, it fell on deaf ears.
Where were you when the Holocaust monument in Canada’s capital, Ottawa, neglected to mention Jews or anti-Semitism in the inscription?
Where were you when the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson re-wrote history by claiming that the USSR, not Bulgaria, saved nearly 50,000 Jews from deportation and extermination — a total fabrication in Holocaust history?
Where were you when it was announced that 35,000-plus Holocaust survivors live in poverty, in of all places, Israel — a country where their pain and sacrifice was the brick and mortar that built Israel, and whose shoulders every Israeli stands on?
Where were you when the facts surrounding the Holocaust is denied, questioned and challenged in American classrooms?
I’ll tell you where you were — you were absent. The joke wasn’t on “Saturday Night Live,” the joke is your righteous indignation and ignorance of where the real problem is. A comic makes a joke about the Holocaust and that triggers an avalanche of response. A survivor goes to bed hungry, riddled with untreated diabetes in a roach-ridden flat in Tel Aviv, and your response? Crickets.
This is why we laugh. This is why we tell jokes. We are all victims of oppression and what do we do — we laugh in its face. Larry David was not joking about the Holocaust, he was making an observation on who we are — resilient in the face of horror.
5 Comedians Whose Pro-Trump Jokes Have Rattled Entertainment Industry (Photos)
Thanks to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, many fans have come to think of political humor as having a distinctly liberal agenda. But these comics are among those putting a conservative spin on joke-telling in the Trump era.
Dennis Miller
The former "Weekend Update" anchor from "SNL" has been an outspoken conservative for years.
Sample line: "Don't kid yourself. At this point, any vote for anyone that is not Donald Trump is a vote for Hillary Clinton."
Dick Masterson
The satirist and host of "The Dick Show" podcast takes delight in making steam pour out of liberals' ears by denigrating women, college students and of course Hillary Clinton.
Sample line: "'Here's Why We Grieve Today' because we have to wait 4 long years to ELECT TRUMP AGAIN!!!"
Evan Sayet
This comic and MC likes to take on political correctness, global warming and other liberal sacred cows.
Sample line: "Do scientists really know what the temperature was in northeast Siberia in the year 802?"
Bill Burr
Burr has been the king of anti-politically correct comedians for years. Although he's not specifically pro-Trump, he says he got grief for trying to explain Trump's appeal on "Conan."
Sample: "I like Republicans better than Democrats, because I know they don't like me. I know they don't want me in their neighborhood."
Sam Hyde
He's one of the forces behind the comedy group Million Dollar Extreme; the creators contend that their Adult Swim show was canceled as retribution for supporting Trump.
Sample line: "Comedians these days, just like journalists and academics, are expected to toe an ideological line."
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Move over, Jon Stewart: These comics want to steer American humor to the right
Thanks to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, many fans have come to think of political humor as having a distinctly liberal agenda. But these comics are among those putting a conservative spin on joke-telling in the Trump era.
Winner of the Los Angeles Press Club's best blog award and a Southern California Journalism Award for his HollyBlogs, as well as an award for the Facebook group that helped to muscle the salvation of long-term care for the motion picture and television industry, Stellar's "vituperative blog on TheWrap" (Vanity Fair) focuses on issues related to the motion picture and entertainment industry. Stellar is founder of The Man/Kind Project, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation whose mission is to fight religious and cultural intolerance through the arts while building bridges of tolerance for all people. Stellar lives in Woodland Hills, California, with his wife of over 30 years, Nuala, and much too much Beatles memorabilia.