Disgraced comedian Louis C.K. inserted his foot in his mouth again, telling an audience in Israel that he’d prefer to be in the concentration camp where millions of Jewish people were massacred than be in New York City.
“I’d rather be in Auschwitz than New York City,” C.K. said during a Thanksgiving night performance in Holon, a city south of Tel Aviv, according to multiple reports.
“I mean now, not when it was open,” he added.
Auschwitz was a concentration camp built and operated by Nazi Germany where 1.1 million men, women and children were exterminated during World War II, including 865,000 Jews who were gassed on arrival. Many who were not gassed died of starvation, beatings and disease.
Although many on social media got a belly laugh out of the joke – one Twitter user said they bought tickets to his show because of it – and the Daily News reported that “the audience burst into applause” for the comedian, others on Twitter went berserk:
I’m going to try to find a delicate way to respond to Louis CK…
What the fucking fuck is wrong with you? https://t.co/7kBwO7oePk
— Miranda Yaver, PhD (@mirandayaver) November 29, 2019
I wouldn't wish Auschwitz on anyone, even an ignorant, Fascist, stupid fk like Louis CK
— Jim (@J73Jim) November 30, 2019
C.K., who is of Jewish descent, is in the middle of an international comedy tour that includes sold-out shows in Slovakia, along with performances in Hungary and a series of U.S. shows in Detroit, Akron, Reading, Mobile, New Orleans and Houston.
During his Holon set, C.K. also addressed his behavior as being wrong, according to the New York Daily News.
“If they say ‘yes,’ then still don’t do it, because it’s not popular,” he said in apparent reference to the growing #MeToo movement.
But this isn’t the first time C.K. has referenced masturbating in front of women during a comedy set. Earlier this year in a San Jose comedy club, C.K. told the audience, “I like to jerk off, and I don’t like being alone.”