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Dateline: 22nd August, 2006
Comedy and Anti-Semitism Anti-Semitism is an evil that must be stamped out - but is stand-up comedy the place to start? asks Philip Fisher who interviewed Reginald D Hunter for the Jewish Chronicle and now reports on the Anti-Semitism controversy that has shaken Edinburgh. On Tuesday 15th August, Black stand-up Reginald D Hunter was an angry man. As he started Pride and Prejudice and Niggas in the 300 seat upturned purple cow known as the E4 Udderbelly, he immediately referred to Jamie Glassman's article in that morning's copy of The Times. As he put it "I'm not mad, just mildly disgusted". He then spent several minutes talking to his sell-out audience about the word "Jews" and seemed mystified that his show the previous night could have caused offence. He also, more controversially, addressed the issue of Jewish paranoia and qualified this by extending it to paranoia as expressed by Blacks, women and others. He explained that this could be a good thing as it can act as a protection mechanism. To put his comments on the previous night into context, Hunter then proceeded to tell jokes that were likely to offend Blacks, women, parents and Catholics. That is how he works, determinedly and proudly crude but intrinsically honest. After the hour-long set, Hunter agreed to talk about the controversy that he has caused and his philosophy of life and stand-up comedy. In The Times, he and fellow comic Steve Hughes had been accused of anti-Semitism by Glassman, one of the co-writers of the Ali G Show, and more specifically of denying the holocaust and using it to get cheap laughs. The first point that the London-based American comedian was keen to emphasise was "I am not anti-Semitic and I was not intending to upset Jews". He then admitted that he did not know that much about Jewish culture other than what he has picked up from Jewish people that he has known. His ignorance of the specific implications of the word "Holocaust" was part of the problem. He regarded it as a synonym for genocide and therefore had not picked up on the deep significance of the term for almost any Jewish person, especially those who had lived through that period or lost loved ones. He was only marginally surprised that he had caused offence with his jokes but felt strongly that "Glassman was aiming frustration at Steve Hughes' act, to connect a hatred of Jews with American Imperialism". Hunter feels misunderstood and says that part of his comedy comes from saying things that people are not expecting and a Black man talking about the Jews fits into that profile. It has to be said that the things he says about "niggers" are at least as offensive as anything that he directed at the Jews on Tuesday. However, he did not use the Holocaust joke that really fired up Jamie Glassman. That may in part have been his nervousness at knowing not only that the world's eyes were on him but also a critic from the Jewish Chronicle. The joke, which had previously been aired before several thousand people without any apparent discord, compares the Holocaust with genocide elsewhere and while he believes that he will use it again, it will be re-written first, ostensibly "to make it funnier". Hunter was not entirely repentant about the fuss that his act has caused. "I don't regret what has happened but I didn't set out to cause offence and I don't care if it happens again". His final message to readers is "come and see the show and make up your mind for yourself". The same night Steve Hughes was performing his show, The Storm, in a Portakabin just along the road at the Pleasance Courtyard. He is an Australian, also in his late thirties with the look of a heavy metal guitarist and consistently left-wing attitudes. The man who had caused so much trouble the night before has a more rambling, discursive style than Hunter but is also quite willing to attack taboo subjects. He may too have been on best behaviour, well aware that his much smaller audience was augmented by a significant contingent of journalists. The only signs of any possible incipient anti-Semitism came in a couple of jokes using the Jewish treatment by the Nazis as a comparator for other genocidal behaviour. The joke cited in The Times as causing an anti-Semitic outburst may have been expressed slightly differently but had little effect, of any kind. Hughes was also far from complimentary about the Israeli occupation of Arab lands, but that must be seen as a separate issue. From this one evening, it would be very difficult to find any serious evidence that either of these men is anti-Semitic, although of course they may be. The world of stand-up thrives on offensive ideas and language and it would be surprising if Reginald D Hunter and Steve Hughes were the only comedians in Edinburgh using this kind of material. Indeed, Hunter himself named a colleague whom he believed could as easily have been tarred with the same brush. They are the unlucky ones who have made it into The Times, primarily because they exhibit the kind of insensitivity that forms part of the armoury of almost every stand-up comedian. It seems highly unlikely that stopping them from doing their acts will have any serious impact on a problem that manifests itself far more worryingly elsewhere, for example where the BNP thrives. The world will be a far finer place if anti-Semitism can be rooted out but attacking a pair of insensitive comedians might well be missing the point. Worse, once word about this controversy gets around the hard-nosed community of comics, the chances are that, by the end of the Fringe, half of Edinburgh will be laughing (or not) at anti-Semitic jokes. Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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