Two Israelis were booed out of a stand-up comedy show in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh on Sunday after they objected to a joke comparing the Jewish state to an abusive spouse.
The incident occurred when U.K.-based comedian Reginald D. Hunter, who was accused in the past of antisemitism for making light of the Holocaust, recounted how a recent documentary in which a woman described ill treatment at the hands of her husband made him think: “My God, it’s like being married to Israel.”
When the Israelis, who were seated in the front row, shouted “Not funny,” members of the audience heckled them. According to The Telegraph theater critic Dominic Cavendish, who was present at the event, epithets hurled included “F*** off,” “Genocidal maniac,” “You’re not welcome” and “Free Palestine.”
During the melee, Hunter, 55, taunted the couple: “I’ve been waiting for you all summer, where the f*** you been?”
As they exited the premises, he called out: “You can say it’s not funny to you, but if you say it to a room full of people who laughed, you look foolish.”
The events described at the Edinburgh Fringe are extremely concerning.
— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) August 12, 2024
Comedians are rightly given broad latitude, but they also have a responsibility to their audience.
Reginald D. Hunter has laughed off his Holocaust jokes and another supposed joke about “typical f***ing… pic.twitter.com/BDUp1qlDPk
In a post on X, the British NGO Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote: “Comedians are rightly given broad latitude, but they also have a responsibility to their audience. Reginald D Hunter has laughed off his Holocaust jokes and another supposed joke about ‘typical f***ing Jews’ in the past, but watching on and cracking jokes as Jews are hounded out of your show is a sickening low that cannot be disguised as comedy.”
The group said its lawyers were examining the incident.
Cavendish gave the show a one-star review.
Hunter’s earlier antisemitic incident took place in 2006. He commented that he should go to Austria, where it is illegal to deny the Holocaust, get arrested for saying that the genocide against the Jews did not happen and tell the judge that he was denying the Rwandan holocaust, not the Jewish one.
