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The Shocking Reason That Antisemitism Is Funny
Recently, at the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, an American comedian named Reginald D. Hunter told an antisemitic joke.
The joke stated that having an abusive wife who complains about being abused is “like being married to Israel.”
The joke is no doubt offensive to many Israelis and Jews. I find it offensive. Yet the joke is also funny.
I say it is funny based upon the fact that, according to reports, the audience laughed. If people laugh at a joke, it is, by definition, funny.
I don’t like the fact that the joke “worked,” to use the parlance of comedians, but I also can’t change the fact that it did.
So, why was the joke funny?
As a comedy writer myself (scripted comedy, not stand-up, but the principles are the same) I’ve given some thought to the question of what makes something funny. Having answers to the question does not make me a funnier writer, but I find it interesting nonetheless.
I will begin answering that question with an episode of the old The Dick Van Dyke Show. In the episode, Dick Van Dyke’s character, Rob Petrie, attends his young son’s elementary school class to talk about his job as a comedy writer.
After floundering, comedically of course, Rob teaches the young kids that we laugh when we are surprised. He demonstrates by re-entering the classroom and doing a pratfall. The kids laugh. See, he explains, you don’t expect someone to enter a room and fall down like that. You are surprised, so you laugh.
There are other types of comedic surprise. There is verbal surprise. Most people have heard the old Henny Youngman joke, “Take my wife. Please!”
This joke was funny because people expected “Take my wife…” to be followed by something like “for example.” Instead he said “please,” changing the expected meaning, surprising the audience and getting a big laugh. The reason why it is not funny today is because the surprise is long since gone.
There is also the surprise of recognition. We hear something that makes us react with an unconscious, “Oh, my God, that is so true,” and that surprised recognition makes us laugh. Much of Jerry Seinfeld’s so-called observational comedy falls into this category. Seinfeld jokes about the safety instructions on airplanes: “They show you how to use the seatbelt, in case you haven’t been in a car since 1965. ‘Oh, you lift up on the buckle! Oh! I was trying to break the metal apart. I thought that’s how it works.’”
And the audience laughs because they are surprised by the recognition: “Oh, my God, that is so true.”
So, when Reginald D. Hunter said that having an abusive wife who complains about being abused is “like being married to Israel,” why was that funny? It wasn’t a pratfall or a verbal surprise. I would posit that the audience had the reaction of surprised recognition. And therefore, they laughed.
For me, as a Jew, it is not the fact that a possibly antisemitic comedian told an antisemitic joke that I find so horribly disturbing. It is the fact that a room full of people thought “Oh, my God, that is so true.”
Michael Kaplan is a TV writer-producer, playwright, and children’s book author. For his TV work, he has been nominated for four Emmy Awards, winning one.
The post The Shocking Reason That Antisemitism Is Funny first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Report: IDF Probes Whether Houthis Used Iranian Cluster Bomb-Bearing Missile

Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a video link at the al-Shaab Mosque, formerly al-Saleh Mosque, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
i24 News – The Israeli military said Saturday it launched a probe into the failure of its defenses to fully intercept a missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi jihadists, parts of which struck not far from the Ben Gurion airport on Friday night.
According to the Ynet website, one of the hypotheses being examined is that the projectile contained cluster munitions, similar to those used by Iran to fire at Israeli cities during the 12-day war in June. Cluster munitions pose a challenge to interceptors as they disperse smaller explosives over a wide area.
In June, Iran fired several missiles carrying scattered small bombs with the aim of increasing civilian casualties.
The IDF said on Saturday that its initial review suggests the ballistic missile from Yemen likely fragmented in mid-air. Five interceptors from various systems engaged with the missile, including THAAD, Arrow, David Sling & Iron Dome.
Authorities said that shrapnel impacted a house in the central Israeli moshav of Ginaton, yet no one was hurt, with the fragment landing in the house’s backyard.
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Iran Forces Kill Six Militants, IRNA Reports, Israel Link Seen

The Iranian flag is seen flying over a street in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 3, 2023. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iranian security forces shot dead six militants in a clash in southeastern Iran on Saturday, a day after armed rebels killed five police officers in the restive region, the official news agency IRNA reported.
IRNA said evidence showed the group was linked to Israel and may have been trained by Israel‘s Mossad spy agency. There was no immediate Israeli reaction to the allegation.
Another two members of the militant group were arrested, the report said. All but one of the militants were foreign, it added, without giving their nationality.
Iranian police said this month they had arrested as many as 21,000 suspects during the 12-day war with Israel in June.
Iran’s southeast has been the scene of sporadic clashes between security forces and armed groups, including Sunni militants and separatists who say they are fighting for greater rights and autonomy.
Tehran says some of them have ties to foreign powers and are involved in cross-border smuggling and insurgency.
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Benny Gantz Urges Time-Limited National Unity Government to Further Chances of Hostage Deal

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz attends his party’s meeting at the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, June 27, 2022. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz on Saturday called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition politicians to form a temporary national unity government to further the chances of bringing home the hostages held in Gaza.
Addressing Netanyahu, Yair Lapid and Avigdor Liberman, Gantz said that the proposed government’s two supreme priorities would be the release of Israeli hostages held by the jihadists of Hamas and instituting universal conscription in Israel by ending the exemption from military service enjoyed by the ultra-Orthodox.
Upon attainment of the goals, the government would dissolve and call an election.
“The government’s term will begin with a hostage deal that brings everyone home,” Gantz said in a video address. “Within weeks, we will formulate an enlistment outline that would see our ultra-Orthodox brethren drafted to the military and ease the burden on those already serving. Finally, we will announce an agreed-upon election date in the spring of 2026 and pass a law to dissolve the Knesset [Israeli parliament] accordingly. This is what’s right for Israel.”