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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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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.