What we joke about when we joke about Anne Frank
In a bit he recently repeated on The Daily Show, British comedian Ricky Gervais jokes that the Nazis must have been incompetent if it took them two years to find Anne Frank’s hiding place.
Dan Bloom, who calls himself the Taiwan bureau chief for the San Diego Jewish World, is trying to make hay out of this. Writing for Britain’s Jewish Chronicle, he calls the joke “genteel British antisemitic snark” and asks Gervais to “leave Anne Frank out of your comedy routines.”
Ricky Gervais has a sensible response in the JC. He says his routine about Anne Frank would be “highly offensive” if taken at face value. Instead, the routine is really “about the misunderstanding and ignorance of what is clearly a tragic and horrific situation. My comic persona is that of a man who speaks with great arrogance and authority but who along the way reveals his immense stupidity.”
I saw the bit and clearly the joke is on people whose emphatically stated opinions are worthless. If anything, it is a joke about historical ignorance, and, how banal stupidity, and not just revisionism, threatens to erase Holocaust memory.
I hope Dan Bloom doesn’t read Shalom Auslander’s new novel, in which a foul-mouthed Anne Frank ends up surviving and living in an attic in upstate New York. His head will explode.
UPDATE: I have just figured out how to increase traffic to this site: Mention Dan Bloom. See comments.
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JustASC is written by Andrew Silow-Carroll, Editor-in-Chief of the 
April 27th, 2012 at 11:32 pm
Dear Andrew,
No hard feelings, I don’t taking a few hits, as long as it is for a good cause, and your humor is okay with me. But Andrew, my landsmann, let me reply to you gently before my head explodes.
1. In a bit he recently repeated on The Daily Show, British comedian Ricky Gervais jokes that the Nazis must have been incompetent if it took them two years to find Anne Frank’s hiding place. DAN REPLIES: Andrew: the joke i was really objecting too was the Gervais joke on the Stewart show about Anne and her family not wanting to pay rent for two yaers and taht is why they hid in an attic in Nazi-occupied Holland. THAT IS FUNNY SIR? Sure, jokes about the incomptency of Nazis are fine, sicne the nazis are the evil ones here, but a rent joke mocking the Franks, the victoms? that is my point, we should never make jokes about VICTIMS, never and Joan Rivers does these ugly vulgar AF jokes too. and HEEb magazine does them.What’s wrong Andrew?
2. Dan Bloom, who calls himself the Taiwan bureau chief for the San Diego Jewish World, is trying to make hay out of this. ANDREW: I DO NOT CALL MYSELF THAT, the editor of the SDJW, Donald Harrison calls me that, he is my friend, email him and ask him why he calls me that, smart alec! – “Heritage and Harrison” — sdheritage@cox.net
2.5 – Andrew I am not trying to make HAY anything. which planet do you live on? because i spoke up and with a strong web presence to make my point, you call that trying to make HAY? for my own benefit? Andrew, you owe me and the entire Jewish people an apology, sir. You accuse me of showboating without even emailing me first and asking me what i am up to. You are poor and lazy editor. sir, but a mensch yes. always a mensch. I respect you and I love NJ, my uncle Eddie Bloom, may he rest in peace, dead at 42 from leukemia in 1968, was from Teaneck and I spent many happy Thanksgiviongs there before his early death….
3. Writing for Britain’s Jewish Chronicle, he calls the joke “genteel British antisemitic snark” and asks Gervais to “leave Anne Frank out of your comedy routines.” ANDREWL i wrote that post on my blog first and at Jewish Boston blog and at the WRAP in hollywood, i wrote nothing for the JC in the UK, they never even contacted me, just like you did’t contact me first before you ambushed me. SMILE
4. Ricky Gervais has a sensible response in the JC.
SENSIBLE? Andrew, are you a self-hating Jew or what?
SENSIBLE to use headline in UK that reads “It’s kosher to make jokes about Anne Frank”….? what agree with that? and do you think Gervais used the word KOSHER there? No, he did not write that. his PR people wrote the letter for him and the JC editors wrote the headline. ask Jenni Frazer at the JC before you make these statements, Andrew….oi, my head is already exploding…
5. He says his routine about Anne Frank would be “highly offensive” if taken at face value. Instead, the routine is really “about the misunderstanding and ignorance of what is clearly a tragic and horrific situation. My comic persona is that of a man who speaks with great arrogance and authority but who along the way reveals his immense stupidity.” AND YOU BELIEVE THAT, ANDREW? WHAT YOU SMOKING OVER THERE IN NJ? That is pure BS, ASk your rabbi, ask any rabbi. you are really wrong here, ANdrew, but i respect you right to write all this.
6. I saw the bit and clearly the joke is on people whose emphatically stated opinions are worthless. If anything, it is a joke about historical ignorance, and, how banal stupidity, and not just revisionism, threatens to erase Holocaust memory.
ANDREW, maybe you saw a different bit. Look again. did you see the RENT joke, the stereotupe of Jews being so cheap they didn’t want to pay rent for two years in Amsterdam so they hid in attic. you find that FUNNY? ANDREW?
7. I hope Dan Bloom doesn’t read Shalom Auslander’s new novel, in which a foul-mouthed Anne Frank ends up surviving and living in an attic in upstate New York. ANDREW, I DID READ IT and MY HEAD DID EXPLODE but i believe in freedom of speech and since Auslander is Jewish, i give him some slack. he was NOT mocking ANNE FRANK as victim or making joing about the frank family not wanting to pay rent. His work was a literay book and well written. Stil, his kind of humor is NOT my kind of humor. Still, I believe Auslander is the son of Holoacuast survivrors so I don’t interfere with his work. BUT YES, my head DID explode. But with understanding and compassion for Auslander’s mom and dad and his own life son of survivors. there is a diference though betwwem Shalom and Ricky. JOAN RIVERS? she mocks Anne for wanting to have sex with “those handsome young Nazi soldiers downstairs” in her lounge act on Youtube now, and for wanting to get a nose job and for “whining” too much in her diary. WHINING? Andrew, what kind of a Jew are you? THere are many kinds. Please exlain yourself. I am all ears, well, that much of my ears still intact after my head exploded really your astoundingly wrong-headed editorial. Oi.
8. and email me next time first. it’s a newsroom courtesy you know. you won’t be hearing from my lawyers, andrew, because i don’t use lawyers. But you will be hearing from G-d, and soon, in your fitful sleep tonight! How could you, how could you friend Ricky Gervais ANNE FRANK jokes?
Cheers and shalom aleichem from Taiwan,
Danny Bloom, 1949-2032
April 28th, 2012 at 12:00 am
Andrew, okay, then JUST WHAT DO COMEDIANS JOKE ABOUT WHEN THEY JOKE ABOUT ANNE FRANK? It’s a good question and you did not answer it. Do answer it at length later. It’s a very good question, and actually, when I began this trans-Atlantic/Pacific campaign, my only real intent was to also ask that kind of question and so far the answers have been enlightening, both pro and con. Good qusestion.
Do answer it later with a longer editorial.
meanwhile i am asking, well, see this:
An Open Letter to Jon Stewart of the Daily Show on Comedy Central re
Ricky Gervais’ Slippery Slope of Tasteless, Vulgar Anne Frank
”jokes”
Dear Jon,
1. Why didn’t you SAY something?
2. Will you SAY something NOW? Or before Hell freezes over?
3. WHAT will you SAY?
4. Dish! — here in the comments section, Jon….
April 28th, 2012 at 12:02 am
And Andrew, Dr Simone Schweber, a professor at the University of Wisconsin in the
United States, offers her take on this brouhaha: “Anne Frank jokes are
made possible, in part, by a political culture that trivializes the
Holocaust writ large. When the Wisconsin Secretary of Agriculture, in
March of 2011 referred to peaceful protesters gathering at the state
capitol as creating a “Holocaust and a horror story,” you know that
people no longer really know what the Holocaust entailed and that its
icons have become petty currency in a struggle to get media attention.
But Danny, to object to the use of the Holocaust as humor, though, is
as likely to be effective as tilting at windmills.”
Interview her.
April 28th, 2012 at 12:05 am
Dr Karin Calvo-Goller in Israel, in Tel Aviv, a French/Israeli scholar there, tells me re this issue: ”There may be little to laugh about theses days, but making jokes about Anne Frank goes beyond simple bad taste.”
April 28th, 2012 at 12:06 am
karin adds: ”Some people have lost they sense of decency, Danny. This is not at all a matter of humor.
The Anne Frank Foundation, the Anne Frank Museum, both in Holland, as well as the Anne Frank-Fonds in Swizerland, the Anne Frank Teacher Worbook in Utah, they all should be informed of the “jokes”.
Have a good day”
Karin Calvo-Goller, Israel
April 28th, 2012 at 12:09 am
and Andrew, the ”jury” [and ''Jewry'' too] is still out on this one, in terms of your
question: were Gervais’ Anne Frank jokes tasteless and offensive,
especially since he told them on the Jon Stewart TV show, and Jon is
Jewish and looked uneasy during the taping, and it showed but Jon said
nothing. Why? But to be honest, if you look at the many blogs and
comments, many people seem to think these kind of victim jokes are
funny. Gervais apparently does. Me? I think there is something wrong
with Western civilization if it makes jokes about Anne Frank not
wanting to pay rent and laughs at such vulgarity. Even the Jewish
comedienne Joan Rivers tells ugly tasteless Anne Frank jokes in her
act online too. Something is very wrong here. What?
April 28th, 2012 at 12:11 am
Andrew, in ”Notes on bad taste: Anne Frank and George Zimmerman walk into a bar” on
April 21 By Steve Schneider in the Orlando Weekly, still avail on Google: Steve writes:…”for this sort of humor to work, the speaker has to commit to it in every particular. Facial expression, gesture, verbal delivery … they all need to be of a piece. If you’re going to take it upon yourself to act a part, you’d damn well better act it. Fred Willard is the king of this sort of thing: In just about everything he does, he’s pitch-perfect at signaling that the character he’s playing knows nothing about life on any substantive level, yet is absolutely certain that he does … and is impressing everyone in the room by showing it.
That’s where, in my humble opinion, Gervais could use some work: Not because I think he really holds any unsavory thoughts about Anne Frank, but because his tendency toward giggly self-amusement sometimes undermines the bit. When he launched into a miniature version of the routine on The Daily Show, his delight in his own naughtiness was tragically palpable.”
April 28th, 2012 at 12:15 am
Andrew, one of my many critics, and most of them not Jewish, by the way, except you, dear God, tells me: ”OK. I’ve read all the correspondence and the to-ing and fro-ing, the pros and cons… and I’ve decided that yeah, Dan Bloom could be right to shriek about Gervais.
So what are our instructions? Can we have a list of what we can make jokes about and what we should steer clear from? So the Holocaust is off-limits but what about British soldiers dying on the Burma railway? Or the atom bombs being dropped on Japan? Any votes for 9/11 anyone? Can we take the piss out of Osama Bin Laden now that he’s dead? Even though he was behind 9/11? Can we make jokes about the Palestinians? The Israelis? Ooops – that could be anti-Semitic, right? So back to the Palestinians… the Iraqis. Iranians, blah blah blah.
Come on, give us some guidelines. We would all like to be as holy and as moral and as whole and as freakin’ perfect as you. Let me in. Let us all in to your paradise.”
April 28th, 2012 at 12:17 am
More from Jolly England, seems a comedian named David Mitchell in 2009 got into some hot water with the BBC for, well see here:
From the SUN newspaper in the UK Nov. 4, 2009 ; hedline: ”Peep Show star’s gag over Anne Frank backfires”
…..COMIC David Mitchell is in hot water for making a joke about Anne Frank …..The BBC has received nearly 50 complaints after Mitchell, ….
But a Uk bloke adds: “Why have you even mentioned David Mitchell? If you’d bothered to listen to his radio show properly you’d have heard “The chairman’s script was written by someone else…” so it’s not even David’s joke. You’ve picked on one line from a show from 2009. And his girlfriend’s Jewish.”
April 28th, 2012 at 12:19 am
Koingsler takes a different POV, saying:
”What on Earth is wrong with this, Dan?
I genuinely don’t understand your complaint.
Gervais is hardly the first comedian that I have heard telling jokes about Anne Frank and I’m sure he won’t be the last. I’ve never hear David Mitchell make a racist or anti-Semitic comment unless in the context of making racism or anti-Semitism look stupid. I know nothing about Joan Rivers other than she hosted an unsuccessful chat show in the 1980s in the UK.
What I really don’t understand is this modern idea that has grown up in the last ten to fifteen years that there are things that are too taboo for comedians to touch. Comedy frequently touches raw nerves of all sorts and long may it continue to do so. When it does it badly, I agree an apology may be in order but it didn’t here. It was a clever cultural observation of people being elevated to heroic stature, simply as a result of having experienced hideous conditions. Further it is the oppressors who are made to look the fools. No one who doesn’t already know the tragic story of the Frank family could possibly find this funny.
Unfortunately, for the last decade or two, we have seen an increase in people trying to create new taboos, when we need to be destroying all taboos if we want to create a better more tolerant society. Mitchell and Gervais have grasped this. As have many others. Taboos must be challenged again and again and again. Many will be discarded as a result and others will be reinforced. But it is only by opening everything we hold dear up to scrutiny and ridicule that we hope to have a peaceful and prosperous future as a species.”
April 28th, 2012 at 12:19 am
Opposite view: ”Oh please. I am no fan of Gervais, but is it wrong to make light of a tragedy? Is humour not a tool to help us deal with the evil in the world? Is it not a statement of the power of her life that even more than 6 decades after her death, she still has a cultural presence? How many more younger people now know her name?
Do you think that she was a dry, humourless husk who never laughed? Or have you elevated her to sainthood, whereupon she never found fun in even the worst of life? Its human nature, then as much as now. ”
April 28th, 2012 at 12:20 am
Hris note: ”If you’re going to be incredibly tasteless and inappropriate, you’d better be clever. Joan Rivers is masterful at this, but her Anne Frank bit wasn’t funny. Ricky Gervais can be really funny but this Anne Frank bit wasn’t clever either. Gag indeed.”
April 28th, 2012 at 12:23 am
A 2nd letter to Gervais, published in TheWrap in California last week
Dear Ricky:
Your response in the JC in the UK to my first “open letter” to you was recently published, and I was glad to see you take the time to respond to me. I know you are a good man, and I know you value your career in show business — and you are good at it, too.=
But in your response, titled “Why It’s Kosher to Joke About Anne Frank,” I feel you miss the point, that there is still a disconnect going on in your mind.
Let’s be honest. You wrote: “I have had that [Anne Frank joke] routine for nearly 10 years now. It is about the misunderstanding and ignorance of what is clearly a tragic and horrific situation. My comic persona is that of a man who speaks with great arrogance and authority but who along the way reveals his immense stupidity.”
But, Ricky, you know and I know — and every comedian worth his salt knows — as does every newspaper drama and TV critic, that your Anne Frank shtick is a scripted, rehearsed, staged “joke” that your stage persona tries to pass off as comedy, taking your sidekick Karl Pilkington in with you, too, as part of the game.
You know as well as I do, Ricky, that Karl is not stupid or dumb and he knows full well the real history of the Holocaust and the real backstory of the Anne Frank family. So the “they just wanted to avoid paying rent” joke does not work, sir. Unless your intent is to encourage anti-Semitism, which I am sure is not your intent.
I am sure some of your best friends are Jewish. Your good friend Jon Stewart is Jewish. So I am sure you have no animosity towards Jews, despite your staged and scripted Anne Frank routine, which you recently repeated on Jon’s TV show, much to his uneasiness. Even though you fobbed off the “rent” joke as part of Karl’s stupidity.
Grow up, sir.
Ricky, you are not stupid and you are not ignorant of history, and I appreciate your response to me.
“I can see if you took this routine at face value as my real opinion on this profound and heroic tragedy, it could be deemed highly offensive,” you sincerely wrote — or your savvy PR person wrote for you. “However, this is obviously an absurd comic position with the audience well in on the joke, fully aware that I am saying the exact opposite of what every right-minded person thinks.”
Ricky, you must be careful when you joke about the Holocaust. Go to Google and see how many people who still hate Jews and feel the Holocaust didn’t go far enough. They lap up your Anne Frank jokes as more ammunition to use against Jewish people today! Wake up, mate!
Ricky, a friend of mine in New York, Rudy Shur, a veteran book publisher and the son of Holocaust survivors, read your letter to me and said: “Ricky misses the point. Perhaps he wouldn’t think it’s so funny if it were his parents being pursued by the Nazis or having almost all of his family shot and killed or dying in concentration camps — such as my own mother’s family and my father’s family.
“I was born in 1946 in an American-run Displaced Person’s Camp outside of Munich, Germany. I grew up never quite seeing the humorous side of the Nazis. In terms of comedy, I myself often get accused of finding comedy in places where no comedy is to be found. And I feel you can make a joke about anything. It just depends on what the joke is.
“Comedy comes from a good or a bad place, and the problem is in its interpretation, with some people confusing the subject of a joke with the joke’s real target. The target of these Ricky Gervais ‘rent’ jokes and ‘typewriting in the attic’ jokes about Anne Frank is Mr. Gervais’ ignorance.”
He goes on to say: “Why not crack a joke about African-Americans being hung from trees in the American South or gay teenagers being murdered or of children in India dying of AIDS? Maybe Mr Gervais’ stupidity knows no bounds? That’s why they pay him the big bucks, right? Or maybe an apology might be in order to the millions of relatives whose families wound up being slaughtered by the ‘stupid’ Nazis?”
So Ricky, mate, I feel you still don’t get it. One more time, sir, please think about this, off in a corner, without your public-relations crew around to keep you calm and collected. Ponder all this one more time.
You don’t owe me an apology, since we hardly know each other.
You might, however, offer an apology to Anne Frank and her family. And at the same time, you might also offer an apology to Jon Stewart, not just in writing but maybe face to face, mano a mano, on his “Daily Show” stage for all the world to see.
Then we can call it a day.
April 28th, 2012 at 12:24 am
Eugene writes to me: ”Dan – you are correct but your approach is too soft. When some European cartoonists made anti-Islamic cartoons, Muslims issued death threats and began firebombing the newspapers who printed them. The country of Iran organized a cartoon contest for making fun of the Holocaust. (Did Gervais submit his Anne Frank to them? they would have loved it!)”
April 28th, 2012 at 12:25 am
Martine told me: ”Ricky’s joke must be understood in the context of England, which has never accepted Jews the way the USA did.
“What would we do with a million Jews?” was the response of the British foreign office when an intermediary brought an offer from Eichmann to exchange the lives of a million Jews for some trucks and materiel. Oh, I dunno, how about instantly upgrading your science and medicine for the next half-century? ”
April 28th, 2012 at 12:26 am
And a BRitish man expalins it this way to me:
”seriously guys,and dan bloom….i will explain the joke for you.
The joke has two half’s, the first half is about how incapable the Nazis where at not finding Anne. I would hope you would understand this has nothing to do with Anne, but todo with the incompetence of the Nazis.
The second part of the joke, which is what im assuming people find in bad taste is also not about Anne Frank, its about the stupidity of the comedian not knowing that the Anne Frank diary is not a work of fiction. Which is funny, esp sence its essentual reading for every school kid in the UK and Europe.
Its meant to be ironic, it in now way if joking about her death in a nasty way, its not saying hes glad she dead, its not even making light of the holocaust, its very typical of black, sarcastic, ironic humour that British people clearly understand more than the Americans. It would seem the Americans here have totally taken it a face value and missed its real meaning. Which if obviously a shame. But that’s your hang up not his.”
April 28th, 2012 at 12:27 am
A Jewish British woman tells me: “the main cultural difference is that Jews are a tiny minority in England, which has a very large Muslim population. Jews in England know to keep their mouths shut. They would never publicly complain about Gervais. In England it’s kosher to make Holocaust jokes and call them ironic. But Gervais would never make fun of Muslims because he would fear for his life.”
April 28th, 2012 at 12:28 am
and a man in Hawaii tells me: ”I thought the joke was funny as well.
And why would he apologize to John Stewart, he was laughing with everyone else.
Self-appointed moral guardians like dan bloom are humorless bores. ”
April 28th, 2012 at 12:28 am
Enough?
April 28th, 2012 at 12:40 am
One more. this must be said. A British commenter in London tells me:
”Mr. Gervais’ sense of humour is what one might deem ‘oblique’. It’s really rather spiky in the sense that if you just happen to perceive it from the ‘wrong’ perspective then you may end up being hurt, as obviously so many folks are – yet again – with a routine that (despite his claims of innocence and good intent) is ‘misunderstood’ by too many for it to be deemed universally funny. Now one can appreciate an inside joke, but when the subject matter is as sensitive as it is in this case, why take the chance. One can appreciate the effort to try new and different things, to get away from the ‘Have you heard the one about… ‘, but a few more dubious moves of this nature could see Mr. Gervais being marginalized…one show, one network, one nation at a time. ”
April 28th, 2012 at 12:41 am
and another BRitisher tells me: ”Ricky Gervais is about as funny as a wet fish.
Out of all the humour he can choose he decides to make fun of a dead child.
What ever way he qualifies his moronic interpretation of her last few years alive and dares to address the public on how we should receive his anti semetic rant is nothing short of racism in its most cowardly form.
Here is a tip Mr Gervaise, if you are half a comedian as you think you are, Go around the word for the next ten years telling a joke about Mohammed and then when Islamic people complain, you just try and tell them it is a joke and they do not understand.
You are a pathetic little man, Mr Gervauis.”
April 28th, 2012 at 12:42 am
Said a British Man, not a fan of Gervauis: ”He seems to look and act more like an ugly mel gibson every day…”
April 28th, 2012 at 12:43 am
A UK website for UK comedians, defending Gervais, reported: in part:
”Ricky Gervais has offended a new group of people – after some Jewish viewers took offence to him joking about Anne Frank.
He has been accused of being anti-semitic after making gags about the tragic teenage diarist when he appeared on the Daily Show With Jon Stewart, in the US.
Gervais joked that the persecuted family went into hiding from the Nazis because they did not want to pay rent, and he said the Nazis must have been ‘stupid’ not to have found the teenager sooner – a joke he’s previously made in his stand-up.
Stewart, who his Jewish, told him: ‘They didn’t come in every day’ and advised him to read her diary. ”
April 28th, 2012 at 12:45 am
Britisher says: ”On the contrary the Jews are just an easy target, I’d like to see Gervais joke about an Islamic icon. Gervais likes picking on easy targets…”
April 28th, 2012 at 12:46 am
On the other hand, Andrew, a man in Florida tells me to chill out, saying:
”Take a chill pill, Dan. political correctness and all that stuff out the window and take a joke for what it is. Especially his answer to you, see the funny side of that also. Jokes are jokes and are not personal vendettas or judgements or anything else. People are too serious these days, you need to lighten up.”
April 28th, 2012 at 12:51 am
So Andrew, to conclude, let me just ASC you:
Why is it ”kosher” and OK to crack a joke about the Anne Frank family not wanting ”to pay the rent for two years and that is why they hid from the Naxis for two years” in Holland during the war?
Explain that and you’ve won the argument. I will concede the debate to you and eat crow, kosher crow of course.
Danny
Jewish children’s book author
”BUBBIE AND ZADIE COME TO MY HOUSE”
very popular in New Jersey in the 1980s btw…. never made a dime from it but it was fun
GOOGLE the title, it’s online now for free, well,
the beginning…..and still in print from Sqaure One press in Long Island, run by Rudy Shur there,
son of Holocaust survivors and good friend of mine!
April 28th, 2012 at 1:07 am
Andrew,
re your below the belt without asking me first “trying to make hay” remark, that was a low blow, coming from the editor of a Jewish newspaper! You wrote: “Dan Bloom……is trying to make hay out of this.”
The dictionary I use defines MAKE HAY AS: ”to use an opportunity to get the most benefit”
example sentence: ”Obama critics continue to make hay over his lack of self-discipline. ”
Usage notes: ”usually said about a competitive situation”
So Andrew, just what kind of competitive situation do you think I am in? I am writing a new book about Anne Frank? No! Am I trying to con a TV appearance on GMA about all this or even the Jon Stewart show? No! Am I trying to profit from this educational campaign in any way? No! Andrew, you owe me an apology! And I will accept it, of course, all in due time. What’s eating you? Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed the day you wrote this miscalculating editorial blog post? Bad hair day? Worried about losing your hair and going bald? [I can say that because I am totally bald and love it!]
Okay, Andrew-san, my landsmann, dish. I am not angry or even fekarkt. I like what you wrote in your editorial. It ups the ante. It shows just how much further we have to go here. And again, i have no agenda, i am not part of any group, I am just one single Jewish man shouting from the Tevye’s rooftop: Hey, are these Anne Frank jokes really good to tell, just 70 years after her death? Or is it okay now? Maybe I am wrong. I often am. Let’s find out.
Danny
bar mitzvah boy, 1962
Rabbi Samuel Dresner officiating
Cantor Morty Shames my half-torah teacher
Born on April 7 in a an April snowstorm in a Catholic
hospital Mercy Hospital so the assistant rabbi had to walk 6 miles in the snow, it was a Sabbath day, to bless me, my mom told me, Rabbi Abramson. He might have been the mohel too, I am not sure. Do they cut us on day one too! ouch!
April 28th, 2012 at 1:30 am
Just so everyone knows, re Andrew’s last graf:
In January 2012, Shalom Auslander published his first novel, “Hope: A Tragedy,” which envisions a homeowner in upstate New York finding an elderly and foul-mouthed Anne Frank hiding in his attic.
I read this book and my head exploded. Literally! I am on life support now. My days here are numbered. How did it ever come to this? Oi…. But Mr Auslander is a talented writer and I am sure he has many fans and more power to him. Just not my cuppa tea, as Ricky G might say. I prefer Elie Wiesel’s books and Anne Frank’s diary. But to each his own, sure. Live and let live.
April 28th, 2012 at 1:40 am
and JANET MASLIN book reviewer at NYT says of Shalom Auslander’s new novel….and she likes it….
”Other fiction writers have gotten this fresh with Anne Frank. But they don’t get much funnier. Mr. Auslander (not to be confused with Nathan Englander, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank”) is neither a voyeur nor a romantic when it comes to conjuring Anne. He is an absurdist with a deep sense of gravitas. He brings to mind Woody Allen, Joseph Heller and — oxymoron here — a libido-free version of Philip Roth.”
she wrote in January review:
”At the start of Shalom Auslander’s staggeringly nervy new novel “Hope: A Tragedy,” a doleful Jewish non-farmer named Solomon Kugel climbs fearfully into the attic of his recently acquired farmhouse. He hopes the tapping sounds in the attic are being made by nothing worse than mice…. No such luck. The tapping is from a typewriter. And the typist, a stooped, foul-mouthed old lady who does not suffer fools gladly, is the single person about whom Jewish writers most avidly fantasize: Anne Frank.”
And Maslin ends her review:
”It’s a tall order for Mr. Auslander to raise an essentially comic novel to this level of moral contemplation. Yet “Hope: A Tragedy” succeeds shockingly well. For every stroke of facetiousness here — the novel suggests that the Amazon customer who buys Anne Frank’s diary will be told “You might also like” books about Rwanda, the starving of Ukraine and “Pol Pot’s Bloody Reign” — there is a laceratingly tough appraisal of the way suffering is made holy.
“Me, I’m the sufferer,” Anne finally says. “I’m the dead girl. I’m Miss Holocaust, 1945. The prize is a crown of thorns and eternal victimhood. Jesus was a Jew, Mr. Kugel, but I’m the Jewish Jesus.”
And Kugel, nebbish that he is, can go toe to toe with her, in ways sure to polarize Mr. Auslander’s readers. This book never aspires to be pious or politically correct. “Six million he kills,” Kugel tells himself, “and this one gets away.”
April 28th, 2012 at 2:40 am
Melanice Rice suggests the Anne Frank joke thing could be part of the badchan tradition on Judaism and it’s a good topic of discussion: re
Melanie Rice says:
”What about the badchan in Jewish tradition, and in general, the concept of radical humour, which is a respected tradition in Jewish culture? Consider everyone from Lenny Bruce to Don Rickles to Joan Rivers to Sarah Silverman, etc.”
A badchen or badkhn (a Hebrew word meaning jester that has been Yiddishized as badchen) is a Jewish comedian with scholarly overtones who entertained guests at weddings among the Ashkenazim of Eastern Europe. Today they are found in all countries with Chassidic populations, including the United States, performing their shtick at weddings.
The badchen was considered a standard part of the wedding party, as de rigueur as the officiating rabbi. An elaborate traditional wedding might also involve a letz (lit. a clown, here a jongleur or musician) and a marshalik (a master of ceremonies).[1]
The badchen has to be able both to provide the energy for a party before and after the ceremony itself and also to make the transition to a more serious tone immediately before the ceremony.[1] To this end his comedy was not of a slapstick variety but rather verbal with many intricate Talmudic references and in-jokes.
Following the Council of Vilna on July 3, 1661, a decree was issued banning merry-making, including the setting of limitations on wedding celebrations, public drinking, fire dances, masquerades, and Jewish comic entertainers. The badchen was exempted from the decree.[2]
Some famous badchonim include Chaim Menachem (Mendel) Mermelstien (born March 2, 1920 in Munkacz, died November 7, 1985 in New York), considered the father of modern day badchonus,[citation needed] and the present-day performers Yankel Miller and Yoel Lebowits.
The 19th-century Broder singers began as badchonim, but soon started to perform outside of the context of weddings. They, in turn, are usually seen as the forerunners of Yiddish theater.
On the Jewish holiday of Purim many young men undertake to be badchonim during Purim spiels.
April 28th, 2012 at 2:43 am
zeldie stuart reviews Auslanders comic novel with thumbs down saying: ”I was …terribly disappointed. “Hope” is a boring non stop kvetchy psychosis of Kugel (the main character) who is the stereotype of a worrisome, thinks too much nerdy Jewish Man with the classic affliction of celiac disease and a god awful Mother. There is nothing appealing about this character or any character in this book. Even the 3 year old son is portrayed as a sickly screaming unattractive child. The book starts with a promising premise; that Anne Frank survived and has been hiding out in attics all this time. Kugel finds her in the attic of the home he just purchased. Anne is now an old ugly mean bag of bones who stinks up the house. Kugel, his Mother and Anne are forever having bowel movements in the wrong places. Not pleasant at all. Then some nasty throw up session is added to make the book even more disgusting then it already is. ….Seriously awful. ”
April 28th, 2012 at 2:45 am
and WEbzilla says re Auslander anne frank book that made my head explode: ”I’m always looking for new and different books to read. So when I saw this book got an A minus in Entertainment Weekly, I thought I’d give it a shot. The premise definitely got me intrigued. Anne Frank still living? What an interesting idea I thought. How wrong was I to think that. I’ve never written a review on anything before, but this book made me so angry I just needed to warn other people not to waste their time. Where to begin? ….. And the constant detailed talk about bodily functions. And his INSANE mother that made me so angry I wanted to jump in the book and shake her. I don’t even know how I finished it, I guess I was just hoping it would get better, but wow, it just got worse. If you want to read a book that’s utterly depressing and disgusting, then go ahead…”
April 28th, 2012 at 3:15 am
A few months back I was copy-editing a review of Auslander’s new novel, Hope: A Tragedy,which pokes fun at a perceived victim-status obsession among American Jews. The prime example of this is our fixation on the Shoah, so of course he brings up Anne Frank, (or as he dubs her, the Jews’ St. Anne of the Attic.) In his novel it’s discovered that she didn’t actually die at Bergen-Belsen, but the powers that be urge her to keep in hiding because the narrative is more poignant that way.
This is hardly a new angle for Jewish American writers to take with Anne. Back in 1978, Philip Roth basically did the same thing with The Ghost Writer, casting the Shoah victim as romantic fodder for his alter-ego, Nathan Zuckerman, so that the cynical young man could prove to his old-school family that he was still a good Jew. It was only a slightly less snarky commentary that we put Anne Frank on a pedestal where she doesn’t belong.
Well, gentlemen, I’m here to put a bee in your bonnet. I’m a Jewish American woman and I proudly list Anne Frank as one of my role models for life. No, I don’t quote passages of her book in Holocaust museums to rail against the injustice of Jewish oppression. I don’t read passages while huddled under my blankets waiting for the next Gestapo. Maybe I wouldn’t even say that she’s the voice of the Shoah, though arguably that’s the time period through which she lived, that’s what killed her, and that’s the external world she was reacting to.
I’d say that her messages supersedes one historical tragedy and addresses the human condition as a whole. I’d say that her beautifully crafted prose—written when she was just a teenager—rivals your adult output. I’d say that her optimism and faith in humankind, borne out of her life being stripped away from her in the years before she was killed, is more moving that your cynicism borne out of living in relative comfort, comparatively.
And it’s more than just about her refusal to let go of her faith in the world. This is a girl who was stunningly honest about her personal life. She analyzed her relationship with her family members and neighbors with an insight that some adults will never possess. She fell in love, as a way to keep living even when the Nazis wanted to strip everything from her. She was even open about her sexuality. I remember first reading The Diary of Anne Frank in the seventh grade. When we got to the part where she was exploring her body, most of my classmates professed disgust, or at least discomfort. For me, I found validation. It was okay to be growing up, it was okay that my body was changing. I wasn’t alone. This certainly had nothing to do with the Shoah, or even Judaism. Perhaps I can’t expect you gentlemen to understand.
Not that I don’t agree that there is merit in critically probing the relationship between American Jews and the Shoah, or holding Anne Frank up as the only voice of that event/Judaism as a whole. But don’t dismiss her outright just because you have some beef with the community. That’s as shallow as the behaviors you purport to criticize.
April 28th, 2012 at 8:09 am
Andrew,
so weird. you write in a Apirl column in the paper abput the Princeton fake oped re the editor denies that the article “was meant to be anti-Semitic.” Maybe, but as Lawrence Summers once said about anti-Semitism, there’s intent, and there’s effect. Whether they intended it to be or not, the effect of the Medium piece was toxic……” about THIS but you do not apply the same reasoning to Gervais and Rivers Anne Frank jokes. How does that compute?:
You also write:
”The editor denies that the article “was meant to be anti-Semitic.” Maybe, but as Lawrence Summers once said about anti-Semitism, there’s intent, and there’s effect. Whether they intended it to be or not, the effect of the Medium piece was toxic.”
again you do not apply this to Anne frank jokes by Gervais or Rivers et all. WHY NOT?
April 28th, 2012 at 8:10 am
Andrew,
Great column re the Princeton faux oped re Mason Aaron etc and I hope you will devote some space soon in print to
an examination of the Anne Frank jokes topic, and get some quotes and
reax from Jon Stewart if you can , and also Ricky Gervais’ people, and
maybe the BBC’s David Mitchell and also Joan Rivers PR people, and
even Heeb magazine which seems to think it’s cool and kosher to mock
the victimhood of Anne Frank, a mere 70 years since her tragic death.
And get some local NJ rabbi and maybe some national rabbi like Rabbi
Hier in LA or others to comment pro and con on this ongoing story.
your blog post was a good beginning, despite the fact that you tried
to belittle me for speaking out on behalf on Anne, but I don’t mind
your snarkiness and I forgive you, my landsmann. But how about a
column, a column, both sides now, pro and con, quotes and reax from
the major players. I am have agenda here and I am not making hay with
this, as you snarkily alleged, i assume that was your Jewish humour,
so i forgive ya brother. But dish. can do? I have alerted the entire
jewish blogosphere about your recent ASC blog post on this and you
will soon be hearing from the entire mishpoche about the entire
megillah. Dish. And be kind to me next time. I am a hero in this story
, not a villain. A hero for speaking out when nobody else did. I
studied with Elie Wiesel at Boston University, and he told me to
always speak the truth to power, no matter who the power is. what’s
next? Jokes about Darfu refufees and Blacks lynched in the south and
Hiroshima victims? that funny? That kosher? that’s show business? Wake
up, Andrew. (But also on the other hand, i respect your POV on this
and we can agree to disagree sure. I just like good honest discussion
without snark. Can do? Do.
April 28th, 2012 at 10:55 am
Dear Danny, says Peter Kubicek, a NYC area Holocaust survivor, aged 80
dear danny
You will never get further with this exhausted and exhaustive topic.
The Holocaust is constantly being trivialized, in many ways: thoughtless
remarks, jokes in poor taste, lost of fiction that simply ignores historical
facts and creates its own. You are a good fighter for the truth and you
should take comfort in the fact that many people see you in that light. For
those who do not, you will never be able to illuminate the path.
Peter
April 28th, 2012 at 11:11 am
A Catholic woman, agnostic now, but grew up Catholic in USA, family name of WHELAN tells me:
”Dear Dan
Re the ANNE FRANK jokes
Dear Dan
I wouldn’t do it, but I give comedians a pass.
I grew up Catholic; I’m agnostic now.
I don’t know what else to explain. It just wouldn’t bother me, especially if it’s funny. Comedians joke about taboo subjects all the time.
As for Anne Frank, I guess it was so long ago that people aren’t really as attached to the story emotionally anymore. A bit like joking about the Titanic, I guess. That said, I don’t find Holocaust jokes funny. Well, let’s just say that I haven’t heard one yet that I thought was funny. But I will admit I love Ricky Gervais.”
April 28th, 2012 at 9:54 pm
Aaron from New Jersey now living in taiwan says:
”Difficult question in the wake of today’s political correctness banning all things I think are funny from ethnic jokes to slapstick. You know I’m a Jew too. So in short.. Jokes about “stupid Nazzis” I guess that’s ok. Jokes about rent dodging.. NO WAY!!!!! THAT IS OBSCENE.
Jokes about ANNE FRANK Whining… Common. If Joan Rivers, I think, had to endure even half the things that ANNE has to endure. Heck even half the things we working class foreigners have to endure she’d whine much worse. (This is only an opinion… Perhaps Joan Rivers was once poor the my statement would be wrong)
By the way… It seems political correctness only protects certain groups but not all.. ”
April 28th, 2012 at 9:59 pm
and Peter who was in 5 labor camps at a teen, wrote a memoir too, 8o years old now in NYC adds:
”Danny,
It is you who rightly said it’s like tilting at windmills — I believe
quixotic is the word.
Joe Berger at NYTimes will no doubt understand what this is all about. He, too, is very
concerned about truth about the Holocaust, but I doubt he will be willing to
get into a fight about it. You may remember that he rebuffed me when I
asked him to help in the fight to expose Herman because he thought it was
immoral for a Holocaust survivor to attack another. Once Gabe Sherman had written
his expose in The New Republic, Berger e-mailed me, “Watch the front page of
the NYT next Monday.” And that’s where a detailed article appeared, written
by him, but he had washed his hands during the fight, when it may have
counted.”
Peter
April 28th, 2012 at 10:00 pm
and Danielle Berrin out on the Left Coast at the Jewish Chronicle there, who has written a good piece on the Anne Frank joke brouhaha, now does not want to write about IT anymore, telling me:
”Dan, please stop sending me these emails. I’m through with this topic.
Thank you”
So she is THROUGH with this topic. Nice attitude!
April 28th, 2012 at 10:36 pm
Princeton Jewish prof tells me:
”I think this is the best and wisest response you’re going to get Dan. As somebody once wrote, weigh it but with the grossness of this age.”
April 29th, 2012 at 1:02 am
COmment who is neither antisemitic nor Jeiwsh tells me:
”Dan you obviously have strong emotions on this one and Ricky will never make you feel satisfied unless the entire joke is “erased from history”.. that reminds us of another sort of evil doesnt it? As neither anti semite or jewish and totally impartial to the deep seeded disgust you have at this particular joke i do indeed “get” why you find it highly offensive but you can see my point about removing somthing from existance (or a comedy routine) you personally find intollerable cant you?
Some people will share Rickys sense of humor, opinions and ideals about his style of comedy.. others will not. Some will pay to see his show or tune in on the free to air broadcast.. others will not. The main thing is that we handle these matters in the way both Ricky and yourself have thus far. Neither Ricky or yourself should demand anyone share your views or ideals.
The fact Ricky has replied to your open letter shows there is decency in the man. The fact neither fo you agree on the topic is simply human natue. I think you have made your point Dan and to continue on with letter after letter would be a misison to opress one mans right to free speech no matter how funny or un funny it may be to each individual that chooses to hear it.”
April 29th, 2012 at 1:18 am
So Andrew if you feel that “the Marcus parody in the Princeton paper was an ugly miscalculation, and too bad they don’t have the courage — or mentschlichkeit – to say so,” and i agree with you there, then why don’t you also ask why Gervais, who also miscalculated with the ANNE FRANK didn’t want to pay the rent joke, why don’t you also say ”The Gervais AF joke about not paying the rent was an ugly miscalculation, and too bad he don’t have the courage — or mentschlichkeit – to say so.”
But no, you take Gervais side here. Strange. No? Just saying. And await your response. This is KEY sir.
April 29th, 2012 at 9:45 am
Okay, the Sabbath is over here in Taiwan, I think i will give it a rest. sorry for the barrage of posts. just wanted to set the record straight. you done me wrong, sir. SMILE
April 29th, 2012 at 10:25 pm
Andrew,
A non-Jewish right wing conservative blogger in DC area who has been following my “crusade” here tells me today via carrier pigeon email: ”Just so you know, Danny, you’re doing a really good job of exposing this, and it deserves it. I’ve been buried with work, and have been meaning to mention it on my blog for some time.
Oh, and Anne Frank jokes just aren’t funny, period.”
April 29th, 2012 at 10:33 pm
Andrew,
a top newspaper columnist in the midwest at a major newswpaper there tells me by email today re your “attack” on my campaign:
dear dan
First off, you can’t expect to launch attacks without experiencing some defenses from people who disagree with you.
Also, you’re revising history a bit. If you’re now focusing on the RENT joke that implies cheapness, fine, even though Gervais could make the same joke if Anne Frank had been a Methodist. But your initial objection was to the entire routine. And if you’re going to this extreme over one joke, that’s overkill.
signed,
Columnist, Jewish too
April 29th, 2012 at 10:35 pm
And just so everyone knows, Andrew of the ASC blog, replied to my emails and wrote:
”Dear Dan
Thanks for the primer on make hay. I though it just meant “make a big deal out of.”
The difference between The Medium and the gervais joke is that the Gervais joke is actually a joke — not a great joke, but I understand what he is getting at. The joke is on HIM, not Anne Frank. Gervais has created a persona of an arogant know it all — the idea that the Nazis are too lazy or incompenent is a joke on the Nazis — and a joke on idiots who know nothing about the Holcoaust. I think you are barking up the wrong tree in trying to tar him and Stewart.
……Good luck in your campaign, and sorry I don’t agree with it.
ASC”
[Dan replies: So we can agree to disagree, Andrew and others reading here. This is an educational curve, a learning moment, I do not expect to win my case. I merely hope everyone will learn soemthing from all this, Gervais too.
Danny BLoom’
April 29th, 2012 at 11:23 pm
My friend Mr Klein who grew up in NJ, went to Harvard, studied with Timothy Leary and went to to write some big books and now lives in the Berkshires tells re all this meshgus over AF jokes:
”Dear Danny,
Bad taste has become commonplace herein the USA, Old Boy.
Also, Anne Frank is the somewhat flippant subject of two recent books by the new wave of Jewish-American writers, Nathan Englander (What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank) and Shalom Auslander (Hope: a Tragedy).
And ontop of that, Free Speech trumps everything for liberals; nevermind that they confuse the legality of free speech with speaking freely without responsibility.”
April 30th, 2012 at 9:44 pm
Thank you, Chaim, your above. Everyone tells me I am tilting at windmills. I agree. I know how hard a row this is to hoe. Still, mensch that I am, this is my goal: not to stop Gervais in his tracks, or to limit his freedom of expression or freedom of speech. But merely to use my powers of persuasion, gently, softly, determinedly, to ask him and others, including our own dear Joan Rivers, whose Anne Frank jokes are even MORE repulsive than Gervias’ routine, which of course is all part of an “act”, a stage routine, scripted and rehearsed for maximum impact, and it seems to work for UK and USA audiences, but Chaim here is my goal: to ask Ricky to THINK about all this, deeply, and not to censor him, but to ask him to maybe stop using the AF jokes in his act in the future! That’s all. Voluntarily, on his part, to take the AF jokes out of his routine, out of sensitivity to the issue, even though he still thinks the AF jokes are funny. He has lots of materail to make jokes from, and there’s no NEED to use the AF jokes if they offend SOME people, Now that he knows this, I got through to him at least, maybe, he will voluntarily complty with DAN BLOOM’S LAW….smile. it’s up to him, As for Joan Rivers, same same. i hope she will see the light on this too. You agree, Chaim? Even Joan Rivers does this, in her act, on stage, and gets applause, calling ANne a ”Whiner, always whining” and saying AF “”fantasizes about having wild sex with the handsome blonde nazi soliders downstairs”…and that is NOT funny. Joan must also voluntaruly stop this nonsense. what’s next Joanie: Elie Wiesel jokes?
April 30th, 2012 at 9:45 pm
I WISH somebody else would comment here? Why is everyone so shy?
May 1st, 2012 at 12:10 am
From: donald harrison
From DON HARRISON, editor, SAN DIEGO JEWISH WORLD, to Andrew ASC…..
Dear Dan, you ARE our SDJW Taiwan bureau chief. You are so identified on every article you write for us.
No matter what this fellow ASC writes in his column, you still are the Taiwan bureau chief.
It’s there in black and white.
When he makes a mistake, and refuses to correct it, it doesn’t diminish you or me, it detracts from his reputation as a reporter. REPEAT from his REPUTATION AS A REPORTER.
….Even though he is wrong about your “claiming” rather than “being” the Taiwan bureau chief, it doesn’t qualify as libel.
Now, please, …..How about some more stories about Jews in Taiwan?
Thanks,
Don
May 2nd, 2012 at 12:07 am
”Try free speech when its about something the” progressive” Left don’t
want to hear!…..Most kids today are given the Diary of Anne Frank to read
as a rite-of-passage novel about a young girl who dies tragically like
Mimi or Little Nell, with no reference to the holocaust, only some
politically correct platitudes, so is it any wonder they find ignorant
so-called comedians acceptable?”
..quote from RUTH BEN-OR in Israel quot
May 2nd, 2012 at 11:27 pm
Gerrick Kenndy at LAT writes ”As hard as I am on this show, it’s out of love. It’s cemented its place in my heart, which is still reeling over the loss of “Arrested Development” — I know it’s been years, but it’s still emotional.
I talk often about the one-liners that are always *comedy gold*. I think it’s only right I start sharing my favorites.
Luke [on diaries, not breasts]: Some are real, right? Like Anne Frank’s?
FUNNY? why riff on Anne Frank here? Strange. True, she did keep a diary. But in the most horrific of circumstances. Which WRITER on the show was responsible for that LINE? Dish. we all want to know…. me too
July 18th, 2012 at 7:43 am
It is ‘not kosher’ to joke about Anne Frank, Ricky Gervais!
by Danny Bloom
Back in April, I challenged British comedian here to stop cracking
vulgar and crude jokes about Anne Frank after I spotted him
making a tasteless joke about Anne Frank and her family on the Jon
Stewart Comedy Central “Daily Show” on national
television. The news posted on The Wrap about my challenge to Gervais
to please stop with the Anne Frank jokes was picked up by
several Jewish news outlets, from The Foward and The Tablet in New
York to the Jewish Chronicle in London.
After I wrote an “Open Letter to Ricky Gervais” for The Wrap here,
Gervais responded, through his PR people apparently, with an email to
me which was published
in the Jewish Chronicle newspaper in Britain. His piece was titled
“Why it’s kosher to joke about Anne Frank,” and with no apologies,
Gervais wrote, among other things:
“I have had that routine for nearly 10 years now. It is about the
misunderstanding and ignorance of what is clearly a tragic and
horrific situation. My comic persona is that of a man who speaks with
great arrogance and authority but who along the way reveals his
immense stupidity.
In this particular routine, I envisage an almost slapstick version of
the Nazis entering the home of Anne Frank on a daily basis and always
failing to bother to “look upstairs”.
I even have one of them suggest, “Looking upstairs today, Sarge?” The
officer replies, “No, let’s move on.”
The first Nazi then says: “What’s that tapping sound?” – as I mime
using an old fashioned typewriter. Again the joke here is the
supremely stupid assumption that Anne Frank obliviously and noisily
typed her diary.
The Sarge (who I am portraying as a lazy and incompetent Nazi)
answers, “Mice! Move on”.
The final layer of ignorance in the routine is that, instead of taking
the obvious and correct stance that Nazis were disgusting, immoral and
evil, I merely conclude that they were “rubbish” because of their
inability to find Anne Frank earlier – like it was all part of a big,
mutually agreed game of hide-and-seek.
I can see if [if a Jewish person] took this routine at face value as
my real opinion on this profound and heroic tragedy, it could be
deemed highly offensive. However, this is obviously an absurd comic
position with the audience well in on the joke, fully aware that I am
saying the exact opposite of what every right-minded person thinks.
I often get accused of finding comedy in places where no comedy is to
be found. I feel you can make a joke about anything. It just depends
on what the joke is. Comedy comes from a good or a bad place and the
problem is in its interpretation, with some people confusing the
subject of a joke with the joke’s real target. The target of this joke
is the comedian’s ignorance.”
So much for apologizing for the Jon Stewart show fiasco. Now in the
middle of the summer, Mr Gervais lets loose again in a recent Twitter
message to his many “fans,” whoever
they might be, tweeting: “If I had a time machine, I’d go back and
sneak Anne Frank a DVD of ‘Home Alone’. It could give her the edge.”
The 51-year-old British comic tweeted that to over 2.5 million
”followers,” and of course he landed in hot water again with Jewish
readers in Europe and North America.
He quickly deleted the offensive tweet after being slammed by fans,
according to London press reports, but in response the outspoken
comedian and star of “The Office” tweeted this: “We have to stop this
recent culture of people telling us they’re offended and expecting us
to give a [damn].”
Ricky Gervais is a terribly tasteless, serial offender of the memory
of Anne Frank and her family and he just won’t stop. What makes this
man tick? Do Britons really lap this stuff up?