The comedian as commentator isn’t new, but the uninformed comedian who rants about Israel and “the Jews” is new. He is “Jewish” (some of his best friends) but not a Zionist; he’s a Christian (on social media) but not a Christian Zionist; he’s an atheist but not antagonistic toward radical Islam; he’s an “activist,” a progressive, but not a critic of the most repressive regimes in the world. He’s a podcaster—and an expert on everything from the Talmud to international law. He’s a military strategist, a diplomat, an economist, and a scientist; he knows everything except the truth. He’s John Oliver, saying Israel is guilty of genocide, and Dave Chappelle, saying he will never stand with Israel; he’s Jimmy Dore, saying Israel controls Congress, and Tim Dillon, saying Israel controls America; he’s Theo Von, saying Israel killed JFK, and Bassem Youssef, saying Israel killed its own people on October 7. He’s the coward who says he is just a comedian.
History, truth, morality, decency—none of it matters to the comedian who’s a “truther,” a conspiracy theorist, who says Israel did 9/11 and Zionists killed Charlie Kirk. Contempt overrides everything, even crowd work, to the point where the comedian compares Israelis to Nazis and Jews to baby killers. Nothing the comedian says is subtle, for he’s a bore—and a boor—who can’t talk about anything else. His is not the coldness of a look on the edge of a remark but the white-hot rage of a fanatic who despises wisdom. His voice is shrill, his reasoning unsound, for he accepts the worst lies about Israel and the Jewish people.
Crowd work thus becomes a form of mind control, amplified by bots and liked by fools, for the dissemination of hatred. The material flashes across millions of screens, as light without a trace of enlightenment, in accordance with the algorithm. The transmission is continuous, bringing with it bursts of anger and resentment, of the Two Minutes Hate with keywords and search terms. The need for new material is also constant, resulting in the mass production of lies and the repetition of the most outrageous slanders. And still the material is stale, because those who delight in acting in bad faith are shameless; they don’t see that the slop they consume is worthless, or that the algorithm they serve is useless; they know nothing.
The comedian who reveres the algorithm pays regard to a vain idol. He sacrifices his character for clicks, and so loses his soul in the hope that he may gain a worldwide audience. He trades his honor for fame, and becomes infamous instead, sitting down with false teachers who lie about history and the history of the Jewish people. He disgraces himself further, like Tim Dillon channeling Macklemore, by dressing as a caricature of a Hasidic Jew and “joking” about the collapse of the Twin Towers. Or like Owen Benjamin on the Talmud, or JP Sears, in a bloody shirt and an Israeli flag necktie, on Zionism.
For Benjamin to also deny the Jewishness of Jesus, or for Bassem Youssef to deny the Jewish claim to the land of Israel, is to know how lost each man is. But for so many comedians to succumb to the same hatred, and squander their gifts and curse Israel, is tragic. They yield to vanity, tempted by the voice that says, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, That the name of Israel may be remembered no more.” And yet the nation lives and the name endures, because the spirit of Israel is eternal.