Comedians hit back over holocaust jokes

Two stand-up comics accused of making light of the Holocaust at the Edinburgh Fringe festival hit back at their critics yesterday, igniting a debate about where, if anywhere, to draw the line in comedy.

The famously irreverent Fringe is renowned for over-the-top humour, and this year religion has been a popular target of ridicule in a trend welcomed by commentators arguing for freedom of speech over religious sensitivity.

But Jamie Glassman, a Jewish comedy writer who has worked on the often outrageous Da Ali G Show, said at least two comedians had gone too far and reflected broader anti-Jewish sentiment at the festival that he called "shocking".

"Stand-up comedy is as good a prism as any through which to look at the changing attitudes in our society," he wrote in the Times.

"If my past few days are anything to go by then it is becoming increasingly acceptable to hate the Jews. Again."

One Edinburgh comedian singled out in the article was Reginald D. Hunter, an African-American with a show called Pride and Prejudice and Niggas.

At one point Hunter says he should go to Austria, where it is illegal to deny the Holocaust, get arrested for saying Germany's genocide against Jews did not happen, and tell the judge he was talking about the Rwandan holocaust.

"The joke isn't about the Jews, it is about freedom of thought and expression," he said. He referred to the Holocaust as "one of those things considered to be off-limits; that's what I'm poking fun at. There have been loads of holocausts. Jews have the honour of having their Holocaust known as the Holocaust and that's fine. That's the way the world works." Hunter said he found it "amazing" Glassman could extract anti-Semitism from his act.

Also criticised was Australian Steve Hughes, whose show Storm includes a gag that indirectly equates playing Cowboys and Indians to playing Nazis and Jews. Glassman recounted how at the show he attended audience members shouted "Throw them in the oven" in response to the joke, but Hughes defended his routine and said his remarks were taken out of context.

He said the actual joke was: "I grew up playing Cowboys and Indians, which as an adult I can see is very strange; that you market the genocide of an indigenous people as a game for kids.

"Australians are far from perfect - I've never played Cops and Aborigines, and you wouldn't play Nazis and Jews!"

Hughes added that he was not responsible for what hecklers shouted.

But he did apologise for describing US official Richard Perle as "that f ... ing Jew". His spokesman said the phrase was made "off the cuff" and Hughes regretted using it.

- REUTERS