By Dan Bloom
CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — My mailbox gets its share of emails from people who find Ricky Gervais’s tasteless Anne Frank jokes to be, well, tasteless. I’vewritten about him before and the comments flew left and right, pro and con, and sometimes as many as 100 comments followed a Gervais post here.
Recently, I received an email from a Jewish man I did not know, somewhere in America, and he wrote:
“I want to thank you Mr. Bloom, for your open letter to Rickey Gervais for his consistent usage of Anne Frank (and the Holocaust in general), in his ‘comedic’ routines. It seems no one in Hollywood has the nerve (or seems to care), to call him out on it.
“The same goes for Seth Macfarlane, the creator of ‘Family Guy,’ who appears to be obsessed with Jews and Jewish stereotypes — I didn’tsee even one report in the media about Macfarlane’s non-sensical dig at Jews when he hosted Saturday Night Live — I think for the firsttime — last September.
”Thank you, sir, for doing what seemingly no one else wants, or cares, to do, which is to speak up against tasteless and seemingly antisemitic comedy routines that routinely appear in America and Britain, and I guess probably Australia, too, whereever English is spoken and Jews have made their homes.”
Well, to be honest, I had not seen the MacFarline hosting gig at SNL in September, Episode Episode 38.01, according to sources, but there were indeed a few reports online about it, accompanied by the usual comment sections pro and con.
Let’s take a look and if you see anything untoward here, give me a holler in the comments section here. Always love to hear from readers, pro and con, one way or the other. I am not on any crusade of any kind; I just feel that some comedians go too far in their pokes at “others,” be they Blacks, Jews, Hispanics, women, gays or even climate activists.
“After the mass exit of Kristen Wiig, Andy Samberg and Abby Elliott over the summer, there was a little worry as to whether this might be one of those seasons where SNL dips in quality,” Ross Bonaime wrote in his review. ”But to be frank, Wiig’s impressions were getting a bit tiresome, Samberg’s Digital Shorts had been fumbling towards mediocre and Elliott — well I guess they don’t need a Zooey Deschanel impression anymore. “Seth MacFarlane/Frank Ocean” got the 38th season off to an exciting start, even without those three.”
“Even though Seth MacFarlane makes himself the focus of his shows, it’s rare to see him perform as just himself. MacFarlane’s opening monologue felt a bit safe, as he stuck to impressions, singing and Jewish jokes, yet MacFarlane was actually a surprisingly good first-time host, even if he wasn’t given too much heavy lifting.”
Jewish jokes on SNL? Spoken by Seth MacFarlane? The comments came in pro and con, of course, which is par for the course in this day and age.
One commenter wrote, a bit angry and flabbergasted and at wit’s end, saying: “Seth Macfarlane does Kermit the Frog: ‘I love being in NewYork, except for all the Jews!’ What a jerk! I hope all Jewish directors and producers, including Lorne Michaels, blacklist him in the future. What a waste of a great talent.”
This was followed by a second commenter noting: “It was a joke. I think he knows that Lorne Michaels is Jewish.”
A third commenter said: “This is, after all, the first time Seth has ever said something negative about a group of people.”
Fourth comment: “Just about everyone who works on ‘Family Guy’ is Jewish. Haha, it was a joke.”
However, as another commenter noted online, “MacFarlane’s race-baiting humor is nothing new. Heck, we’ve seen it for almost a decade now.We’re used to it. And we have a half century of history from comedians like Lenny Bruce and Don Rickles and Red Foxx and Richard Pryor and Archie Bunker and Andrew Dice Clay.”
So, final question: Is Seth MacFarlane being a bit antisemitic when he tells his Jewish jokes in public, or on SNL, or he is just telling jokes that to him are funny — and very funny to his many fans?
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Bloom is Taiwan bureau chief for San Diego Jewish World and an inveterate web surfer. You can answer his question in the comment section below, or by writing to him at dan.bloom@sdjewishworld.com
The joke MOST DEFINETLY WAS NOT WRITTEN BY ANYONE OTHER THAN MACFARLANE.
I challenge anyone to go through the entire broadcast history of SNL and
find EVEN ONE instance of anti-semitism, which is what “except for all
the Jews” IS. It is ANTI-SEMITIC. Which is in perfect company with the
many examples of Macfarlanes anti-semitic “jokes” he has made in the
past through the show HE CREATED, namely “Family Guy”. The SNL comment
IS ALL MACFARLANE…
Dear Mr Levy, As always good to hear from you and a good comment, too, as always. You made some good points and I agree with you. Still, the Kermit jjoke about “I like New York except for all the Jews here…” leaves a bad taste in my mouth. While the joke line was probably written by one of Seth’s Jewish writers of the show, it was spoken by Seth and in the mouth of Kermet, and it was tasteless. But yes, c’est la vie in the world of edgy comedy! I don’t like it. DId you know that Seth has been chosen by the //Jews// of Hollywood to be next year’s Oscar host in February 2013? This is the same Seth who has already made tasteless jokes about the Holocaust and female Jewish comediennes! Something is wrong in the USA and it’s very sad if THIS is the state of comedy in the 21st Century. Still, freedom of speech, etc etc yes.
I don’t know Seth MacFarlane personally, but the likelihood of him actually being an antisemite is so small as to be unworthy of discussion. All the comments about the writers on Family Guy and many of MacFarlane’s other cohorts being Jewish are worth noting, as is the bottom line – something I think I mentioned, Danny, in a previous comment about one of your Gervais posts – This. Is. Comedy.
The best comedy doesn’t just make you laugh, it also makes you think. And even some so-called “crude” humor like that found in Family Guy and MacFarlane’s other work can be powerfully thought-provoking. I haven’t seen the SNL monologue, but the Kermit/NY Jews jokes is also deeper than it seems. MacFarlane is turning the world upside down and inside out with this line – the fact is that the entertainment industry, and comedy especially, is populated with Jewish writers, performers, and others far beyond their representation in the general population, so “complaining” about the Jewish presence in NY is the height of absurdity.
That may not be as funny when it’s explained that way… but that’s the thing about good comedy. It needs to be experienced and heard and internalized, and maybe a few minutes, or hours, or days later, you’ll think, “Huh! That gag had a whole other level I didn’t get until now! Awesome!”
MacFarlane attributes the crude ethnic humor in his shows to his predominantly Jewish writing staff: “We are presenting the Archie Bunker point of view and making fun of the stereotypes–not making fun of the groups. But if I’m really being honest, then maybe there’s a part of me that’s stuck in high school and we’re laughing because we’re not supposed to. I don’t know the psychology. At the core, I know none of us gives a shit. Some people say that stereotypes exist for a reason. I’m in no way qualified to make that determination. But I’m sitting in a room with a writing staff that is in large part Jewish, and those are the guys pitching the jokes MacFarlane attributes the crude ethnic humor in his shows to his predominantly Jewish writing staff: “We are presenting the Archie Bunker point of view and making fun of the stereotypes–not making fun of the groups. But if I’m really being honest, then maybe there’s a part of me that’s stuck in high school and we’re laughing because we’re not supposed to. I don’t know the psychology. At the core, I know none of us gives a shoot. Some people say that stereotypes exist for a reason. I’m in no way qualified to make that determination. But I’m sitting in a room with a writing staff that is in large part Jewish, and those are the guys pitching the jokes.”
FYI There is a video of Macfarlanes snl appearance. at the 4:14 minute mark he does his Kermit impression “great to be in New York except for all the Jews”
here is a video of Macfarlane in a nationally broadcast tv special / variety show, in which he sa s to a female Jewish comedian – “You should consider yourself lucky. If the Nazis hadn’t happened, imagine how many Jewish female comedians you would have had to compete with. So instead it’s just you and Sarah Silverman.”
Even though his Jewish costar, Alex Borstein seems upset, it is all an act on her part. In fact, anyone who dares call out Macfarlane for his Jews/Holocaust obsession are met with replies of “All his co-stars are Jewish!”. Very true.
Here is the only website which repeatedly talks about Macfarlane regarding this topic, a blog.
Another article regarding a flyer he mailed out so he could get an emmy “Come on, you bloated, overprivileged Brentwood Jews, let us into your little club”
One of the “characters” on Family Guy is a a sickly looking, nasally voiced, whiny, hook nosed pharmacist named “Mort Goldman”. Goldman tends to make comments or have comments directed toward him regarding money and being Jewish. Unfortunately I cannot provide video of this because youtube cannot allow family guy episodes because of copyright infringement. But with hours of research, someone going through all the dvd’s of Family Guy would have significant material regarding what I just mentioned.
There is an infamous Family Guy episode when the characters, in a Walt Disney themed alternate universe, scream “JEWS!!!” at Mort Goldman, who is wearing a huge gold Star of David around his neck, and then proceed to beat him to death, his blood oozing on the floor. Here is a link discussing it
Here is a tremendous blog article about Macfarlane and his anti-Jew history in the Age of Australia by Dvir Abramovich who is is the Jan Randa Senior Lecturer in Jewish Studies is director of the Centre for Jewish History and Culture at The University of Melbourne. He is editor of the Australian Journal of Jewish Studies and president of the Australian Association of Jewish Studies. He is co-editor of the book Testifying to the Holocaust published in 2008