Sarah Silverman is using her platform to once again appeal to antisemitism – in the world and perhaps even in her own action.
On the new HBO special, Sarah Silverman: Someone You Love, The comedian returns to HBO for the first time since 2013. Filmed at the Wilbur Theater in Boston, the special features Silverman from the Scouts of America to the Catholic Church, anti-abortion advocates, Jewish mothers, anyone who hates Jewish people “too much” for any reason.
“I mean, I kind of figured it out,” Silverman muttered from the side of his mouth. “However For this reason more?”
Able to convey paragraphs of subtext with just tone of voice, Silverman often walks the fine line between disrespect and sincerity. after opening someone you love Telling a little about a Jewish mother who gushes that her child is “the best” in a gang rape, Silverman then playfully ponders that some of her humor may be “selling my culture for laughs.”
While some of the ingredients in someone you love it can feel stale at times (like a long piece about how ironic it is that men’s fragile balls begin to symbolize toughness) Silverman reminds us in these moments why he is “one of the greatest,” as he jokingly claims.
At one point in his special event, Silverman asks the audience for the name of the book Adolf Hitler once wrote. “I feel like some of the non-Jews are also answering that,” he said after the crowd responded. My fight. The comedian then asked the audience to translate the title: my struggle.
“My challenge.” Silverman says this several times, shuffling the words aloud, making them more ridiculous with each repetition.”my struggle. Is there a book that looks more Jewish than the book of the real Hitler?” Then comes the intimacy, Silverman asks himself why there is so much discussion about it. Sarah Silverman Podcast It can be “too Jewish-y”.
Silverman has repeatedly discussed his Jewish identity on his podcast, including a 2021 episode where he talks about growing up as one of the few Jewish kids at his New Hampshire school. He remembered that some of his classmates still used the word “Jew” as a verb to haggle someone for a lower price. He looked at his stand-up performance in high school and said, “It’s not a Jewish verb. It’s me, your friend.” From then on, he recalled, “they stopped saying that, at least in my circle.”
Silverman also spoke out again last fall when Kanye West posted an antisemitic rant on Twitter and that winter after his friend Dave Chappelle posted a monologue about West’s defeat. Saturday night live using their own antisemitic tropes. While comedians like Jerry Seinfeld and Jon Stewart have avoided condemning the comedian, Silverman took another route on his podcast.
after watching SNL Silverman admitted that most people who watched the monologue didn’t hate Jewish people – “because they were too busy laughing at all the other stuff and shiny things.” While some of Chappelle’s jokes were “funny,” Silverman said, “that’s what made his anti-Semitism so scary. It made him stronger.” He likened the phenomenon to a game of two truths and a lie, in which the antisemitic narrative embedded in the jokes functions as a lie.
Silverman theorizes that during his special event, he talked about it so much on his podcast “because there was such a huge rise in antisemitism.” He explains: “You say, ‘My mom is a bitch,’ and your friend says, ‘Yeah, your mom is a bitch.’ You go, ‘What did you say about my mom?’ you say.”
At the same time, her boyfriend’s own stand-up was “Jews are disgusting; Jews have diarrhea.”
“I’m selling my culture for laughs,” Silverman says. “So, if you think about it, what could be more authentically Jewish? Sorry; I can’t help it. It saves me a lot of money.”
The comedian closes the piece perfectly, adding that it’s not the audience’s problem: “This is my ‘kampf’ that I have to deal with in ‘mein’ time.”
Listen to Sarah Silverman for more. The Last Laugh podcast.