Ricky Gervais is explaining himself.
Earlier this week, we reported on Gervais’ appearance on “The Daily Show,” where he made an Anne Frank joke (which he has apparently been using in his routine for 10 years) and was met with some serious backlash.
Maybe it’s because this is the week of Holocaust Remembrance Day. Maybe it’s because today is Hitler’s birthday. Either way, Gervais has some folks hopping mad.
Dan Bloom, the Taiwan bureau chief of the San Diego Jewish World, might be the most outspoken of the Gervais-haters. Bloom wrote in his “open letter”: “It’s time to grow up and throw your genteel British anti-Semitism snark away. In the gutters. Where it belongs.”
On Thursday, Gervais published his own article on the website of Britain’s Jewish Chronicle titled, “Why it’s kosher to joke about Anne Frank.”
In it, he explains his comic persona as a man who speaks with authority but in doing so reveals his stupidity.
“I feel you can make a joke about anything. It just depends on what the joke is. Comedy comes from a good or 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,” the comedian wrote.
Bloom responded with a second “open letter” to Gervais on his blog, saying that the comedian should “grow up.” It seems as though Gervais is going to still have a tough crowd when it comes to Anne Frank jokes.
See the original Ricky Gervais-Jon Stewart video here:
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
