Heard the joke about the comedy reviewer and the Jews?

There haven’t been many upsides to Covid but I discovered a new one today.

The papers are full of the winner of the Dave's Funniest Joke of the [Edinbugh] Fringe award, the first to be held since the pandemic. The winning line: "I tried to steal spaghetti from the shop, but the female guard saw me and I couldn't get pasta."

Makes you hark back longingly to the days of lockdown…

But I thought I’d get in the spirit and offer my own ‘boom, boom’ line: What do you get if you cross a comedy reviewer who trots out classic Jewish stereotypes with lots of people who don’t give a damn?

Kate Copstick.

I admit it’s not even as good as the pasta joke. But it has the benefit of being, I believe, true.

If you have any interest in comedy at the Fringe you’ll most likely have come across Ms Copstick. She is pretty ubiquitous at this time of year, on Radio 4, various newspapers, TV and such like (she was on GB News on Sunday night).

But the fact that Ms Copstick’s views are given so many platforms is the perfect demonstration of the truth of David Baddiel’s Jews Don’t Count. Because her view of Jews has been known for over 6 years. In those six years, a number of us have repeatedly pointed what she has said, to no avail. No one takes the least notice.

In 2015, Ms Copstick was asked to be a judge at JW3’s Jewish Comedian of the Year awards. As far as I am aware, no one had any idea of her views then, so no criticism is intended towards JW3 for inviting her.

What she said emerged afterwards, on an obscure podcast named 'Grouchy Club' by someone called John Fleming on 6 December 2015. The podcast would have remained in deserved obscurity was it not for a musician, Clifford Slapper, who was deeply shocked by what he heard.
Here is is an extract from it. You will be shocked, too. (It's even worse when you listen.)

It’s rare to encounter such clarity from such a person:

KC: Oh, God! it was at Jew Central! It was at this very strange place, I mean, talk about overreaction: it's an arts centre that's built like a fucking fortress!

JF: Well, it would be, 'cause it's Jewish.

KC: But it's all, "Oh dear, we're still terrible victims and everybody's having a go at us." When was the last time a Jew was shot in London?

JF: Probably yesterday, I don't know.

KC: But, you know, they're banging on like, "Oh, we live in fear, we live in fear." For fuck's sake, there's a moat, you get frisked before you go in, there's bars, it's all bullet-proof glass.

JF: That's two thousand years of having to deal with Glaswegians!

KC: Yeah, yadda, yadda, yadda, yadda, yadda. Everyone was on about the Holocaust last night, it was like the most mentioned word.

JF: By the comics? That's a bit, well, I hate to say old hat, but, I mean, you'd think. I mean, after Lewis Schaffer's three-part Holocaust joke, who could top it?

KC: I told it! All three parts. because I was trying to explain how brilliant it was, and what a brilliant Holocaust joke was like. There was that, like, über-Jewish lady who was there, what was her name? (Honestly, you should have seen the little look he gave me there, ladies and gentlemen!) Deb Filler is her name! She's ridiculously, unbelievably Jewish, incredibly Jewish..She's a Kiwi, living in Canada, but seems to know everybody. This Deb lady, I don't think she liked the Holocaust joke very much.

JF: The Holocaust joke? It's an excellent joke. We won't go into that (she's got previous on this....)

KC: "She" has got serious previous on this...!

JF: On account!

KC: There was a lot of Holocaust material..On the panel and in the audience, I was representing the "Goyeem".

JF: You were the only one on the panel, weren't you?

KC: Well, luckily enough, Arthur Brown is Jewish enough for both of us. But this place! The wine is kosher, for which read vastly over-priced. The beer is kosher. They have Becks, so I was drinking my Becks, and on the label on the back it said it was brewed in accordance with the German purity laws, which I thought was fucking hilarious…Fascinating audience there..not an audience you would wish on anyone.

I’ve tried to see how this diatribe can be heard or read as anything other than a series of nasty anti-Jewish jibes. And I can’t.

But the kicker is that no one seems to give a damn. It’s Edinburgh 2022 and Kate Copstick is everywhere once more sharing her views on comedy.

But heh, of course she is. Jews don’t count.