I'm not a big fan of Sarah Silverman's comedy. She tends, in my opinion, to rely too much on shock and cuss, rather than the nuance of comedy.
A.O. Scott is one of my favorite movie reviewers—he doesn't stand on intellectualism when it comes to, say, a Marvel film. Is it a good movie? Yes? No? He'll tell you, simply.
Silverman made a film called "Jesus is Magic" in 2005, Scott did not like it, and Silverman felt that critique keenly. Silverman and Scott were brought together (eons later, puh-leez) to discuss.
There was one excerpt from their conversation that I was surprised by:
SILVERMAN [Reading from the review] “Like many … Jewish comedians, Silverman falls back on her ethnic identity as a way of claiming ready-made outsider status.” Would you say that today, or would you ever say that about any other minority?
SCOTT You know as a Jewish person, I would say that because it’s sort of an internal argument, but I don’t think I would say it that way. I don’t think I would say it again without including myself in it.
SILVERMAN Listen, obviously, I agree, and I partake — as so many Jewish comedians do — in this self-deprecation that is Judaism. But as “a false way to claim outsider status” is the actual problem with this gas in the air that is anti-Semitism, especially on, I hate to say it, the left. It’s assuming that Jews are not to be worried about and do not merit allyship. Racism is defined by racists, not liberals, and they don’t like Jews. So, when people say Jews are white, I’m as white as you can be, but if you ask a white person, they’ll disagree.
SCOTT All right. Point taken.
SILVERMAN Sorry, I get passionate.
SCOTT No, I think that’s fair.
SILVERMAN You would never say that about another culture, who also in comedy uses their culture as a way in with — —
Scott is Jewish (Wiki confirmed through his mother) and yet he himself believed that for Jews to consider themselves outsiders was a bit much.
Yes, I will admit, that as a Jewish woman I don't really excite much anti-Semitism. It's not like I have a stereotypical hooked nose, cackling over a money sack. But there have been times when I was identified as Jewish, and some unpleasant interactions followed. And I was frightened.
Even someone who holds few things sacred, like Silverman, knows this. But there are plenty of Jews who refuse to acknowledge the hatred, perhaps in a misguided belief that they are accepted, and from a desire not to be an outsider.
That's what we failed to learn from German "assimilation."
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