By Daphne Anson
In Oz, and beyond, at least 15 minutes of infamy for “comedian” Isaac Butterfield (no, I’ve never previously heard of him either), who thinks the Shoah is a suitable subject for “comedy”.
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| Melbourne Herald Sun, 22 April 2019 |
Butterfield claims on his social media accounts that he’s been misrepresented in that press report and will duly respond on his “channel”.
Meanwhile:
As we read here, Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dvir Abramovich said Butterfield should apologise for the comments.
“It’s never OK to spew such hate rhetoric, and Isaac Butterfield should be ashamed for his hideous remarks that crossed all lines and which trampled on the memory of the dead,” he said.
“It is beyond shocking to exploit the extermination of six million Jews in the Holocaust to generate despicable jokes.
“When you consider that the corpses of those killed with the poison gas were often cremated in ovens, Mr Butterfield’s email response of ‘get out of the oven’ is disturbing and vicious.”
He urged the festival organisers to consider whether he should be given a platform in future.
However, a Melbourne Comedy Festival spokeswoman said performers are able to express their views, even those deemed offensive.
“The festival does not censor artists’ work and the annual event represents the individual views, observations and humour of the artists involved,” the spokeswoman said.
“Melbourne audiences have the intelligence to make calls about the work of various comedians and either support them or hold them to account for their views.”
Mr Butterfield declined to respond to questions by the Herald Sun.
His performance Why So Serious? is said to “explore the PC culture of our ever so changing world — from the good, the bad to the ugly”.
Almost 20,000 people have signed an online petition for him to be elected to the House of Representatives this May to challenge “this crazy left-wing agenda and politically correct world”.
But is the near-annihilation of European Jewry an appropriate subject for levity? Most reasonable people must surely think it monstrous.
On Facebook, in the meantime, beneath a female poster’s criticism of Butterfield’s Holocaust “humour”, fans of Butterfield have written such contemptible comments as these:
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