Anti-Semitism is a strange institution. It rears its head in strange places, and in strange ways. But when its ugly countenance appeared in the Daily Free Press Feb. 21, I was horrified.
Comedy is a stranger institution. It is everywhere, and what is funny in some settings is inappropriate in others. Often, comedy is dependent on other institutions such as racism, sexism and others to elicit laughter from the masses.
That’s OK, provided someone laughs, but when a comic tells a disparaging joke that just isn’t funny — that’s racism. Comics are therefore put in a precarious situation, walking the line between good natured ribbing and rampant racism, with laughter as the only barometer for where they stand.
Therefore, it is with extreme sorrow, that I must accuse Justin Hook’s column, “If I Were President,” (Feb. 21, p. 8) of being anti-Semitic. In it, he asks, in an attempt at humor, “Are Allstonians not good enough for Jews?”
Were this line funny, were it to elicit laughter and good will, it would be fine, but with this joke, Justin Hook missed the mark, and thus, I must accuse him of promoting anti-Semitism, not because of ill will towards Jews, but because of a lapse in comedic judgment that resulted in this joke, which is not at all funny. I urge Mr. Hook to be funnier in the future, and thus rid the pages of the great Daily Free Press from all forms of anti-Semitism, other racism, sexism and bias based on breakfast cereal preferences.
Ben Keil
CAS/COM ’10
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