So last night, Larry David hosted Saturday Night Live.
It should have been a wonderful opportunity for some solid Bernie Sanders sketches, and he did do a Bernie impersonation at one point, but that’s not what people are talking about.
Nope, instead people are focusing on his opening monologue.
Specifically the segment during the monologue in which he made a few Holocaust jokes.
He kicks off the bit by saying that he’s “always been obsessed with women,” and “I’ve often wondered, if I’d grown up in Poland when Hitler came to power and was sent to a concentration camp, would I still be checking out women in the camp?”
The audience started laughing nervously, and he answered his own question with “I think I would.”
“The problem is,” he continued, “there are no good opening lines in a concentration camp.”
“How’s it going?” he asked an imaginary women in this wacky scenario. “They treating you OK? You know, if we ever get out of here, I’d love to take you out for some latkes. You like latkes?”
When the line didn’t land — for the audience, too, but mostly for that imaginary lady — he said “What, what’d I say? Is it me, or is it the whole thing?”
From there, Larry wrapped up the monologue and went into the typical “We got a great show tonight …” SNL thing.
But, thanks to the internet, that certainly would not be the last we heard of those jokes.
“I’m not a Jew,” one person tweeted, “but I’m low-key offended by Larry David’s holocaust jokes on #SNL. Not cool.”
“I can’t believe they did jokes about a concentration camp I just can’t believe what I just saw it will never be okay to do,” another wrote.
Some people used a popular hashtag, #ReallyMakesMeCringe, to express their feelings about the monologue, for example “#ReallyMakesMeCringe when we have people denying the holocaust & Larry David opens the door for them to think it’s fine to joke about.”
There were a lot of photos shared of actual women in concentration camps to really drive home the point that the joke was offensive.
“Comedy does NOT mean everything can be funny,” someone stated. “Always wrong to joke about the Holocaust, even if you’re Jewish.”
Which is another thing — Larry is Jewish himself, so many people believe that he had the right to make those jokes.
“Don’t get why non-Jews think their opinions matter on whether or not Larry David is allowed to reference the holocaust in his jokes,” one such person tweeted.
Another explained that “If anyone is upset with Larry David’s holocaust jokes on SNL they are likely not Jewish. Comedy can help people deal with tragedy.”
So was he offensive, or does he have the right to make jokes like this?
Does anyone have the right to make jokes like this?
Sound off in the comments!