Jewish American comedian and actress Hannah Einbinder claimed on her Instagram story Tuesday post that Dave Chappelle's monologue during "Saturday Night Live" (SNL) was "full of antisemitic remarks and delivered ingeniously."
"Yeah, the Chappelle monologue was littered with antisemitism. He did it masterfully. He used a genius technique: two truths and a lie," Einbinder wrote.
"What I mean by that is, bigoted people will often couch their bigotry in a degree of truth. They will tell you two great things, and then they slip the lie in because they have earned your trust with the two great things they have told you. So, in his case, the 'truth' is good jokes. He had some solid jokes in reemphasizing of conspiracy he sprinkled in," the HBO Max "Hacks" star continued.
"No one who laughs at the solid jokes would be willing to admit that there was antisemitism in that monologue, because that admission would then qualify them as complicit. 'No one wants to feel like a bad person.' The fact is: non-Jews aren't as keenly aware of antisemitic ideas, tropes, verbiage, etc. Most people just missed these ideas altogether, and only remember that they laughed.
"So when Jews say hey, there was antisemitism in there, folks go 'you are too sensitive. Learn to take a joke.' because 'no one wants to feel that they are bad people,' they gaslight Jews by telling us that we are imagining things," Einbinder added.
"The danger is that Dave Chappelle, and every other male comedian who believes that their amplification of bigotry is just freedom of speech, are seen as tellers of hard truths, and thus anyone who criticizes them are seen as snowflakes.
"I invite you to reframe this narrative. These men who pick on marginalized groups are establishment bullies reinforcing the status quo- not at all the job of a comedian. It is the people who speak out 'against' them who are the truth tellers."
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt also responded to Chappelle's monologue and tweeted: "We shouldn't expect Dave Chappelle to serve as society's moral compass."
"But disturbing to see 'Saturday Night Live' not just normalize but popularize antisemitism. Why are Jewish sensitivities denied or diminished at almost every turn? Why does our trauma trigger applause?"
On the other hand, Jewish comedian Jon Stewart defended Chappelle's monologue. "Everybody calls me like, ‘You see Dave on SNL?’ And I say yes, we’re very good friends. I always watch and send nice texts,” Stewart said.
"He normalized antisemitism with the monologue.’ I don’t know if you’ve been on comment sections on most news articles, but it’s pretty normal. It’s incredibly normal. But, the one thing I will say is I don’t believe that censorship and penalties are the way to end antisemitism or to gain understanding. I don’t believe in that. It’s the wrong way for us to approach it.”