… editorial glitch in a Harvard journal is Sarah Silverman’s bit in a recent interview with Scott Simon:
I grew up in New Hampshire and there are not many Jews in New Hampshire, but I didn’t feel so different until maybe, like, around third grade. Kids started blaming me for my people killing Jesus. I remember, like, even then thinking, like, it’s not like we killed baby Jesus. I mean, man, like, he had quite a run. He was 33. And, by the way, you’re welcome. If we had not killed him, he wouldn’t even be famous.
November 24th, 2013 at 12:51PM
Hey Sarah, lot of Jewish kids around when I was going to school. Don’t remember anyone saying they killed anyone, much less jesus. Sorry, but I think that’s one of those urban legends, along the lines of every freakin Vietnam vet getting spit on when they got off the plane…
November 24th, 2013 at 3:24PM
Agreed. Though we should not forget certain urban legends that circulated in first-century Jerusalem….
November 24th, 2013 at 5:40PM
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/comedienne
November 25th, 2013 at 12:40AM
Don’t forget that Silverstein is a comic. I think she lifted this particular riff from Lenny Bruce, although his version is a LOT more outrageous, and funnier as well.
November 25th, 2013 at 4:40AM
janet: You’re right. I forgot all about Lenny Bruce’s routine on the same subject.
November 25th, 2013 at 8:49AM
Back in the 1960s I remember Barbara getting harassed by one of the Catholic boys who lived down the street about killing Jesus. I also remember kids in school telling me matter-of-factly that Jews killed Jesus as well.
November 25th, 2013 at 10:43AM
I grew up in a neighborhood that was certainly near 50% Catholic, at least 10% Jewish (possibly higher), and probably 10% Lutheran, and I never heard a whisper about “Jews” killing Jesus from anyone. The one consistent stereotype about Jews was that they were “cheap,” i.e., bargained hard. This was generally seen as admirable, by the way. A group of Jewish businessmen were widely and deservedly given credit for pushing both publicly and behind the scenes to clean up what had been regarded as one of the most corrupt cities in the US. Arguably, from the 1890s until 1940 or so the city was less a municipality than a criminal enterprise with a public works department.
November 25th, 2013 at 11:59AM
My father grew up in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. His first language was Spanish, he then learned both English and Hebrew, one in school, the other with his Jewish neighbors. I grew up in the Bay Area, but dad would take me down to visit his family and friends in Socal nearly every summer. Much of BH and City Terrace had been a mix of Jewish, Mexican, Asian and Irish, but it was mostly all gone when I was a kid in the 70’s. Maybe my experience was singular, I never heard anyone disparage anyone, but it may have been more an artifact of time and place…
November 25th, 2013 at 5:16PM
I was not raised Jewish or Roman Catholic, but I remember the Catholics saying they were taught in Parochial school that the Jews killed Jesus.
November 25th, 2013 at 6:23PM
I was raised in a place where people understand jokes. Apparently not many of you are from that place.
November 25th, 2013 at 7:54PM
No, we come from a place where jokes are supposed to be funny. This one wasn’t, so there you go….
BTW, look up a something called “The Aristocrats.” Silverman was in that, and she claimed that somebody had raped her. Not many thought it was funny, including the guy who she claimed did the deed. Sometimes, when youse gots nuttin, youse gots nuttin…
November 26th, 2013 at 12:38AM
Sarah Silverman was the one who made the unintentionally hilarious video in 2008 telling college students to tell their grandparents to promise vote for Obama, or they won’t visit. She also made a pro-Obama video before the 2012 election that was even more tasteless.
Derek, Where were you raised? Does anyone there understand Sarah Silverman’s jokes? Where I was raised jokes started off with “knock, knock”
November 26th, 2013 at 6:08PM
While there is no requirement to like Sarah Silverman’s material, apparently she’s doing rather well. So she maybe has a better grasp on what a lot of people think is funny.