Comedian Who Made Anti-Semitic Comment: I Was Intoxicated
David Fane, a New Zealand comedian, achieved international notoriety this week after making grossly anti-Semitic remarks on Wednesday at a media event in Auckland. (Making offensive remarks to a room full of media types: not recommended.) He later claimed to have been intoxicated.
According to a report in The New Zealand Herald, Fane, who was on hand to roast some advertising executives at the event, began with, “I want to eat you, but I won’t because I don’t want to get HIV.”
Unwisely, he continued, “Would you roast an HIV person? You’d roast them because they’re expendable, like the Jews. Hitler had a right, you know.”
To the surprise of exactly no one, advocacy groups representing both Jews and people with HIV were outraged.
“They were dumb words said by a dumb man,” Fane later told New Zealand’s 3 News in an apology.
Early reports stating that Fane had resigned as radio host were incorrect; he was temporarily suspended.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
