Amy Schumer Tweets ‘Offensive and Wrong’ Joke About Jews
Image by Getty Images
Jewish comic Amy Schumer tweeted a Jewish joke criticized as “offensive and wrong” by the Gossip Cop website.
In a Twitter post Wednesday, the comedienne and actress made public a photo of herself standing between a clarinetist and a saxophonist, each holding his instrument. Her caption read “A Jew with horns.” She later amended the phrase to “I meant to say a Jew with 2 horns.
A Jew with horns pic.twitter.com/5v3JUHZenN
— Amy Schumer (@amyschumer) March 2, 2016
Gossip Cop, which says it polices Hollywood and celebrity news to separate what’s real from rumor, slammed the tweet.
“While comedy can provoke discussion, it’s purpose is not to perpetuate hateful and inaccurate stereotypes. And Schumer’s Twitter message, which plays off the misconception that Jews are horned creatures, accomplishes less comically than it does to reignite misguided prejudice,” the site’s commentary read.
“Undoubtedly, Schumer will justify her mildly amusing ‘joke’ by noting that she herself was raised Jewish and can poke fun at herself, as she often does with her comedy. But does that make it okay for her to spread untrue and hurtful stereotypes about Jews? Would jokes by a popular black or Latino comedian be considered funny if he or she tweeted to their millions of followers a wholly and historically painful stereotype about their people for non-minorities to laugh at?”
Gossip Cop staff called on Schumer to “grab her tweet by the horns and apologize for perpetuating this slanderous depiction of Jews for a mere half-laugh.”
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. 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 so that we can be prepared for whatever news the rest of 2025 brings.
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 polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Membership Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
