Comedian Viciously Mocks Jewish Couple, Forces Husband in Wheelchair to Exit

SCOTLAND (VINnews) — An American comedian ridiculed an Israeli couple attending his show, while a chorus of audience members joined in, forcing the couple to leave in humiliation.

Things descended into chaos at Reginald Hunter’s Comedy gig at the Edinburgh Fringe in the UK, starting when Hunter made an anti semitic joke about an abusive wife: “It’s like being married to Israel,” he quipped.

Although most of the audience laughed in response, one man in the front row shouted, “Not funny”.

Speaking to the Jewish Chronicle, the Jewish man said, “It was just a heckle because it wasn’t funny, it was poor, he was nervous and sweaty. He put on a bad set. When he told this joke about an abusive husband leaving the house but it was really the husband being abused by the wife, I just said: ‘That’s not funny’ and then he really started.”

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Hunter responded: “You can say it’s not funny to you, but if you say it to a room full of people who laughed, you look foolish.”

When the couple said they were from Israel, audience members shouted “genocidal maniac”, “you’re not welcome” and “free Palestine.”

“It was like a baying mob,” the man added.

The man’s wife stood up and told Hunter that October 7 was “terrible.” According to her husband, she told Hunter and the audience: “Women being raped, babies being killed, this was not a joke. Hamas are the abusers. People think Israel is the abuser. The joke would have worked the other way round.”

Hunter appeared to double down, telling the couple: “I’ve been waiting for you all summer, where…you been?” according to a report.

Hunter said: “Look at you making everyone love Israel even more.”

The man, who uses a wheelchair, did not want to leave because “it takes me a while to stand up and walk down the stairs,” but the audience refused to back down.

“The audience were really abusive and [Hunter] told us to get out and the people working at the theater told us to leave…

“There was no one in the audience who stood up and said ‘This is ridiculous.’ There is a difference between a bit of heckle. If I say ‘That is not funny,’ a decent comedian would use a put-down line. They are used to being heckled; I did not want to wind up the whole audience.”

The man had to gather his wheelchair at the bottom of the staircase, and Hunter allegedly laughed at the couple as they slowly left the hall.

The comedian gloated: “That tells me that I still got voltage”.

The comedian continued by claiming that he was once told that someone from the Jewish Chronicle would be watching his show for a review.

After the show, Hunter said his partner sought out the review, but could not access it online because of a paywall, saying: “Typical —— Jews, they won’t tell you anything unless you subscribe.”

However the Chronicle has never had a paywall.

The Assembly Festival, which operates the venue, stated: “We are aware of an audience member choosing to leave Reginald D Hunter’s performance on Sunday Aug 11. The venue front of house team attended and supported the member of the public upon exiting.”