When I ask Jewish British comedian David Baddiel a question about the nature of comedy, he responds with a Holocaust joke.
It’s not for shock value, nor is Baddiel making light of the Nazi extermination of millions of Jews and other minorities. He is the son and grandson of Holocaust survivors from Königsberg in Germany, now Kaliningrad in Russia, and the trauma of his mother’s childhood has deeply affected him. He is also the author of a non-fiction book about anti-Semitism called Jews Don’t Count.
My question was whether he agrees with John Cleese, one of the most famous British comedians of all time, that the best comedy often draws on taboo topics. Cleese has in his later years leaned into the idea of “cancel culture” and being “anti-woke”. He sometimes tells Jewish jokes, which he insists is done affectionately, but left some audience members squirming at his recent Australian shows.
Baddiel is wary of criticising Cleese because he was an “unbelievably great comedian in terms of what he’s done in the past” and his creations, such as Monty Python and Fawlty Towers, remain important to Baddiel. He concedes that he probably doesn’t agree with Cleese on everything.