The Matty Johns show has come under attack after making a joke about Hitler on Sunday night.
As NRL fans continue to have fun with a promotion by the league allowing them to pay $22 to have a cardboard cut-out of their likeness placed in stadiums during games by sending in images of their dogs and even infamous serial killers, Johns’ show responded with a gag.
They mocked up a photoshopped image of the crowd – which to be clear, wasn’t ever seen inside an NRL stadium – featuring the Nazi leader seated alongside other supporters.
The CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, which acts as the voice of the Jewish community in Australia, slammed the joke.
“This sort of stupidity, the casualisation of Hitler, Nazis, and by extension their crimes, is what leads to swastikas being graffitied throughout our cities and school kids being harassed with gas chamber jokes,” Alex Ryvchin tweeted. “@FOXNRLLive & @MattyShowsFox should tell their viewers it’s not on.”
Victorian Federal MP Josh Burns replied to a screenshot of the joke which circulated on social media, saying: “Please tell me this didn’t actually happen.”
While some viewers defended the joke as an attempt at comedy, it also ruffled the feathers of several Aussie sports journalists. AFL media veteran Rohan Connolly wrote “please tell me this didn’t happen” and “you don’t make jokes about Hitler”.
Read the report in The Morning Bulletin.