In an era in which tacky has become the default fashion standard, Joan Rivers can still manage to come off looking cheap.
Many comedians are Jewish and the fundamental difference between they and she is the others are funny.
In reference to a dress Heidi Klum wore to the Academy Awards, Joan Rivers said, "The last time a German looked this hot they were pushing Jews into the ovens." (CNN: Joan Rivers not apologizing for Holocaust joke)
On reading that I didn't think it made any sense and I researched it a bit ... to find it still doesn't make any sense. The killing of Jews and others in the Holocaust was accomplished with Zyklon B, a commercial product that released poisonous cyanide gas. I don't know what that has to do with ovens. (Wiki: Zyklon B)
I don't know if this is a problem but perhaps it is worth a thought that I didn't learn of Zyklon B in school but rather from the movie "Falling Down" starring Michael Douglas. In the movie a man disintegrates, largely due to the insanity of the violence all around him and his part in the defense industry in keeping it happening. Even in his madness, he recognises the hideous nature of Zyklon B. (Wiki: Falling Down)
Rivers, who is Jewish, said it is her way of reminding people of the Holocaust. Her late husband lost his entire family to the Holocaust so I suppose that gives Rivers the right to say whatever she likes. However if she's going to make jokes on the subject it would probably be better if they were funny. Her comment doesn't make any sense at all. If anyone would look hot on being pushed into an oven, presumably it would have been one of the Jews rather than the German guard who did the pushing.
Verdict: tasteless, stupid, and egregiously offensive
My offense is not only the nature of the joke but also in that it actively promotes a destructive stereotype, that Germans are the only ones capable of doing such a thing. It's not that I am defensive of Germans but rather I am defensive of humanity as any idea that the Holocaust could only have happened in Germany says to me that another one could still happen anywhere. And, in fact, they have. Stalin murdered millions in his purges as did the Chinese somewhat later.
Many comedians are Jewish and the fundamental difference between they and she is the others are funny.
In reference to a dress Heidi Klum wore to the Academy Awards, Joan Rivers said, "The last time a German looked this hot they were pushing Jews into the ovens." (CNN: Joan Rivers not apologizing for Holocaust joke)
On reading that I didn't think it made any sense and I researched it a bit ... to find it still doesn't make any sense. The killing of Jews and others in the Holocaust was accomplished with Zyklon B, a commercial product that released poisonous cyanide gas. I don't know what that has to do with ovens. (Wiki: Zyklon B)
I don't know if this is a problem but perhaps it is worth a thought that I didn't learn of Zyklon B in school but rather from the movie "Falling Down" starring Michael Douglas. In the movie a man disintegrates, largely due to the insanity of the violence all around him and his part in the defense industry in keeping it happening. Even in his madness, he recognises the hideous nature of Zyklon B. (Wiki: Falling Down)
Rivers, who is Jewish, said it is her way of reminding people of the Holocaust. Her late husband lost his entire family to the Holocaust so I suppose that gives Rivers the right to say whatever she likes. However if she's going to make jokes on the subject it would probably be better if they were funny. Her comment doesn't make any sense at all. If anyone would look hot on being pushed into an oven, presumably it would have been one of the Jews rather than the German guard who did the pushing.
Verdict: tasteless, stupid, and egregiously offensive
My offense is not only the nature of the joke but also in that it actively promotes a destructive stereotype, that Germans are the only ones capable of doing such a thing. It's not that I am defensive of Germans but rather I am defensive of humanity as any idea that the Holocaust could only have happened in Germany says to me that another one could still happen anywhere. And, in fact, they have. Stalin murdered millions in his purges as did the Chinese somewhat later.
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