Australian Stand-Up Comedian Loses Netflix Deal After Making Holocaust Jokes
by Benjamin Kerstein
Australian comedian Isaac Butterfield. Photo: Instagram.
An Australian stand-up comedian has lost a deal with the streaming giant Netflix after he was caught making jokes about the Holocaust.
According to The Daily Mail, Isaac Butterfield made the jokes during an appearance in Melbourne. He was later emailed by a Jewish woman who had been in the audience.
“Sitting there hearing about Jews being gassed, eight million perished including children, watching family members being gassed or tortured or shot, is not remotely funny,” she wrote.
Butterfield reportedly replied, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the oven.”
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Dvir Abramovich, chairman of Australia’s Anti-Defamation Commission, said, “It is beyond shocking to exploit the extermination of six million Jews in the Holocaust to generate despicable jokes.”
Butterfield had a deal set with Netflix for a comedy special called “The Butterfield Effect.” The network has since canceled the show amid controversy over the offensive content of Butterfield’s act.
A spokesperson for the comedy festival where Butterfield made the offensive jokes commented, “The festival does not censor artists’ work and the annual event represents the individual views, observations, and humor of the artists involved.”
