Posted on 04/21/2025 2:09:20 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The Jewish comedian has long made Nazi references in his satire.
Add Larry David to the list of celebrities who were put off by comedian Bill Maher’s friendly sitdown with President Trump.
In a New York Times opinion piece, “My Dinner with Adolf,” the Jewish creator of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” imagines a get-to-know-you meeting “at the Old Chancellery with the world’s most reviled man, Adolf Hitler.”
The narrator ends up being charmed by the Nazi leader. “I thought that if only the world could see this side of him, people might have a completely different opinion,” he gushes.
The essay doesn’t mention Maher, but in a newsletter Times deputy opinion editor Patrick Healy acknowledges that David proposed the article in response to Maher’s description of his recent meeting with Trump. Describing their dinner on his Max show “Real Time,” Maher said he found the president to be “gracious and measured” and hardly the “crazy person” he often seems on TV.
According to Healy, David sent him an unsolicited email suggesting his essay. Healy wrote that the Times seeks to avoid Nazi references in the essays it publishes, but felt David’s piece “is not equating Trump with Hitler. It is about seeing someone for who they really are and not losing sight of that.”
David joined other critics of Maher’s conciliatory description of his Trump meeting. “Bill is just the latest in a whole series of people who get had by the personal charm, if you will, of some really bad people,” said Democratic strategist James Carville on his “Politics War Room” podcast.
In a segment on “Real Time,” Washington Post global security analyst Josh Rogin told Maher he was a “prop” in Trump’s “PR stunt.”
In the David piece, the narrator banters amiably with Hitler, who laughs at his jokes. “I realized I’d never seen him laugh before,” he writes. “Suddenly he seemed so human.”
Maher said something similar about Trump in his monologue: “Just for starters, he laughs! I’ve never seen him laugh in public. But he does, including at himself. And it’s not fake.”
In his editor’s note, Healy writes that “David, in a provocation of his own, is arguing that during a single dinner or a private meeting, anyone can be human, and it means nothing in the end about what they’re capable of.”
David, who skewered conservative policies on his long-running HBO show, has often used Nazi references in his satire. As a standup comedian, he would goad audiences by saying “The one thing about Hitler that I admire…” before suggesting that the dictator had no patience for stage magicians. He and Jerry Seinfeld created the “Soup Nazi” character on “Seinfeld,” and “Curb” featured a memorable clash between a Holocaust survivor and a contestant on the reality show “Survivor” who too considered himself a victim.
Such jokes have divided audiences, and even individual critics. In an essay criticizing David for a Holocaust joke he told while hosting “Satruday Night Live” in 2017, Jeremy Dauber praised the “Survivor” episode on “Curb.” “In that ‘Curb’ episode,” writes Dauber, a professor of Jewish literature at Columbia University, “David is searchingly moral, flaying a kind of ethical vacuity and historical relativism about the Holocaust.”
David’s piece is also reminiscent of a 2003 skit by the Jewish comedian Jon Stewart, who imagines Hitler being interviewed by the late Larry King, the ingratiating CNN talk show host.
In his Max monologue, Maher, who positions himself as a centrist truth-teller between political extremes, anticipates the blowback he was sure to receive as a result of his dinner with a deeply polarizing president. “You can hate me for it, but I’m not a liar. Trump was gracious and measured, and why he isn’t that in other settings, I don’t know,” he said.
Funny guy
They never learn,...
..let em laugh.
World’s most reviled?
So Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc. are saints?
Larry — the trash politicians you worship would sell you out in a New York minute.
Those guys have their defenders.
Why post this crap twice?
And why do you always try to hide what democrats do?
“Maher said something similar about Trump in his monologue: “Just for starters, he laughs! I’ve never seen him laugh in public.”
Then he wasn’t paying attention.
Mahers praise is dripping with sanctimonious crap.
Another political hack who likes to think of himself as a comedian.
Did we hear outrage by L.D. when Hamas slaughtered Jews in Israel on October 7th 2023? Not to mention what they did to children and women. Only when woke feels it’s convenient for their cause do they suddenly speak out. True Lies.
Another un-funny self-hating Jew.
You posted the same crap 💩 from The NY Times
Twice with this crap 💩?
“David’s piece is not equating Trump with Hitler.”
Yes, it is. That’s the WHOLE point of it.
And they continue to do this despite the clear reality that their past dehumanizing and vile slander of President Trump led to multiple assassination attempts.
They can’t call for his murder out loud because they can’t face the consequences. Unlike President Trump, they are cowards. When he was bleeding from being shot, he stood and defiantly shouted, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
But they hide behind their detached, out-of-touch fantasy stories, while nearly breaking their arms patting themselves on the back for how brilliant they think they are.
How far do you have to read to get to the funny part?
https://archive.is/pdJix#selection-761.0-761.802
Lamer essay, but just what the uber educated NYT readers think is clever n witty. And the NYT is quite profitable.
AI>>>
The New York Times is solidly profitable, with annual operating profit in 2024 of $351 million and adjusted operating profit of $455.4 million, both driven largely by robust growth in digital subscriptions. Digital subscription revenue now accounts for the majority of its subscription income, reflecting the company’s successful digital transformation.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.