If You Thought Heeb Was Offensive......

About a week ago, I was watching a television show on FX called "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" (a surprisingly funny dark comedy about a bunch of post-grads who run a bar). In one episode, Charlie goes to visit Dennis's grandfather in a nursing home. The old man asks Charlie to retrieve a trunk he's hidden at home because it contains the suit he wants to be buried in. He says he can't trust the people who work at the home to get it for him. More specifically, he says he can't trust the "greedy kykes" who work there to get it for him. Charlie goes to get the trunk and, of course, finds it full of Nazi memorabilia. Turns out Dennis's grandfather was a German soldier during WWII and is apparently still proud of it. After some zany plot twists where Charlie tries to sell the trunk to an appalled museum owner, he ends up burning it since Nazis are bad guys anways.

It's probably one of those things that you'd have to see for yourself, but the episode was actually really funny. What stood out to me, though, is that it's only something that could be done in America. It reminds me of what the editor of Heeb said about choosing that title for his magazine, how he thought it was almost a cop out because of its obviousness, because it's harkening back to this insult that most people of our generation have never heard before. As an American Jew, when it's done in a way that's making fun of past anti-Semitism, I can laugh at how awkward Charlie feels when the grandfather says the "k-word." It's the same way I feel when someone 60 years older than me tells a semi-racist joke. Like "that really took a turn for the ugly." And although many Jewish families in the United States have ties to people who were victims of the Holocaust, there is not the same connection to actual Nazis. The episode wouldn't be funny in Eastern Europe because a lot of people really do have grandparents who supported Hitler; it wouldn't be an odd occurence.

The episode also reminded me of the difference in freedom of speech between here and Europe. In many European countries, neo-Nazi parties are illegal as is Holocaust denial or the wearing of Nazi attire. Americans can allow those things to exist in this country because we haven't had the same history and don't really fear those anti-Semitic forces ever taking power or gaining seats in Congress. (Whereas in Germany today, the equivalent of neo-Nazis have gained seats in Parliament.)