Berlusconi's Jewish Joke Falls Flat

[joeybee12]

On Sunday, the Vatican’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, denounced Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy for telling a “deplorable” joke about Jews and the Holocaust.

The newspaper called Mr. Berlusconi’s ant-Semitic joke, which stereotypes Jews as obsessed with money, “an offense to the sacred memory of six million victims of the Holocaust,” the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

The condemnation came days after an Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, obtained and published video of Mr. Berlusconi’s private monologue, delivered to well-wishers last week on his 74th birthday.

In the excerpt from the video embedded below, the Italian leader can be heard telling a joke about a Jew who admits that “during the time of the death camps” he agreed to hide another Jew in his cellar but forced him to pay more than $4,000 a day because “we are Jews.” The joke’s punch line, such as it is, involves the man asking his family if he should finally admit to the man in his cellar that Hitler is dead and the war is over.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/04/berlusconis-jewish-joke-falls-flat/?hp

Gotta hand it to Berlusconi...whenever I think he can't be a bigger asshole than he already is, he surprises me and raise the bar once again. D**wad. D**chenozzle.

[formercia]

1. One of the Boys n/t

[RandomThoughts]

2. Hitler is dead.

The concept of superiority of some groups, is still a problem that causes much strife in the world.

When looking at ww2 history, don't look at the nouns, look at the attributes. That can help the problems of group identification causing issues outside of what groups actually do today. Not the labels but the attributes are what causes the problems.

So when saying Hitler is bad, people should also include saying what thought concepts he had that made him bad.

[jpgray]

3. Certamente un razzista, prima della lista.

Hey, I remember Italian! File this with those hilarious jokes about Obama's tan.

[Iggo]

4. Gee, guys. Why all the piling on?

He made a mistake! Doesn't everyone deserve a second chance?

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[Renew Deal]

5. Is Rick Sanchez his comedy writer?

:dunce:

[Gman]

6. I would expect just as easily this was caught on tape from some GOP Senator

or Congressman. I'm sure they see some humor in it too.