sashinka | observation orientated, with a twist of lime | a blog

I can't find it anywhere online, but Jackie Mason had a piece in Friday's Evening Standard entitle What sort of job is this for a nice Jewish boy?.

Now I don't know what sort of cartoon Jewish universe the editorial board of the Evening Standard live in - but I can guess.

- We want to say something about Howard, right? He's, like, an immigrant.

- Yeah, shopkeeper-stylee. It's sensitive if we do it. Let's get someone else... [drops voice] Jewish to do it for us.

- Know any Jews?

- Nigella? The Saatchis?

- They've got to know about politics.

- Freedland, on the Guardian? He's a bright boy. Star on the ascendant, and all that.

- Nah, he'll never go for it.

- What about that comic? What's his name? The New York guy with with racist material and the gag-a-minute delivery?

- Jeez, Brian, you're a genuis. Jackie Mason. Someone call Jackie Mason. He's got it all: know's nothing about UK politics, isn't a writer, and responds to all questions by just doing his material at you. Inspired choice. Total puppet.

I'm off out now (this is me speaking, not the Standard editorial board), so I haven't got time to tell you that Jackie Mason (with Raoul Felder, which I think means Raoul just called him up on the phone and fed him a few straight lines) makes me sick. Some of his material is right on the money, but he talks about other ethnic groups with a vehemence that I can't handle. And, in this case, just uses all his usual Polac material to talk about Romanians.

It's 800 words of racism, court-Jew-baiting, lawyer-slagging, caricatured Jewish mothers, and an ignorance of British political history that makes me want to...