Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Amy Schumer Tweets ‘Offensive and Wrong’ Joke About Jews

Jewish comic Amy Schumer tweeted a Jewish joke criticized as “offensive and wrong” by the Gossip Cop website.

In a Twitter post Wednesday, the comedienne and actress made public a photo of herself standing between a clarinetist and a saxophonist, each holding his instrument. Her caption read “A Jew with horns.” She later amended the phrase to “I meant to say a Jew with 2 horns.

Gossip Cop, which says it polices Hollywood and celebrity news to separate what’s real from rumor, slammed the tweet.

“While comedy can provoke discussion, it’s purpose is not to perpetuate hateful and inaccurate stereotypes. And Schumer’s Twitter message, which plays off the misconception that Jews are horned creatures, accomplishes less comically than it does to reignite misguided prejudice,” the site’s commentary read.

“Undoubtedly, Schumer will justify her mildly amusing ‘joke’ by noting that she herself was raised Jewish and can poke fun at herself, as she often does with her comedy. But does that make it okay for her to spread untrue and hurtful stereotypes about Jews? Would jokes by a popular black or Latino comedian be considered funny if he or she tweeted to their millions of followers a wholly and historically painful stereotype about their people for non-minorities to laugh at?”

Gossip Cop staff called on Schumer to “grab her tweet by the horns and apologize for perpetuating this slanderous depiction of Jews for a mere half-laugh.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version