Mike Glazer is standing on stage, performing comedy in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It seems like a normal road gig – the Los Angeles-based Jewish comic had done plenty of them before – until suddenly, a heckler starts spouting hate.
“Jew pig” a man says.
“Did you call me a Jew pig?” Glazer asks.
“Yeah, I did,” the man replies.
“Alright buddy. I think that you should probably go,” Glazer says.
“We are. I’m order the Lyft right now Jew f—k,” the man retorts.
“Why don’t you order it out there?”
“F—k you Jew,” the man says.
Glazer says, “F—k you buddy” back to him, and the man replies, “We support Donald Trump in this country buddy. F—k you Jew lover.”
“I feel like I’m in my Instagram right now,” Glazer tells the audience. “This is so crazy. Wow. You never see them IRL (in real life). And then once you do, you’re like, oh, yeah, that’s about what I thought.”
Glazer then posted the interaction to his Instagram, stating, “I never expected this heckle.” The video racked up millions of views.
“One of my major takeaways is how fortunate I was to have the wit, amplification (a microphone), and an audience surrounding me to protect me in that moment,” the comedian told the Journal. “What has weighed on me is thinking about the people in this country who don’t have all of those things shielding them in a political and cultural climate that has empowered fear and hate.”
What bothered Glazer was the fact that this man can remain anonymous.
“This clip of me will go viral, but that man will go about his life unnoticed and unchecked for his hate.”
“This clip of me will go viral, but that man will go about his life unnoticed and unchecked for his hate,” he said. “That has been a sobering lesson for me.”
The comedian has received his fair share of support from fans and friends; however, antisemites have also targeted him. He posted it on Reddit, and an onslaught of hate followed.
“My clip reached 7 million views, at which point the moderators had to disable the comments because Nazis filled them with hate speech and death threats,” Glazer said. “The moderators wrote me a message explaining that it was too much to handle, so they had to lock the post for everyone’s protection. Many people commented that I handled the situation well, but most called it a staged event and threatened to find my family.”
The hate didn’t stop there. After Kanye West went on his antisemitic rant on X and made a Super Bowl commercial for his swastika shirt, Glazer posted a video making fun of him. Kanye downloaded the video and reposted it as part of his antisemitic meltdown.
“It’s no coincidence that Kanye West shared my joke, and the Nazis quickly arrived in my comments,” said Glazer. “These celebrities are the faces that give permission to the faceless online, and now in public, to verbally attack and potentially incite violence against anyone they hate.”
He was formerly a Kanye fan; now, of course, he won’t forgive the rapper for his hateful behavior.
“I loved Kanye until he became who he is today,” Glazer said. “I also have zero tolerance for people who say that he is unwell or brainwashed by the Kardashians. If he needs help, I hope he gets it — but that doesn’t excuse creating swastika shirts and chains. He’s a monster. His posting my joke has only led racists to my social media, calling me a k-ke, and threatening to ‘burn down my synagogue.’”
Glazer had experienced antisemitism in the past. When he was 16 years old and at a party, everyone spit on him while doing the heil Hitler salute.
“After that incident, it has mostly been people who weren’t intentionally being antisemitic or were trying to joke with me,” he said. “I can easily roll with that. It’s important to call out that I love hanging out with other comics, being funny and talking trash on stage and off. It’s how we communicate and show love for one another. Everyone’s doing their best. But now I’m being called a ‘Jew pig’ from 20 feet away. We are in a country normalizing full-blown Nazism.”
While the hate online and off is pervasive, thankfully, Glazer has received love as well – which gives him hope.
“People have flooded my social media with support and their own heartbreaking stories,” he said. “It’s heartwarming and shows that we can fight back and change the world when we band together.”
