David Baddiel: ‘Stupid f****** frummers’ comment was ‘authentic frustration’
Popular comedian responds to veteran journalist Jenni Frazer's hard-hitting column about his controversial comments
David Baddiel has defended his use of expletives in criticising Charedi lockdown breaches, saying it was born out of “authentic frustration”.
The comedian responded to a column in Jewish News by veteran journalist Jenni Frazer, which said his language would not make religious Jews “more law abiding”, and could paint Jews in a negative light among non-Jews.
This comes after he responded to last week’s JN investigation into the hosting of illegal simchas by the Charedi community, by sharing a story accompanied by the phrase: “Stupid f****** frummers”.
He said the expletive response “wasn’t an attempt to make the charedi more law-abiding. I’m not a social planner. It was a cry of authentic frustration – a lot of those on my timeline – and the use of the word Frummers, a way of indicating a tweet by a Jew and for Jews.”
Baddiel, whose Twitter profile describes him simply as a “Jew”, added that “ it’s worth remembering how much racists believe that Jews stick together and never criticise bad behaviour within the community publicly. There’s a sense of “shh – what will the non-Jews” think about all this which I don’t hold with.”.
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