American comedian embroiled in ‘hate incident’ at Fringe Festival

Police are investigating a report of a “hate incident” at Hunter’s “Fluffy Fluffy Beavers” show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Two Israeli audience members were reportedly booed as they exited the show, following a joke comparing Israel to an abusive partner.

US comedian Reginald D Hunter has issued a statement saying there had been an “unfortunate incident” at his Edinburgh Fringe gig, following reports two Israeli audience members were reportedly heckled out of his show.
Police are investigating a report of a “hate incident” at Hunter’s “Fluffy Fluffy Beavers” show at Assembly George Square Studios.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “We have been made aware of a hate incident, which reportedly took place at an event in Edinburgh on Sunday 11 August. We are reviewing the circumstances.”
Hunter, 55, was said to have made a joke comparing Israel to an abusive partner, when he spoke about watching a TV documentary about an abusive marriage.
“When I saw that, I thought, my God, it’s like being married to Israel,” he joked.
Two Israeli audience members heckled him saying it was “not funny”, to which the comedian replied: “You can say it’s not funny to you, but if you say it to a room full of people who laughed, you look foolish.”
The pair were heckled by other audience members as they left the venue, with Hunter alleged to have then made a joke about the Jewish Chronicle newspaper being behind a paywall, saying it was “typical Jews”.
The stand-up comedian issued a statement, saying: “There was an unfortunate incident in my new show “Fluffy Fluffy Beavers”. As a comedian, I do push boundaries in creating humour, it’s part of my job. This inevitably created divided opinions but I am staunchly anti-war and anti-bully. I regret any stress caused to the audience and venue staff members.”
The Campaign Against Antisemitism charity said the “events described at the Edinburgh Fringe are extremely concerning”.
Posting on X, a spokesperson for the organisation said: “Comedians are rightly given broad latitude, but they also have a responsibility to their audience.”
“Reginald D. Hunter has laughed off his Holocaust jokes and another supposed joke about ‘typical f***ing Jews’ in the past, but watching on and cracking jokes as Jews are hounded out of your show is a sickening low that cannot be disguised as comedy.”
The post concluded: “We have seen this before in recent months, and venues must stand extremely firm against this kind of behaviour. Our lawyers are examining this incident.”
Following the incident, Eastwood Park Theatre, on the outskirts of Glasgow, has cencelled the comic’s planned appearance there next month.
East Renfrewshire council, which owns the venue, said: “We’ve taken the decision to cancel Eastwood Park Theatre’s scheduled show featuring Reginald D Hunter on Saturday, September 28, due to controversial comments made during a recent performance. All customers who have purchased tickets for this show will receive a full refund.”
Additional sources • The Telegraph, Chortle Comedy