Jon Stewart Believes Goblins in Harry Potter Books Are 'Anti-Semitic'
And so are you if you think that's silly
When J. K. Rowling started publishing her Harry Potter novels 20-odd years ago, I figured it was good that kids were reading something. Little did I realize that those kids would grow up with apparently no other cultural touchstones, so that every single historical event of the 21st Century would be compared to wizards and muggles and whatever else is in those books.1 I don’t begrudge Rowling her astonishing success, and it’s cool that one of the richest people in the world is a novelist, but I sure am sick of hearing about those made-up characters all the time.2
I’m also sick of people bashing her all the time. It was bad enough when libs falsely branded her a “transphobe,” but now they’re calling her an anti-Semite.
Wait, what?
Jon Stewart has a problem with J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series…
The franchise prominently features a goblin banker that runs the Gringotts Wizarding Bank that Stewart recently claimed resembles an anti-Semitic caricature of the Jewish community.
“Here’s how you know Jews are still where they are,” Stewart, who is Jewish, said in a recent episode of his podcast “The Problem with Jon Stewart.” He then noted the goblins’ resemblance to characters in the early-1900s anti-Semitic book “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” suggesting that readers and filmgoers don’t necessarily know the reference.
Okay. Or maybe… they’re just goblins?
I mean, goblins aren’t anything new. They’ve been part of European folklore for a thousand years. They’re magical little creatures who love gold and causing mischief. When Rowling was creating her fantasy world, why wouldn’t she turn goblins into bankers? How is it a secret signal to anti-Semites?
Is the Green Goblin anti-Semitic too? After all, he’s a rich, greedy guy who does bad things.
Were Stan Lee and Steve Ditko anti-Semites as well?
Nah. It’s just fashionable these days to bash J. K. Rowling, ever since she made the mistake of saying women are women and men aren’t. Acknowledging biological reality has made Rowling a pariah among her peers in the entertainment industry, so it’s easy to accuse her of being an anti-Semite too. They’ve already falsely branded her as one kind of bigot, so why not falsely brand her as some other kind of bigot?
Stewart is capable of getting it right from time to time, such as when he scandalized Stephen Colbert by noting that the Wuhan respiratory virus was discovered just a few blocks from the Wuhan respiratory virus laboratory. “It’s the name of the lab!” That was good. But he’s way off the mark here.
Yes, anti-Semitism is bad. No, J. K. Rowling is not an anti-Semite. Go $#!+ in your wizard hat.
Maybe the following declaration by Emmanuel Macron lost something in translation from French to English:
Seems like unvaccinated people are pissed off already. That’s why they’re unvaccinated. When was the last time a politician managed to alienate people into doing what he wanted? I guess a tyrannical dictator might manage that feat. Is that what people want? I sure don’t.
Remember when getting COVID-19 was considered a moral failing? Those days are over:
Two things: 1) Here’s wishing Seth Meyers a speedy recovery, and 2) Which “shows” does he mean? He’s not on SNL anymore. Is he still on TV?
Another former SNL cast member just got sick too:
You may notice a distinct lack of finger-wagging and hectoring, now that these late-night hosts have contracted the dreaded disease. They’re different than those hayseeds in the red states who caught COVID. Meyers and Fallon and their peers have done everything right… and got it anyway. But so what? They wouldn’t have gotten sick if absolutely every person in the world was vaccinated, or something.
I’m vaccinated, so I’m not worried about getting it. I probably will get it — hell, I probably have already — and it’s fine because I got the vaccine. Maybe it’s a good thing for Americans to observe these famous people getting through it with just a few sniffles. COVID-19 is not an automatic death sentence. The constant hysteria has obviously driven a lot of people insane, but maybe it’s not too late to salvage what’s left of their minds.
Perhaps Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon are good for something after all!
Oh, AOC is doing fine. Why do you ask?
There are people who want this woman to run for president. That’ll be funny, right up until the moment she wins.
Hhn-hhn-hhn. Yeah. Hee-hee-hee. YEAH!!!
I don’t know if this is a joke, or if Mike Judge is really making Beavis and Butt-Head 30 years older. That would be awesome. Hhhhhuh-huh-huh, aging is cool. Yeah. Yeah, infirmity! Yeah yeah, senescence! YEAH!!!
Remember when Nirvana put a photo of a naked baby on the cover of their epoch-making album Nevermind? Remember how that kid, Spencer Elden, grew up promoting himself as the “Nirvana Baby,” even reenacting the photograph every few years for publicity? And remember how Elden, now 30 years old, decided to sue Nirvana for “child pornography”?
Happy Wednesday. It’s the first hump day of 2022. Did you know Wednesday is named after Odin, all-father of the gods? And Thursday is named after Thor, his dumb son with the hammer. Friday, of course, is named after fries because they’re both delicious.
Thanks for reading my daily newsletter. But if you’re reading it for free, you’re stealing from me. You should start paying me to write this for you every day. I’m not selling ads, or your personal information, or anything else except my words. The only people paying me are my readers. If you don’t help support me, I can’t keep doing this for very long. Do you really want that on your conscience?
I haven’t read the books. I haven’t seen the movies. I’m sure they’re terrific and I’m missing out, which is fine by me.
This must be how Marvel-haters feel. They’re wrong, because Marvel is awesome, but still.
Please let AOC run for President! It would only be a cash grab anyway, and it would provide much needed entertainment.
Friday fries?