Comedian Reginald D Hunter has been the victim of a Zionist smear operation – but not even a very good one, at that. Because the central actors at the heart of the story have a long history of agitating for the Israeli state; just ask Jeremy Corbyn. So, it wasn’t hard to expose who they really were when they tried to remain anonymous.
Reginald D Hunter: Fluffy Fluffy Beavers
Social media has been in a frenzy over the story of two people who were hounded out of Reginald D Hunter’s gig at the Edinburgh Fringe – supposedly because they were from Israel. The Telegraph planted the seeds of the frenzy via Dominic Cavendish’s review of his gig. He asserted that:
Hunter… said a Channel 5 documentary containing a scene about an abusive wife herself accusing her husband of abuse made him think, “My God, it’s like being married to Israel.” There was audience laughter in response, but not from the couple on the front row, who shouted “not funny”.
The pair, who said they were from Israel, then endured their fellow audience members shouting expletives (“f— off” among them), and telling them to go – with slow-hand claps, boos and cries of “genocidal maniac”, “you’re not welcome” and “free Palestine” part of the toxic mix…
Instead of tolerating the couple’s joint heckle, he doubled down with a sinister air of beaming bellicosity: “I’ve been waiting for you all summer, where the f— you been?” He continued: “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.”
“Look at you making everyone love Israel even more,” he jeered, after the woman remonstrated with the audience.
The Telegraph then ran a separate story on the alleged incident – which noted that cops said there was no crime involved but regardless Hunter had already been cancelled by another venue. So, cue the Daily Mail ‘tracking down’ the Israeli couple – while misrepresenting the jokes entirely.
Enter the Daily Mail
Sabrina Miller wrote for the right-wing tabloid that the couple – who wished to remain anonymous (shocker) – said that the audience had “hate in their eyes”, were afraid they would be ‘attacked and beaten’, and that Jewish people ‘were not safe in the UK’:
🚨I tracked down and exclusively spoke to *that* Jewish Israeli couple who were hounded out of Reginald Hunter’s Fringe show.
‘The looks on people’s faces in the audience – it was like they wanted to attack us and beat us’ the couple tell me.
⬇️⬇️⬇️https://t.co/7imGftjkfI pic.twitter.com/txxhAl6hQb
— Sabrina Miller (@SabriSun_Miller) August 17, 2024
They concluded by saying, as the Daily Mail wrote, that:
they now want to use their platform to tackle the rising wave of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel racism in Britain.
The wife added: ‘I do have an important message to get across and that is that people must stand up and not let hate win.
‘I’ve always spoken out, whether it’s about something Jewish or not’.
Aside from the fact that Reginald D Hunter’s joke wasn’t about Jewish people – it was about the genocidal Israeli state – this ‘anonymous’ couple have already used their ‘platform’ to speak out about what they view as antisemitism in the UK. This is because we now know who the couple are:
He did however remember this woman and her partner, because these were the very people who disrupted his humorous stories. He ALWAYS remembers people who disrupt his humourous stories. He loves telling humourous stories. pic.twitter.com/DptzEKs1xN
— Reginald D Hunter (@reginalddhunter) August 18, 2024
It’s Mark and Mandy
Yes, that’s right. It’s Mark Lewis and Mandy Blumenthal – the couple who infamously went on the BBC claiming they were leaving the UK because of Jeremy Corbyn. So, it seems there are quite a lot of questions they, and the Daily Mail’s Miller, have to answer over the Reginald D Hunter story:
Will Mark Lewis, Mandy Blumenthal and journalist Sabrina Miller tell us the truth about what happened at the Reginald D Hunter gig?
Because “Shimon and Talia” don’t exist, there was no “romantic holiday” and they weren’t “tracked down” for their story. Mark and Mandy are in… pic.twitter.com/jvSwuC0ioZ
— James Wilson (@per_incuriam2) August 19, 2024
Unfortunately, Mark and Mandy seemed to forget what century we were in (as did Sabrina Miller) – because video footage has already come out:
Video footage of ‘Israeli couple’ at the Reginal D Hunter gig in Edinburgh, who turned out to be professional UK Zionist victims Mark Lewis and Mandy Blumenthal, famous for Corbyn-bashing, representing Rachel Riley in legal actions and various publicity stunts.@reginalddhunter pic.twitter.com/XPpeZK7A9g
— Ragged Trousered Philanderer (@RaggedTP) August 19, 2024
Plus, journalist Sangita Myska was actually there:
I hoped to stay out of this (due to stress since April) but it’s unethical to let it pass: I was, coincidentally, at this show. The events are not being reported accurately by some press. Yes, it was upsetting but the couple were not ‘hounded out’ by a ‘baying’ antisemitic crowd https://t.co/ig8rGGsBU1
— Sangita Myska (@SangitaMyska) August 18, 2024
Photos emerged:
Incredible. This is a confrontation deliberately staged by Mark Lewis and Mandy Blumenthal?
If anyone is looking shouty and angry, it’s Mandy?
And then they’ve gone to the press with some cock and bull story about a romantic holiday?
Completely mind-boggling. https://t.co/yhDPwRBXoF pic.twitter.com/UFO2o20YgM
— James Wilson (@per_incuriam2) August 18, 2024
Yet still – STILL – Sabrina Miller doubled-down on the story:
All day people have tried to discredit, gaslight and intimidate the brave Jewish, Israeli couple who spoke up about their experiences at Reginald Hunter’s show.
Thank goodness @domcavendish was in that audience to tell their story. https://t.co/7imGftjkfI pic.twitter.com/jKVzxjXzNh
— Sabrina Miller (@SabriSun_Miller) August 18, 2024
Let’s be clear – Mark and Mandy are NOT a “brave” couple:
This is Mark Lewis and Mandy Blumenthal with fellow pro-Israel activists Jonathan Hoffman and Sharon Klaff – whose links to the extreme right we exposed in ep 2 of The Labour Files.
Any journalist swallowing the idea this was a random "Israeli couple" is beyond incompetent. /1 https://t.co/OcihLmXpKz pic.twitter.com/qNsMLsZaB5
— Richard Sanders (@PulaRJS) August 19, 2024
Nor are they just a ‘random’ couple. Lewis is a lawyer (involved in notorious Zionist outfit Campaign Against Antisemitism) who just happened to defend Rachel Riley in court and called for “unapologetic Zionism” in the UK.
Targeting Reginald D Hunter
So, it seems that the whole thing was a set-up. Reginald D Hunter’s joke about the STATE of Israel was NOT about Jewish people, nor did it mention Jewish people. Might we remind you that it is antisemitic to blame Jewish people for Israel’s actions? Yet here we are, with it being presented as if it was.
However, there is a big BUT with this whole story. Why would the Zionist lobby target Reginald D Hunter specifically? Maybe Mark and Mandy were genuinely at his show – and saw an opportunity for a quick newspaper headline and some faux outrage. Either way, this whole concocted story is just that; another example of why the phrase ‘it was a scam’ still rings true.
Featured image via X – screengrab
