4.5 Million Views Show That No One Has Benefitted From Kanye's Antisemitic Rants More Than Jewish Comedian, Ari Shaffir.

Stand-up comedy has carved a new path for entrepreneurs to escape the Matrix of Hollywood.

Comedians Ari Shaffir & Andrew Schulz during an episode of "Flagrant".Photo byThe "Flagrant" podcast/YouTube

In the past, as starving artists, comedians would wait tables and work odd jobs while honing their craft, often paying to get up on stage. Stage time was about practice, but also acted as a nightly showcase to capture the attention of movie executives and producers that may be scouting for talent.

With so many struggling comedians clamouring for the same handful of sit com and movie roles, the culture of stand-up comedy was extremely cutthroat.

On an episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience", veteran stand-up comedians Joe Rogan and Bill Burr discuss the state of 'Hollywood accounting'. How agents and production companies have normalized a culture of trapping struggling performers into lifetime contracts.

Burr had this to say on the matter,

"It's stealing... they just call it Hollywood accounting."

It's been common practice for management companies to find struggling yet promising performers, help them make their start, and then try to cash in on their success through lopsided contracts. Joe shared his advice for stand-up comedians who are approached by Hollywood agents or management companies,

"I tell them, don't give up anything... it's all yours... this comedian that I won't name said this management company wanted to own a piece of his podcast forever."

Pioneers such as Joe Rogan and Bill Burr have shown that, with the help of social media, it's now possible to operate within the zeitgeist of Hollywood without being beholden to so-called "gatekeepers."

The same gatekeepers Kanye West has come under fire, in recent months, for attacking through antisemitic rants. His remarks originally made headlines in early October 2022, on an episode of "Drink Champs", where he blamed “Jewish media” for ongoing repression and exploitation of Black voices in America,

"The Jewish community, especially in the music industry…they’ll take us and milk us till we die."

After receiving initial pushback, Kanye doubled down on his opinions, targeting Jewish entertainment gatekeepers as trying to "blackball anyone who opposes their opinions, through screenshots and cryptic Tweets, like the one below, (before being removed by Twitter):

Kanye West's TwitterPhoto by"Ye"/Twitter

Ironically, no one has benefitted from Kanye's anti-Jewish rhetoric more than Jewish comedian, and star of the new comedy special "Jew", Ari Shaffir. The graph below shows the Google search trends of the search term "Kanye West Jew" over the past 12 months:

Google Trends past 12 monthsPhoto byGoogle Trends

This uptick in search volume for the term "Jew" has undoubtedly helped push Shaffir's special onto the right side of social media algorithms.

Shaffir has been working on his 90-minute special for the past 5 years, but struggled to find the right time to post it. Having dealt with his own bouts of cancellation, Shaffir's special release kept getting pushed further and further back. Most notably, in 2020, when Shaffir took a long step back from stand-up comedy after receiving death threats for an off-colour joke about Kobe Bryant after his death.

But, 2 years later, the stars have seemingly aligned for Shaffir as he serendipitously launched his comedy special, titled "Jew", just weeks after the height of Kanye's controversy. On an episode of Flagrant, Ari shared with host Andrew Schulz that he doesn't read the news. So, during comedy shows he likes to ask the audience what's going on in the world.

"One of the audience members said 'Kanye's antisemitic'. I was like 'what does that mean?'... he said it means his agents and I was like, 'Oh, I've been saying that for many years.... I've been there... he's mad at his Jews.'"

As someone whose comedic identity is closely linked to his Jewish faith, Ari is thankful for the algorithmic push and has no problem with Kanye's comments. He shared on the "This Past Weekend" podcast,

"I think it was mislabelled... I don't think he's happy with his agents. He's saying legitimately the same sh*t I've been saying for years."

Shaffir released his special on Youtube, which breaks down Jewish culture and other religions. And with 4.5 million views, it's far and wide the most popular piece of media Ari has ever produced.

In life, timing is everything. And for Shaffir, Kanye's newest controversy couldn't have come at a better time. Ironically, the very gatekeepers Kanye's comments are directed toward are the very ones Ari has bypassed by posting his special directly to YouTube.

He's currently on a podcast tour promoting his special, one of the newest ways stand-up comedians have begun promoting themselves outside the zeitgeist of Hollywood.

Hey, I'm Hudson! I write about social media, marketing, and modern entrepreneurship. Hit follow for more stories like this one.