The ultimate punchline is death

DAVID BADDIEL doesn’t shy away from the most sensitive topics, even in his comedy routines. He tells JP O’MALLEY why

British comedian David Baddiel

CREDIT: (main) Steve Best/Xavicus Media; (book cover) TLS Books The

DAVID BADDIEL RECALLS the first time he thought about death. "I was six years old, and my Mum described it as a long sleep, from which you never wake up," the 59-year-old British comedian, author and television presenter explained from his London home. "I became very anxious and worried, and it might explain why I became a lifelong insomniac."

Baddiel elaborates on this childhood anecdote in The God Desire. An informal, short and, in part, humorous read, the book feels more like a long-form essay.

"My thesis is quite simple: God is really all about death," said Baddiel. "All religions serve the same purpose - trying to cheat death and to give life meaning."

Baddiel is no believer - "I do not believe in the existence of a supernatural being" - but, unlike many atheists, he believes religion has serious cultural value. Especially for minority groups. Historically, he points out, they have clung to the customs and rituals of their faith during times of persecution.

Most atheists don’t get this, Baddiel notes. Especially the new atheism movement, led in the mid-2000s by British evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins, author of the multi-million selling book The God Delusion (2006).

"There is a lack of empathy in their kind of atheism, which requires rubbishing religion," said Baddiel. "Also, most of them are white males from a Christian background, who don’t appreciate what it is like to be in a minority."

Baddiel does, though. His mother and her parents fled Nazi Germany just before the outbreak of World War II, narrowly avoiding the Holocaust. Born in New York in 1964, Baddiel moved to England when he was four months old. He grew up in a lower-middle-class family in Dollis Hill, north-west London.

"In 1978 at my secondary school there were mock elections, where a candidate for the National Front was allowed to stand," Baddiel remembered. "He made speeches about how there were too many Jews in the school. But it never scared me from identifying myself as Jewish and I never hid being Jewish, like many Jews do."

Baddiel speaks passionately and honestly about appreciating certain elements of the Jewish faith, even though he feels no spiritual connection to it. "I don’t believe that when I see a rabbi saying the Shema that anybody is listening, and yet I am still deeply moved by Jewish prayer."

Today Baddiel is a prolific writer. He has published 10 children’s books, four novels and two polemical works of non-fiction. He is best known as a professional comedian, though. Cutting his teeth on London’s live comedy scene in the late 1980s, Baddiel then made the transition into television, presenting several shows on the BBC and ITV including The Mary Whitehouse Experience, Fantasy Football League, and Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned.

"When I first started out in comedy, I was very interested in that New York Jewish tradition, which includes comedians like Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld and Sarah Silverman," Baddiel explained. "I was curious whether there could be a British Jewish response to that. I’ve also always thought one of the principal voices of being Jewish was comedy, because that is how Jews express themselves a lot of the time."

Baddiel believes it’s "a slightly nebulous thing being a British Jew". He addressed this issue head on in Jews Don’t Count (2021). The book’s central thesis looked at what Baddiel claims is a very specific form of antisemitism - namely, Jews do not count in the progressive conversation about racism. Particularly in Britain.

"Jews are not allowed the status of a minority, certainly not a vulnerable minority," said Baddiel. "Most people in Britain don’t want to accept that the Jewish community is vulnerable. They imagine them instead as powerful."

Baddiel’s latest book, published April 2023

Jews Don’t Count was made into a television documentary, broadcast in 2022. In one episode, Baddiel interviewed Miriam Margolyes. The British-Australian actress talked about her need, as a Jew, to publicly condemn the human rights abuses committed against Palestinians by Israel, a country she feels a deep cultural connection to. Baddiel does not share that connection, however.

"As a British Jew who was born in America, I don’t feel deeply connected to Israel," he said. "I’m sure there are loads of other minorities who don’t feel connected to their country of cultural origin."

Baddiel believes there is an unfair expectation on Jews, which assumes they must talk about Israel before they can talk about global antisemitism.

"No progressive person goes up to a Muslim wanting to talk about Islamophobia and says: ‘Before I let you talk about Islamophobia in Britain, I want to know what you think about, for instance, the way women are being treated in Iran, or human rights in Saudi Arabia. That just doesn’t happen. And if that did happen, it would feel racist, right?"

Baddiel does briefly mention the Israeli occupation, but only to criticise Pakistani-British political activist and writer Tariq Ali. Baddiel notes that at a pro-Palestinian march a few years ago, Ali claimed that if the Israeli occupation of Palestine ended tomorrow then casual antisemitism would stop.

"That sort of argument implies that everything to do with antisemitism is provoked by the actions of Israel, which was founded in 1948," said Baddiel. "Well, as you may know, there was quite a big global antisemitic thing that happened just before 1948!"

The Holocaust. Death. Philosophy. Politics. Religion. Aren’t these topics more suited to a public intellectual than a comedian? Baddiel doesn’t believe so. "I want ordinary people, not just philosophy students in ivory towers, to read books like Jews Don’t Count and The God Desire," he said, adding: "And what helps with that is jokes, where the tone is conversational and accessible."

Besides, Baddiel doesn’t believe there should be any boundaries between seriousness and laughter. "If you are writing about a serious subject, there is no reason not to throw in a gag."

There are numerous examples of this in The God Desire. In the concluding pages, Baddiel imagines a militant atheist finding their faith again, moments before they breathe their last.

"Deathbed recantations of atheism are not an argument for the existence of God, though," he said. "They are an argument for the existence of fear."

Baddiel concedes that on his own deathbed, in terrible fear, pain and anxiety, he may well begin sending up all sorts of prayers - including Hebrew and English ones - to a god that he believes doesn’t exist. He jokes that he would like the epitaph on his gravestone to read that he was wrong.

"I would love to think that there is a heaven, and I will be meeting up with my family and my mates afterwards," he concluded. "I don’t think it’s true, however. But if it turns out to be true, I will be delighted!"