BBC comedian Tracey Ullman’s sketch on Corbyn draws ire, conspiracy theories

Comic depicts Labour leader meeting one of his ‘friends from Hamas’

British comedian Tracey Ullman brought her sketch comedy show Tracey Breaks the News back to BBC on Friday night, and her Jeremy Corbyn impression received decidedly mixed reviews.

In one sketch, Ullman – in impressive makeup and beard work – portrayed the Labour leader speaking to some of his supporters.

Then a man in a kippa and a black suit with a white shirt showed up, and told him he wanted Corbyn to do more about antisemitism in Labour.

“I am all over it like cream cheese on a bagel... it’s alright to say that, isn’t it?” Corbyn said in the sketch.

After the man walked away, Ullman as Corbyn told the gathered crowd: “I want you to know that I am completely on top of all this Jewish stuff. I have spoken to every single antisemite in the Labour Party and I’ve told them – in no uncertain terms – ‘tone it down a bit!’”

Later, Corbyn gets in the back of a cab, and the driver turns around.

“Jeremy Corbyn?” the driver asks. “It’s me! Ismail. From Hamas. How are you my friend?”

In 2009 Corbyn called Hamas and Hezbollah “friends,” language he said later he regretted using.

Many Corbyn supporters were very unhappy with Ullman’s depiction, and some even began spreading a false theory that Jewish comedian David Baddiel had written the sketch. Baddiel himself took to Twitter to make it very clear that he had nothing to do with the show.

“Been told, hilariously, that Corbynistas like @jigsawman2014 have assumed that I wrote Tracey Ullman’s JC sketch on her show: a brilliant example of how they truly eschew the idea of a Jewish conspiracy,” he wrote.

Baddiel later added, “This is the literally the weirdest conspiracy theory I’ve ever seen. I’ve now seen it stated as fact that I wrote that sketch. Maybe I should ask for royalties. Or will that confirm the stereotype for the antisemites?”