Ben Stiller made a jibe at Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as he hosted the Anti-Defamation Leagues Concert Against Hate.
The Meet the Fockers star spearheaded the gala at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC Monday night.
Taking to the stage, Stiller, 58, told the crowd, Tonight were going to battle hate with a healthy dose of hope.
This extraordinary organization and the brave people were honoring have all taught us that even in the darkest of times there is light.
He then joked of President-elect Donald Trumps pick to head up the Department of Health and Human Services, Tonight were going to raise the roof on the Kennedy Center before its renamed the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Center for Animal Disposal!
The joke seemed an apparent reference to how, in September, the National Marine Fisheries Service announced it was investigating RFK Jr. after he allegedly cut off the head of a dead whale and took it home two decades ago.
Stiller, who is the producer of the hit Apple TV + show Severance, was joined on stage by honoree, music honcho Scooter Braun, Holocaust survivor Rosette Goldstein alongside survivors of the Oct. 7th Hamas attack on the Nova Festival in Israel: Ofir Amir, Danielle Gelbaum, Tomer Meir and Danielle Dvir.
The event was all the more pertinent in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, as Stiller noted, saying, Its a very tough time in the world right now, so much anxiety, uncertainty, so much hate in the world, anti-semitism is on the rise.
In fact, I was worried about hosting this show because people might realize Im Jewish, he wise-cracked.
For 30 years Ive been pretty discreet about my heritage, disappearing into a diverse array of characters like Chaz Tennenbaum, Ted Stroehmann, Josh Kovaks, Josh Srebnick, Matthew Myerwictz, Roger Greenberg, Ruben Feffer, Gaylord Focker, and Rabbi Jacob Schram.
To applause from the crowd, he added, Derek Zoolander apparently changed his name.
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