Controversy erupts over Jewish joke on Norwegian children’s show

Norwegian state broadcaster NRK is facing backlash for airing antisemitic content in this Saturday’s episode of the satirical children news show Nytt på Nytt (meaning "new on new" in Norwegian). The program is watched by children as young as 9 years old. 

“U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson believes reasonable people thank America for bombing ships full of fentanyl – but if you replace fentanyl with Jews, it suddenly doesn’t sound so okay,” the program’s host Tuva Johannessen said in what was supposed to be joking about killing Jews. 

The program’s panel laughed at the antisemitic remark. Johannessen continued with his anti-Jewish satire with a reference to past attempts by Norwegians to smuggle adult magazines from neighboring Sweden. 

“Imagine if Jews were being smuggled from Sweden to Norway – that wouldn’t work,” he said.

The Norwegian Jewish community blasted the antisemitic “joke.” 

The Israeli educator On Elpeleg who lives in Norway, argued that the controversial incident was a symptom of a wider problem with antisemitism in Norwegian society. 

“The hosts’ cynical humor is simply warped. The goal here is to humiliate Jews. What’s worse is that this is a show officially rated for children ages 9 and up – practically an invitation for parents to watch with their kids. And then people wonder why antisemitism is surging here,” Elpeleg said. 

“It’s 2025, not 1945 – yet we’re hearing Nazi jokes on state TV again. It’s unbelievable that this broadcaster, which collaborated with the Nazis and boosted their morale between 1940 and 1945, is still operating like this 80 years later. Schools have started teaching about the ‘genocide’ to 13-year-olds, but at the same time, this is being normalized on educational television. I’ve worked in education here for 25 years, and I’m stunned. History is repeating itself,” Elpeleg warned, referring to the Norwegian pro-Nazi Quisling regime during the Second World War.

Some 770 Jews from Norway’s small Jewish community were detained and sent to Auschwitz and other death camps during the Holocaust. The vast majority of them were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. 

The Israeli Embassy in Norway also issued an official condemnation of the antisemitic content on Norwegian state TV. 

“Antisemitism is never funny. It is unacceptable for such ‘humor’ to be given a platform by Norway’s public broadcaster and remain online. Action must be taken,” the embassy stated. 

Following the backlash, NRK issued an apology but refrained from removing the racist content. 

It is not the first time that NRK has aired antisemitism. Merely a week before the incident, an NRK radio program host spread an antisemitic stereotypical joke about Jewish noses. 

Norway has emerged as one of the Jewish state’s most vocal critics in Europe. Last year, Norway joined Spain and Ireland and unilaterally recognized a Palestinian state despite criticism from Jerusalem that such a move rewarded Hamas and the Oct. 7 massacre, the largest single-day murder of Jews since the Holocaust. 

The Norwegian government has at the same time strongly criticized the Jewish state for defending itself against the terrorist organization Hamas, a genocidal Jihadist organization that openly calls for the murder of all Jews.

In August, Norway’s state $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund announced it would divest from the Israeli defense company Beit Shemesh Engines due to the Norwegian government’s opposition to Israel’s military operations against Hamas in Gaza.