For Israeli comedians, the collective trauma of Hamas’s deadly attacks on October 7 and the ensuing conflict has tested the limits of what it is possible to joke about, AFP reports.

“Eretz Nehederet” ( “A Wonderful Land “) has been a staple of primetime TV for 20 years — a pitch-black sketch show along the lines of “Saturday Night Live” or “The Daily Show” in the United States.

“We were in mourning. Each of us has lost someone or knows someone who has lost a loved one,” Muli Segev, the show’s producer, told AFP.

But it eventually returned under a new name — “Eretz Nilhemet” ( “A Warring Land “) — to take a satirical bite out of Israel’s detractors.

“It is the oldest secret of the Jewish people: laughing in the face of death,” Segev said.

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