One of the jokes Hannah Berner made at her comedy show Saturday night didn’t go over well with some members of the audience.
The former Summer House star— who was performing stand-up at the Chicago Theatre on Saturday— reportedly made a joke about ICE (U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement) that angered some people in the crowd so much that they reportedly walked out of Hannah’s show.
News of Hannah’s joke first broke on Reddit on Sunday, where one of the audience members who was upset by the ICE joke made a post on several subreddits.
“I was at Hannah’s stand-up show tonight at the Chicago Theatre and she made a joke about calling ICE,” the post reads. “She was talking about how her husband Des [Bishop] speaks multiple languages and how she can’t read his texts that are in Mandarin and followed it with ‘I should call ICE on him.’
“So disgusted and disappointed,” the person wrote. “Left early and was not the only one. Still is disbelief. Not sure if I can ever look at her the same.”
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(Hannah’s husband Des was born in England and speaks fluent Mandarin due to having worked in and done comedy in China.)
While The Ashley has not yet been able to locate any footage of Hannah making the cringy joke (which may be due to the theater’s strict policies against video and audio recording), she has been able to confirm with at least one more person in attendance that Hannah did, indeed, joke about ICE. However, reports vary on what the context of the joke actually was.
“Was there — people definitely did the uncomfortable ‘omg I can’t believe she said this’ kind of laugh,” another person commented on Reddit.
“She did say it, in a clearly JOKING way,” another person wrote in defense of Hannah. “Most people were laughing, and it was very clearly dark humor. Before this she made it clear where she stands politically. She was talking about her husband having a separate phone just for speaking in Mandarin.”
“The joke was about ICE being too dumb to read,” the person added.
“Started the night excited for some giggles and left extremely disappointed in Hannah’s inappropriate ICE joke,” another audience member posted on TikTok. “You just don’t go there.”
@chicagozeke Still in shock #hannahberner #chicago ♬ Booing, Small Crowd of Men – Authentic Sound Effects
Chicago has been a target of much ICE activity since September, making jokes about the agency especially upsetting to many audience members.
This is certainly not the first time one of Hannah’s jokes caused her controversy. In 2021, Hannah apologized for jokes she made during a February 2020 episode of the Puddles with Andrew Collin podcast. During the podcast, Hannah made light of her co-star Luke Gulbranson having suicidal ideations, stating that when he expressed how fragile his emotional state was to her, she mocked him and stated that he was only saying these things for attention. Hannah also claimed that she offered to have sex with Luke after he expressed he was having suicidal thoughts.
“I’ve recently been made aware of some talk online regarding comments I made on a podcast two years ago referencing suicide ideation and I want to apologize for my insensitivity regarding such a serious topic,” Hannah wrote on Instagram in 2021. “I consider myself to be a very fierce advocate for mental health awareness, and I understand that I crossed the line.”
In addition, comics and writers have been complaining for years that Hannah has stolen some of their jokes.
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Hannah has yet to comment on the joke. The next date of her None of My Business tour is scheduled for Friday in Philadelphia.
The Ashley will continue to update this story. Stay tuned…
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One Response
I sure she’s wholly unfunny.
Not everyone is cut out for stand up.
That being said, some audiences set out to be perpetually offended by just about everything.