A real comedy clip was mislabeled as Silverstein

A real clip from a Chicago comedy show was given a false Israel caption and misattributed to comedian Menachem Silverstein, and the post topped 2 million views on a single X account, according to the Jewish Journal.

Silverstein, a father of two, an ordained rabbi and a weekly performer at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood, kept his phone off through Rosh Hashanah. When he turned it back on, more than 40 text messages and numerous direct messages were waiting, the Jewish Journal reported. A former friend who had blocked him after October 7, 2023 had unblocked him just to send a link.

What the Viral Clip Actually Shows

The clip was captioned as Silverstein making a joke about Israel and driving a crowd out of the Chicago Laugh Factory. Silverstein said the performer onstage was not him, and traced the footage to a September 10 taping of "What Could Go Wrong?," a regular prank show at the Chicago venue, according to the Jewish Journal. Laugh Factory president David Fuhrer told the Forward the segment featured comedian Kieron Harrell, who was blindfolded and given headphones while the audience was quietly walked out to the lobby, leaving him performing to an empty room as a gag. Show producer Dan Cass told the New York Post the show's own footage shows no mention of Israel was made. Silverstein's last actual Chicago Laugh Factory appearance came during a May tour, and he said that set did not touch on Israel, per the Jewish Journal.

Silverstein traced the earliest version of the clip to an X account called TruthSeeker, which he believes drew the "Israel" label from a joke he used for about one or two months after October 7, 2023 and had not used since. The Forward reported the same account and joke history.

From there, reposts multiplied. Silverstein told the Jewish Journal that searching his own name turned up the clip reshared "over and over," each version drawing hundreds of thousands to millions of views, for a combined estimate near 10 million across X, Instagram and Facebook. The Forward reported that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones repeated the false claim on his show, misdescribing details that do not appear in the footage. Silverstein also told the Jewish Journal that Grok, Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude all repeated the false identification when he asked them about the clip, a pattern the Jewish Journal said it reproduced in its own searches.

The claim reached Al Jazeera, which published an article on September 13 naming Silverstein and describing the walkout as a protest of his stated Israel position, according to the Jewish Journal. The New York Post reported the story was later taken down, though Arabic-language versions naming Silverstein remained online as of September 20. Neither Al Jazeera nor Jones responded to the Post's requests for comment. Silverstein told the Jewish Journal his Instagram account has been repeatedly reported for terms-of-use violations and his reach has dropped despite more than 53,000 followers, while some TikTok videos referencing the claim were removed only after he filed appeals.

Silverstein said he does not plan to sue over the false caption. He told the Jewish Journal he would rather address it in the place it started: onstage, with a joke of his own.

Silverstein said Tuesday night he planned to bring up the false caption during his regular set at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood rather than pursue legal action, according to the Jewish Journal. SLOP TV is not linking to the false caption.