Podcast Summary:

The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table
Episode: “I’m not saying Israel Did It…”: The Charlie Kirk Conspiracy Chorus and its Enablers – With Ross Barkan
Date: September 19, 2025
Featured Guests: Ross Barkan (writer, novelist, columnist, editor); Host panel includes Dave Smith, Dan Natterman, Noam Dworman, and Perry Al Ashenbrand

Episode Overview

This episode provides an in-depth, often humorous, and sometimes acerbic roundtable discussion about the recent wave of conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. The main focus is the proliferation—primarily on the right, but with echoes on both ends of the spectrum—of rumors and allegations that Israel, Netanyahu, or “the Jews” were behind Kirk's death, possibly in response to his waning pro-Israel stance.

Notably, the panel, featuring guest Ross Barkan, systematically dissects how figures like Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, and Max Blumenthal, through tactics like paralypsis (making pointed insinuations while disclaiming them), have fueled these conspiracies; they also critique the normalization of such discourse by intermediaries like Megyn Kelly. There’s a recurring theme of concern over how old antisemitic tropes are being given new life in today’s media landscape, and whether mainstream media figures are complicit in this by failing to challenge them.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The "Optical Illusion" of Good Faith vs. Insinuation

• [00:00] Dave Smith opens with a metaphor: sometimes political disagreements stem from people sincerely seeing the same 'image' differently; other times, something more insidious is afoot—in this case, the anti-Israel conspiracy rhetoric "dirtying" mental associations with all things Jewish.
  • Quote: “Why is the conversation about Charlie Kirk's murder intertwined like a rope with conversations about his change of heart about Israel...? In my opinion, the intention... is Pavlovian. It's to dirty the mental association that we have with anything Jewish.” – Dave Smith ([01:41])
• Introduction of Christopher Hitchens’ view that the inability to stay off the topic is a telltale sign of obsessive antisemitism.

2. Paralypsis and the Genetic Metaphor for Right-Wing Conspiracism

• [12:20] Smith introduces 'paralypsis' (asserting, then disclaiming), and the “founder gene”/“founder mutation” concept—a recurrent susceptibility within conservative media to conspiracy narratives.
  • Quote: “Paralypsis is saying you won't assert X while furnishing everything you need for X. ...I would like to put a stake through the heart of paralypsis, which I think paralyptic expression is a scourge right now.” – Dave Smith ([12:41])
• Both metaphors are invoked throughout to analyze how outlandish theories ("I'm not saying Israel did it, but…") take root.

3. The Kirk/Israel Conspiracy Chorus: Who Said What

• [15:56 – 23:44] Clips and examples from Megyn Kelly’s show featuring Candace Owens, Fifth Column’s Michael Moynihan, and coverage of Ian Carroll’s claims.
• Kelly is characterized as defending Owens as “brilliant,” but also acknowledging the conspiratorial turn; Dave Smith and Dan Natterman highlight how even Alex Jones and Dave Smith himself pushed back against the idea of Israeli involvement, to little avail with their audiences.
  • Quote: “Even Alex Jones was like, guys, all of this conversation about this, why are we having a conversation about Charlie Kirk's commitment to Israel and immediately after he was assassinated?” – Dan Natterman ([19:35])

4. The Recyled Tropes & Their Spread Online

• [21:18+] Max Blumenthal, Candace Owens, and others are critiqued for weaving unrelated anti-Jewish tropes (Epstein, globalists, cabals, "Frankist cults," Bolshevik-Jewish connections) into current events.
• Ross Barkan observes that multiple conspiracy threads are running parallel—either Israel or the "radical left” is responsible—and that these can’t even internally align.

5. The Ben Shapiro/Conservative Divide

• [44:42] Ben Shapiro's views are played, emphasizing his pushback against conspiracy-laden isolationism and antisemitic dog-whistles emerging from some ostensibly right-wing quarters.
  • Quote: “Unfortunately, there's a grievance culture that has become the dominant strain on the left... And you see that sort of mirrored on a weird horseshoe part of the right...” – Ben Shapiro ([45:00])

6. The Mechanism and Consequence of Platforming Conspiracy Theorists

• Repeatedly, the hosts interrogate why reputable media figures (especially Megyn Kelly) do not more aggressively draw a line between mainstream debate and the world of Alex Jones, Candace Owens, and their ilk.
  • Quote: “We in the intellectual community that fancies itself to have some integrity ... cannot pretend that the likes of Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson are not smuggling in the patently ridiculous views of people like Alex Jones and Harrison Smith.” – Dave Smith ([40:24])
• A large portion is devoted to hearing (and sometimes lampooning) primary source clips: from talk of demonic attacks and underwater aliens (Tucker Carlson, Alex Jones), to the laundry list of classic antisemitic myths, to Clinton/Trump/Epstein conspiracies.

7. Ross Barkan's Perspective

• Barkan describes these narratives as "intellectually embarrassing" and essentially a symptom of the Trump/MAGAization of the right, where reality tests are subordinated to maintaining in-group loyalty.
  • Quote: "It all just revolves around Trump and his whims. How can it be both the radical left and Netanyahu killing Charlie Kirk? ...Did the radical left do it? The answer is none. No to both.” – Ross Barkan ([25:01])
• He offers historical context for assassinations and mass shootings, noting the prevalence of young, often unstable men as perpetrators, and cautions against over-simplified or ideological explanations.

8. The Danger, Spread, and Impact of these Theories

• [95:56+] Dave Smith draws a through line from “Jews killed Charlie Kirk” to a history of violence perpetrated against Jews, worrying about the impact of saturating public discourse with antisemitic and conspiratorial fantasies.
  • Quote: "If you start feeding a lot of people the notion that the Jews are behind killing our presidents, banging our children ... at some point you are going to provoke somebody.” – Dave Smith ([96:05])
• There’s notable frustration that prominent right-wingers resist decisively debunking these narratives, preferring to keep their audiences comfortable.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• “Antisemitism is a prejudice that... can seem to explain a lot. ...A dead giveaway ... is an inability to stay off the subject.” – Dave Smith quoting Hitchens ([01:21])
• “I learned two new words this week: paralypsis … and founding mutation ...” – Dave Smith ([12:20])
• "There's something in the conservative DNA which just is susceptible to conspiracy theories." – Dave Smith ([14:10])
• "I'm not saying Israel assassinated Charlie Kirk ... but their following goes nuts ... because they understand that's just the peel of the banana, that to be thrown away, and the meat of the banana is what they feast on, which is Israel killed Charlie Kirk." – Dave Smith ([58:57])
• "She is undermining the firewall ... between certain types of unfounded, ugly, conspiratorial thinking and the rest of the respectable world." – Dave Smith ([100:33])
• "Killing is awful ... but I am not impressed by a person who spent at least their final years being a party functionary. That's what he was." – Ross Barkan ([105:39])

Important Segment Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment / Topic | |------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:00–03:38 | Opening monologue: “Optical illusion,” antisemitism, and premise of episode | | 12:16–14:47 | Concepts: “Paralypsis” & “founding mutation” as frameworks for analysis | | 15:24–23:44 | Discussion of Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and the “Israel did it” claim | | 24:37–26:14 | Ross Barkan on right-wing conspiracy splits and intellectual embarrassment | | 32:41–39:39 | Dissection of Max Blumenthal and Harrison Smith’s claims — antisemitic content | | 44:42–46:59 | Ben Shapiro clip: Pushback against new right antisemitic "horseshoe" | | 57:41–61:38 | Candace Owens, Holocaust deniers, Alex Jones: Outlandish claims aired, deconstructed | | 73:57–76:54 | Megyn Kelly’s (partial) return to reality; show’s critique of equivocation | | 78:01–81:47 | Dave Smith on Tucker Carlson, WWII, and baiting guests toward antisemitic takes | | 95:56–96:39 | Impact of conspiracies: Threats to Jews and normalization of antisemitic narratives | |104:53–105:39| Barkan’s appraisal of Kirk as a “MAGA functionary” and the dangers of hero-worship|

The Hosts' Tone and Method

• Wry, occasionally caustic, with plenty of inside-joke-style banter
• Relentless in playing source material—often to excess (self-acknowledged)—to avoid accusations of quoting out of context
• Methodical in attributing quotes and tracing the network of “who is citing whom” in both mainstream and fringe right-wing media
• Deeply critical of both conspiracy theorists and media enablers, but consistently return to first principles (empiricism, logic, history)

Conclusion

The episode is both a sharp, often darkly funny critique and a serious warning about the normalization of conspiratorial, antisemitic, and dangerous rhetoric in the mainstream American right (and beyond). The hosts, with Ross Barkan’s journalistic perspective, make the case that the Israel/Kirk rumors are a symptom, not a cause: they’re enabled by media personalities who, rather than challenging destructive narratives, amplify or ignore them for personal or commercial reasons. The show calls for more rigorous boundaries between evidence-based debate and the growing “paralypsis” universe of innuendo, dog-whistle, and overt bigotry—especially when these ideas are increasingly finding a home in the ‘main tent’ of public conversation.

For listeners new to these discussions, this episode offers a comprehensive, both serious and satirical, guide to understanding how internet-fueled conspiracies—especially those touching on Jews, Israel, and the ‘global cabal’—gain a foothold, who enables them, and what is at stake when the line between fringe and mainstream is intentionally blurred.