Jimmy Carr Holocaust ‘joke’

[PurpleParrotfish]

Just seen this on Twitter.
'”No one ever wants to talk about the thousands of Gypsies killed by the Nazis, because no one wants to talk about the positives”
twitter.com/jrc1921/status/1489586961656516608?s=21
That would be the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Romany and Gypsies in death camps, maybe up to 1.5 million. Fucking hilarious.

That is so disgusting. I do think lots of groups get forgotten, homosexuals, the disabled, Jehovah's Witnesses plus lots of others including gypsies. I'm not sure but I assume Jews were the biggest group so people more aware of them.

Mind you not a big shock with Jimmy Carr.

I am not defending him.
However.
It is part of his “let’s see how many offensive jokes I can get away with” stand up on Netflix. I did watch it. I can’t decide whether it was good or not, that line was one of many offensive jokes about very uncomfortable topics.
Carr’s point/justification is that it is a joke about a terrible thing, not the terrible thing itself. He said that a lot through the show.
I suppose it can spark the debate: where is the line?

Hideous.

Jimmy Carr’s entire style of comedy is to be as offensive as possible. It’s offensive by design.

For those who have watched this stuff are there any lines drawn at all? For example would the audience be invited to laugh at lynching of black people in the US South?

A comedian who tells offensive jokes is being criticised for an offensive joke.......🤔

I watched it months ago. I can barely remember it. Was there a thread in Telly Addicts? I can’t remember that either.

@PurpleParrotfish

For those who have watched this stuff are there any lines drawn at all? For example would the audience be invited to laugh at lynching of black people in the US South?

No one is off limits.

Rape is joked about too.

I used to watch him and laugh () but the last few just made me feel really uneasy. Maybe I’ve grown up?

@PurpleParrotfish

For those who have watched this stuff are there any lines drawn at all? For example would the audience be invited to laugh at lynching of black people in the US South?

I really dislike his brand of "comedy" but he's literally famous for being as offensive as he can legally get away with.

If he thinks there's a joke in a topic, he'll make it. So what the KKK got up to wouldn't be an unapproachable subject for him.

Jokes about horrific topics can be ok when they punch up imo. E.g. a rape joke where the rapist is the butt of the joke, or joke about the holocaust where the Nazis are the butt of the joke.

Jokes which punch down, aiming at the victims of the terrible thing rather than the perpetrators, are usually total shite. Unfunny, offensive, and unimaginative.

Jimmy Carr is offensive about everyone which is why he gets away with "jokes" like that.
I don''t mind the kind of comedy which make you think because you feel uncomfortable about laughing at it but JC's comedy isn't that clever. I find most of it in poor taste so I don't watch him.

@FOJN

Jimmy Carr is offensive about everyone which is why he gets away with "jokes" like that. I don''t mind the kind of comedy which make you think because you feel uncomfortable about laughing at it but JC's comedy isn't that clever. I find most of it in poor taste so I don't watch him.

Is he really though? How many jokes does he make about straight white men like him being slaughtered or brutalised?

When people say "X is offensive about everyone", the word 'everyone' doesn't tend to include educated straight white middle class men. Mainly because that group has never been subject to mass slaughter, rape or slavery, so there are no horrific topics to joke about.

@Octomore

Jokes about horrific topics can be ok when they punch up imo. E.g. a rape joke where the rapist is the butt of the joke, or joke about the holocaust where the Nazis are the butt of the joke.

Jokes which punch down, aiming at the victims of the terrible thing rather than the perpetrators, are usually total shite. Unfunny, offensive, and unimaginative.

This with bells on. James Acaster does a really good bit about “offensive comedians” and how it’s not particularly clever or original to make offensive jokes about marginalised groups.

Jimmy Carr is an utter bellend.

That’s from a part of his show that he calls “career-enders”

There are a lot of scary things happening in the world. One person making a joke is the last thing I worry about.

Don't read it if it offends you.

Not funny. Never was and never will be. People laughing at offensive humour are probably laughing more out of embarrassment than because they find it humorous. A girl I worked with made a racist joke and a few people laughed - but it was a nervous reaction, I felt. She got sent on a E&D course but whether that had any effect, who knows?

There is no excuse for joking about genocide.

It is horrific. I am at a loss as to how anyone can defend it.

But Jimmy Carr isn't seriously saying how great that a lot of gypsys were killed. He's a comedian, not a politician or journalist. He's playing on the idea of racism against gypsys not being as publicly condemned as anti-semitism in modern society. He's laughing at the people who would fist-pump at that joke and challenging others to confront their own feelings about the joke, whether or not they feel gypsy's deaths are as bad. Some people won't feel it is and they won't like that feeling and they'll question why they feel it - social conditioning perhaps? Education? The media? And the end result is, they've been challenged, they've addressed their feelings and concluded it is, in fact, as bad.

If you're just offended, that's just a feeling you've had. It means zero to anyone else really.

Being offended is a bit like saying 'this is too hard for me to think about, I'm going to hide in my shell'. It wants to shut down discussion and in the end, achieves nothing.

RE. a PP saying girl from work made a racist joke: entirely different thing. I doubt she was clever enough to be laughing AT racists 'ie. this is the type of thing people think (!!) but was instead racist herself. There's a difference. James Acaster talking about the latter.

@RandomDent

I am not defending him. However. It is part of his “let’s see how many offensive jokes I can get away with” stand up on Netflix. I did watch it. I can’t decide whether it was good or not, that line was one of many offensive jokes about very uncomfortable topics. Carr’s point/justification is that it is a joke about a terrible thing, not the terrible thing itself. He said that a lot through the show. I suppose it can spark the debate: where is the line?

I thought that was Ricky Gervais it’s a joke about the terrible thing, not the terrible tho one itself. He also made a Holocaust joke- I watched it the other night.