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.

What does sense of humouring improving mean

Your sense of humour can change but that doesn’t mean it’s improved

Many would find George Carlin extremely offensive (he defended joking about rape) while most comedians will say he is hugely influential

@HailAdrian

I don't care for him but you guys don't actually think he finds anything about the Holocaust funny?

People find what he says funny

I don’t know what he thinks - why do you think he’s taken this path with comedy? Ie what’s the motivation behind it

That should be some people..

I have been to stand up comedy nights where MANY jokes are told about sensitive topics. MANY. I have felt uncomfortable at times. if I dont take to a particular comedian's style, I dont see them again. A lot of ppl like JC. Each to their own I say. Who am I to criticise him.

If offended then don't watch,read or listen to it.
It's a joke! Some will find it amusing others will not.

@jesusmaryjosephandtheweedonkey

If offended then don't watch,read or listen to it. It's a joke! Some will find it amusing others will not.

But it's not just a joke is it. It reinforces the discrimination, maltreatment and prejudice towards an already marginalised group. To many it might just be a joke but to the GRT community it cuts a lot deeper. Remember when Boris made that off-hand comment about muslim women - guess what the result of that was??

Hes always been a "shock value" comedian . The only thing new is people now seem to look for things to be offended by, so they cant tweet something that hopefully goes viral for a bit of internet "fame".

Carr has the same dead eyes as David Walliams, who also peddles in cruelty to others as so-called comedy. I wouldn't want to be stuck in a lift with either of them.

I wonder about the audiences.

As I said upthread - some comedians could come out with stuff that is racist / sexist / homophobic etc and they probably agree with it and the audience agree with it.

Another comedian could use the same material, to a different audience - and it's seen as ironic and raising awareness - as you would probably assume the comedian and the audience don't agree with what they are saying but can see the point the comedian is trying to make.

@TheOnlyMrsMac

Carr has the same dead eyes as David Walliams, who also peddles in cruelty to others as so-called comedy. I wouldn't want to be stuck in a lift with either of them.

I know what you mean. he's had a lot of cosmetic work done and that gives him a kind of uncanny valley face.

@TheOnlyMrsMac

Carr has the same dead eyes as David Walliams, who also peddles in cruelty to others as so-called comedy. I wouldn't want to be stuck in a lift with either of them.

Totally agree!

@VladmirsPoutine it's shock value comedy.
Everyone running around clutching their pearls at a completely inappropriate and unfunny joke are just fuelling the publicity for Jimmy carr.
He literally couldn't afford the amount of attention and publicity he is getting at the moment.

@jesusmaryjosephandtheweedonkey

If offended then don't watch,read or listen to it. It's a joke! Some will find it amusing others will not.

Exactly what sort of person would find genocide amusing?

@EishetChayil I assume the people who pay to watch Jimmy Carr 🤷

He also makes jokes about muslims, rape and paedophillia in the same show, yet everyone is up in arms about this one joke about gipsies? When are the PC brigade going to realise that they don't get to decide what others choose to find amusing? People know who he is and the sort of things he says and they actively pay to go and hear him say it so they also obviously find it amusing. If you don't like him or his particular brand of comedy then just don't watch him, its simple really! Just because you are offended by someone it doesn't mean everyone else is!

Being uncomfortable is the joke at times. It’s not that people have suffered

Curb Your Enthusiasm is so uncomfortable at times. As are many comedies Seinfeld, Inbetweeners, It’s always Sunny in Philadelphia, comedians Chris Rock, George Carlin, Joan Rivers, Ricky Gervais, Richard Pryor they have all made jokes about issues that are not funny

@lovenotwar149

I have been to stand up comedy nights where MANY jokes are told about sensitive topics. MANY. I have felt uncomfortable at times. if I dont take to a particular comedian's style, I dont see them again. A lot of ppl like JC. Each to their own I say. Who am I to criticise him.

I was far more offended by the disabled access being blocked and DW having to be manhandled into a goods lift* at the Glee club in Brum than anything anyone on stage could have said.

(*Access to the passenger lift from the pavement level was blocked as they were storing stuff against it.)

In fact I find people having no home and starving far more offensive that some silly mans silly little jokes looks at Nadine Dorries

I really don’t understand some people. The show is called His Dark Material and is about dark humour. He starts with a trigger warning and repeatedly explains why he thinks that dark humour is important and reiterates throughout that there’s a big difference between joking about something terrible, and the terrible thing itself. This particular joke is in a section of a show he calls ‘career ending’ and is heavily prefaced again. How can someone wade through all that and then be shocked by the content? Or are people complaining without even seeing the show?
And then the joke itself is based on “but nobody talks about the positives” making sense stylistically but not in terms of content - if he actually thought it was positive the joke wouldn’t work.
I found some of his jokes offensive but I understood the context. Don’t think I’d like to see him live but I don’t think he should be stopped from performing to those who do like him.

‘ He also makes jokes about muslims, rape and paedophillia in the same show, yet everyone is up in arms about this one joke about gipsies?’

Because said ‘joke’ was directly about the industrialised extermination of people based upon their race. That mass murder delivered some benefit, how is that a joke?

I recall Harriet Harman being interviewed by Andrew Neil on a popular BBC current affairs show where she sought to explain away anti-Semitism in the Labour Party by saying that times had changed, no-one would now tell a particular joke about Holocaust & then told that very joke. Andrew Neil shut her right down. It was astonishing to see a senior politician from the Labour Party behave like that.

So it was billed as dark material with a warning about possible offence (I assume).

Once something is published or broadcast, it looses it’s exclusive context. It can be edited & broadcast on in any form beyond the control of the originator. We have laws that protect the rights of the originator of materials & inhibit the onward distribution of materials that belong to others, cause offence or depict certain images.

This is not about a bit of bantz.

Comedians, please note. If you have to explain to thousands of people why your joke is funny then it is not a joke but you are. Ask the appalling Jim Davidson.

If I was Phillip Pullman I'd do exactly the bloody same.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/inews.co.uk/news/jimmy-carr-his-dark-material-holocaust-phillip-pullman-sickening-1445429/amp

I'm positive that a famed 'offensive' comedian will be heartbroken that some people found him offensive.

There have been a few people on this thread who have quite coherently explained why this is a joke. But people are much happier to froth at the mouth about perceived racism than to accept how comedians use techniques to build and break tension, baiting and switching and misdirection, and a whole host of other approaches they use.
Comedy is entirely subjective. There are plenty of non-offensive comedians that people also don't find funny.
And asking anyone to explain most jokes told by professional comedians doesn't just work, because there's so much more than a simple breakdown of the words used.

@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 exactly, veyr well described.

I also remember jokes post 9/11, and they were never about the people killed, but usually about something not central, or making the terrorists the butt of the joke.
Some worked, and some didn't.

To me, a joke about an horrific topic is there to make as do a double take on our assumptions, make us think afresh, reframe the incident in such a way as to challenge etc.
Doing that through laughter is very clever, but that isn't what Jimmy Carr is doing is it?

@DGRossetti Horrible that your wife was subjected to that. How would you have felt if the comedians had been making fun of her situation? Would that have been OK if the rest of the audience were having a laugh at the disabled woman being manhandled? Would that have been OK if other people thought it was funny? Maybe the comedians wouldn't really be making fun of your wife, maybe they would be sending a message to the management.