To find Jimmy Carr's latest 'joke' really disgusting and pathetic

[runningwilde]

Jimmy Carr has done it again. Nor content with making deeply disrespectful and horrid jokes about soldiers, he has now made a joke about children with Down's Syndrome and the Sunshine Variety coaches that do so much to help these kids and others too.

I used to like him but he goes too far. I really think that some things should not be joked about. Why do some people feel the need to tell
Jokes like that?

Yet, I am also aware of the fact that we can't censor jokes, but I wish some comedians actually set out to make us laugh with properly funny jokes rather than the nasty shit that Jimmy has been peddling again.

I disagree 100% that some things should not be joked about. There are good jokes and there are bad jokes and 'funny' is in the ear of the beholder. Carr's type of comedy is based around insults and is often in poor taste. I'm not rushing to buy a ticket because that kind of thing doesn't do it for me. If he told a bad joke (and I can't judge having not heard it) that's a risk he takes.

The joke was

'why are they called Sunshine Variety coaches when all the kids look the same?'

I find it a horrible joke but I know there will be those who say anything can be joked about - different opinions do make the world go round!

I find nothing funny about taking the piss out of disabled children.

Anyone who finds that sort of joke funny is as big a moron as Carr.

It's a challenge to think of a joke that (1) won't offend anybody but (2) will amuse somebody!

YANBU.

Humour is personal and so is taking offence. I do laugh at some very non-pc jokes.

If the joke is not funny then it's a "bad" joke.

If the majority of people laugh then it's a "good" joke.

I don't think Carr is particularly talented and I don't find many of his jokes very funny but that doesn't mean my taste is representative.

Not really, Andrew - there are lots of comedians who manage to be funny without offending people. Except people who can be offended by the time of day, for example.

Jimmy Carr though - he is a cock.

YANBU. Although this is nothing new for Jimmy Carr. I was given tickets 2 or 3 years ago for his show, I'm sure he used the same "joke" then. Twat.

A comedian will always offend some people, its what makes humour work.

I take it you're using the definition of 'joke' loosely?

I've been to see him and think he's OK generally, but I'd have taken the opportunity to boo him if he'd come out with something like that.

I don't mind the majority of what other people would consider offensive humour, but the 'jokes' I've heard about sexually assaulting children I don't think should be tolerated.

But that's my opinion and you can't tell other people what they should/shouldn't find funny, maybe see it as an indicator of their twatishness?

Jimmy Carr's been telling this sort of unfunny crap for a long time. He apparently thinks nothing is off-limits. But he has his own limits that can't be crossed, oh yes.

Ex-H went to see him a couple of years back and someone in the audience heckled him about his dad - there's some issues there I gather. Apparently the heckler was quite funny but Jimmy lost it with him and stormed off the stage. At the same show he told disablist jokes like the one above so in the end Ex-H and his mates walked out.

Jimmy Carr has always told vile jokes. Either you find bullying humour acceptable or you don't. If you used to like him when his targets were 'those other people' you can't really complain when you or someone/thing close to you becomes his next target.
I agree that nothing is off limits but it depends which way the humour 'flows'. A man as privileged as Carr picking on those less privileged is offensive for the sake of being offensive. Very different from humour that is directed upwards against those with power.

Yes zigzag meant 'joke' in the loosest of terms! I agree with everything you have said here too, well put.

Harriet - that sounds like him all over, likes to shovely shit, unfunny jokes and take the piss out of soldiers and little kids but can't take anything directed at himself. Im sure I read he is in a family feud (with his own family I mean) too.

Nothing to do with the OP, but what about when Ricky Gervais has a

Does it make OK because the bloke in the wheelchair has made the decision for himself? And it's done in a way that makes Ricky Gervais/people who actually act like that, the butt of the joke?

If you do find it offensive, why shouldn't someone with a disability laugh at themselves (and the experiences they have with twats around them) like the rest of us?

YABU

Why are you watching him if you are relatively easily offended? Jimmy Carr will have a go at virtually anyone / group of people. At some point he was bound to mention disabled kids (would be discriminating against them to leave them out).

The entire aim of his comedy is to get a laugh out of the audience followed by a gasp of "ooh did he really just say that and did I just laugh at it?"

If you don't like it don't watch it.

It's a bit like going out of your way to listen to a Frankie Boyle concert. You're pretty much 100% guaranteed to be offended by every word he utters.

So don't watch him/follow him on Twitter/read up on him/whatever because otherwise you're just deliberately viewing something with the mindset of "I'll be offended by this, and can therefore complain".

I don't find that offensive. As you say it's done in a way that the bloke in the wheelchair isn't the butt of the joke. He's also part of the sketch which is different from a comedian on his own telling jokes making disabled people the butt of the joke.

I personally can't stand Billy Connelly. I think he's a humungous prat. But I'm not going to watch him and then go "What a humungous prat! I'll start a thread on Mumsnet about it".

Agrees with stealthpenguin

it made me chuckle! It's supposed to be shocking. That's the point and that's what makes it funny! YANBU as such but maybe you need to lighten up!

yanbu
he is a wanker, just like the other funny people who take the piss out of disabled people, sadly there will always be twats who will lol at his ilk.

A straight forward one for me - h o r r i d .. j o k e! but I think it's good to let it out and say what you and I think. I don't think it should be banned.

I'm finding the new Ricky Gervaise & Stephen Merchant hilarious at points but really uncomfortable at others. The scene where Warwick Davies is made to get into the bin because the actress can't relate to him as the stand in child made me cringe and feel physically sick. I guess it shows what a good actor Warwick and writers (Gervaise and Stephen) are - that I reacted so strongly but I had to turn it over. I'm pretty short - so I guess I might have extra sympathy with Warwick's character. So don't ban but YES say what you think - that joke was sick and the comic should stop telling it.

Saying 'if you don't like it don't watch it' is missing the point.

An individual may easily avoid Carr or Boyle or whoever but that doesn't mean that the attitudes which inform them don't exist. And are widespread too if mainstream comedians and their many fans can spout bile with no censure.

Of course most jokes are going to cause offence. That's not to bad when its grown adults who can defend themselves.

this was about children though

All of you who think its ok, why not upload a picture of your dc and we'll all take the piss out of the way they look. See how funny it is then.

He is a smug arsehole as is Frankie Boyla and Ricky Gervais - women jokes, mother in law jokes and racist jokes are no longer acceptable so they are now going after the sections of society least able to defend themselves.
All these men are very successful and all are intelligent enough to reqalise what they are saying is offensive and nasty.
I don't watch and won't watch any of them.