Or is Jimmy Carr just a misogynist arse hole?

[VioletCharlotte]

This week I went to see Jimmy Carr's live show. A friend of mine had tickets and asked my go along at the last minute as their mate dropped out. Now I've never really had an opinion on Jimmy Carr, he's just someone I've never paid much attention too, so didn't really know what to expect.

Most of the 2 hours were filled with cracks about rape, special needs children, blind people and women. I came away feeling quite sad that this is what's considered comedy. Friend (male) says I've obviously had a sense of humour bypass, but AIBU in thinking actually it's just not funny and Jimmy Carr is actually just a massive idiot?

I've always thought that JC's laugh was like a donkey having an orgasm.

I've always thought he was a bit of a square mouth greasy wanker. I'm actually surprised that people take him seriously enough to get offended by him.

Some very weird moral wrangling going on here saying it’s not okay to laugh at X issue but it IS okay to laugh at a JOKE about X issue...

no moral wrangling on my part

Some seem to not get that there is a difference

But people don't laugh at things because it's morally correct to do so and they have a list chosen in advance of things they will and won't find amusing. Look at schadenfreude, for example (although JC's jokes do not fall under that categorisation). We could just all tell ourselves not to laugh. But we can't.

Some very weird moral wrangling going on here saying it’s not okay to laugh at X issue but it IS okay to laugh at a JOKE about X issue... hmm

Why's that weird? I agree with @Enthuaisam, I wouldn't sit and laugh at terrorism, paedophilia, etc but I would laugh at a joke about them. There is a difference. A joke is funny and has a punchline - you can't help what you laugh at. To be honest the fact it's borderline offensive makes people laugh more, as it's taboo and has shock value (as I think someone said above).

Intention makes a difference. Going for a cheap laugh is one thing, shocking people into thinking is another.
Jim Davidson, Manning and Chubby Brown were racist and sexist appealing to racists and sexists. Carr likes to shock but gets it wrong. Boyle deals with politics and issues that he opposes and writes some brilliant columns.
Not everyone agrees or likes him.

On TV he's fine. Live he's a nasty piece of work. Just for clarity I love seeing comedians live. One of my faves is Russell Brand. I am NEVER shocked.

But Jimmy Carr jokes about raping kids and people with special needs.

He's a nasty vicious little c**t that really needs his gob sewn shut.

I actually felt sick after the crap he spouted. It wasn't funny because he kept repeating it again and again.

I never said that people DIDN’T laugh. I said that people are saying that one is okay while the other isn’t. But I don’t think it’s any more okay to laugh at a rape joke than it is to laugh at a rape victim. Laughing at rape jokes IS laughing at rape victims. If you’re okay with that, that’s your prerogative. But don’t act like one is morally wrong while the other is fine.

Laughing at rape jokes IS laughing at rape victims

Bollocks, the butt of these jokes is usually the perpetrators.

@NameChangr678 In the case of Jimmy Carr? I don’t think so.

That’s a completely different scenario.

No one other than a highly disturbed psychopath would laugh at a rape victim.

I think his “donkey bray” laugh is a fake laugh.

When you see him genuinely laughing he doesn’t make that noise.

@Crowdo And yet Carr told this joke to an auditorium and got plenty of laughs: “What's the difference between football and rape? Women don't like football.”

That's not laughing at rape victims. The joke is that it's an outrageous thing to say, peppered with it being presented in a mundane fashion.

I bet most were thinking oh fuck how could you say that and laughed at the shock of it but what they were actually laughing at was a statement the JC thinks is true

Ok get it now

I highly doubt JC thinks that statement is true!

I was being sarcastic

I know I know it's the lowest form of wit

Oh! That makes sense now. I thought you'd have to mad to believe something like that!

So he can say anything he likes simply because being “outrageous” over and over again is funny?

Also as a victim of sexual assault, I can promise it you that it very much feels like he - and his willing audience - are laughing at me.

They're not laughing at you.

I don't think that joke is particularly amusing either, but I can see the punchline is not meant to cause distress to anyone.

Well, you’re right in one sense, in that the primary purpose of the joke is to make people laugh. It causing distress to rape victims is merely a byproduct, and one that Carr thinks is a fair trade off. So perhaps it’s fairer to say that he and his audience are laughing at the expense of rape victims, rather than directly at them. I guess if you’re okay with that, you can laugh at how ‘outrageous’ he is. Personally I don’t think there’s anything funny about the suggestion that a rape victim ‘enjoyed’ his or her rape.

I’m not humourless. I’m not even really saying that people shouldn’t tell edgy jokes. I just wish that those who find them funny wouldn’t pretend to have some kind of moral high ground and would admit that they don’t care who gets hurts in the process so long as they get to hear a funny joke.

That joke is a rehash of that old trope that it is every woman's fantasy to be raped.

Some very weird moral wrangling going on here saying it’s not okay to laugh at X issue but it IS okay to laugh at a JOKE about X issue...

Indeed.

I just wish that those who find them funny wouldn’t pretend to have some kind of moral high ground and would admit that they don’t care who gets hurts in the process so long as they get to hear a funny joke

And indeed again. It is painful to read these convoluted and tortured justifications/ apologia.