Jimmy Carr’s Racist Joke

[Knutface]

www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/feb/04/jimmy-carr-condemned-for-joke-about-gypsies-in-netflix-special

Not something that I find funny but it has highlighted something. Racism against Roma/Sinti people is widely acceptable and not treated in the same away as racism against other minorities. Years ago I worked for a local authority in an area with a fair few traveller sites and noticed that staff that would never dream of using slurs against black or Asian people openly did so against travellers. AIBU to think that this is the ‘joke’? Anti Roma sentiment is unfortunately widespread.

@Againstmachine no, I was making the point that you can't say that just cause his friend's say he's a good person doesn't mean he is.

And I've now spoken in a double negative, but no I was not comparing Jimmy Carr to Hitler

@Againstmachine

Yep, I'm sure she does. Diana Mosley said similar things about Hitler, she also knew him better than me.

Man tells joke , gets compared to Hitler

Is she comparing him to Hitler, or is she pointing out that someone defending objectionable people because she knows them better doesn’t make said people less objectionable?

@Joinedforthis22

*I'm so disappointed in Victoria Coren Mitchell defending him as "a man full of goodness and kindness"

Maybe she knows him better than you ?*

Yep, I'm sure she does. Diana Mosley said similar things about Hitler, she also knew him better than me.

I take it we've reached Godwins law ?

VladmirsPoutine
@DeeCeeCherry If Mo the Comedian or Munya had made that 'joke' I am willing to bet my house and life savings that they would have never worked again, not only in comedy but even the local steak house. They might have even ended up in jail for 'incitement

Exactly. They'd be gone .

People can huff and puff on here as much as they like but the fact remains Jimmy Carr = White Male Privilege. This type of thing doesnt happen in a bubble - its afforded to people like him hence I roll my eyes at 'If he/they said it about Black people'.

As if offensively joking about Black people even to the extent of negatively affecting them profoundly both personally and career-wise (see bandwagon-Baddiel) would ever get a White man cancelled.

Those who support and condone that type of abhorrent privilege, usually whilst hiding behind 'No to cancel culture!' couldn't care less about Black people or Travellers hence the deflection and unbalanced comparison.

@MeSanniesareBrannies thank you, yes this is what I was trying to do, and you put it much more eloquently than I did!

Baddiel what's the deal?

Is she comparing him to Hitler, or is she pointing out that someone defending objectionable people because she knows them better doesn’t make said people less objectionable?

The deeper question is whether people are mere sums of their works ?

The flip side of "person does awful thing, so therefore person is awful" is "person does beautiful thing, so therefore person is beautiful". Which I am willing to bet could be disproved with a couple of carefully honed examples from the world of art, or music.

Really entertainment is a quantum state that can only be collapsed by opening the box. Which is fair enough if the boxes weren't labelled.

@ExtraOnion

Conservatives don't like smutty humour so no I don't think he is supported by the "Right Wing" .

He is just plain nasty.

I am ethnically Roma. My grandparents fled Italy for Scotland during WW2 due to Roma people being rounded up and gassed along with Jews and other groups. I’m not a traveller but I still follow many Roma traditions.

I honestly don’t have a problem with Carrs joke. I don’t like his style of comedy but I accept that it’s a Netflix comedy show & he’s known for that kind of humour. What I find much more offensive is the widely accepted cultural appropriation. There are so many clothing brands named things like “Gypsy Dreams” or some bullshit. Take a look on Instagram at the number of white women who are fond of a maxi skirt and a bangle, who went to Thailand that one time with usernames like BohoGypsyPrincess87. That’s much more offended to me than Carrs joke. His joke actually shed light on something a lot of people probably don’t even know happened!

Irish travellers & Roma people are not the same in any way btw. Culturally, ethnically, historically. We both often live in unfixed abodes, that’s the only similarly.

To the person who said “it’s like racist jokes towards white people have always been acceptable”. Firstly, you can’t be racist to white people. You can make jokes based on stereotypes but that isn’t the same a racism. Secondly “good” comedy usually punches up which is what happens when white people are the but of the joke. There is no joke about another race rounding up white people in their millions and gassing them because it’s never happened.

@Ihopeyourcakeisshit it's on page 3, someone posted a screenshot and link

@Joinedforthis22 Ah Thank you!

@Timeyime

David "pineapple" Baddiel is useful in showing that people are naturally inconsistent, I guess.

Yeh, David ' let's dress up in blackface' baddiel truly gets racism I guess

@Agrudge

I think people need to lighten up.

Maybe the laughter wasnt at what he said,just the fact he had the nerve to say .

Nerve to say a minority group should be killed in the holocaust? Would you say that about Jewish people?

I fucking hate wokery with a passion. But this is disgusting. People died - it was mass murder. You don't joke about the holocaust because nothing about it is remotely funny

@NutellaEllaElla

To be fair Baddiel has apologised a lot for that, is that not enough? It seems a little unreasonable to say he should never speak publically again.

Never apologised to Jason lee though

@JuicySatsuma85 eh? What colour are Jews then? What the fuck?

@JuicySatsuma85

Of you can be racist to white people

That myth needs to stop

Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another

To the person who said “it’s like racist jokes towards white people have always been acceptable”. Firstly, you can’t be racist to white people. You can make jokes based on stereotypes but that isn’t the same a racism.

Of course you can be racist against any race, the all you can be racist against any race is stupid.

You absolutely can be racist to white people! If you refuse to hire someone because of their race, that is race discrimination. And that includes racism against Roma, Irish travellers etc

This nonsense is why Whoopi Goldberg got into trouble for saying the Nazis weren't racist for trying to exterminate the Jews and Roma to create a 'master race'.

People are basing the you can't be racist against white people to loving in predominantly white country's, in non white country's they is racism towards whites.

@DGRossetti

Is she comparing him to Hitler, or is she pointing out that someone defending objectionable people because she knows them better doesn’t make said people less objectionable?

The deeper question is whether people are mere sums of their works ?

The flip side of "person does awful thing, so therefore person is awful" is "person does beautiful thing, so therefore person is beautiful". Which I am willing to bet could be disproved with a couple of carefully honed examples from the world of art, or music.

Really entertainment is a quantum state that can only be collapsed by opening the box. Which is fair enough if the boxes weren't labelled.

I really don’t give a shit if someone whose work I find offensive or problematic is lovely in real life. I don’t care who they are ‘as a person’. Its unlikely I’m ever going to meet them. If you’re punching down on minority groups, you are trash to me - I’m not interested in your charity work or the fact that you’re nice to your grandma.

Your question isn’t ‘deeper’, I consider it wholly irrelevant to the matter at hand.

Really entertainment is a quantum state that can only be collapsed by opening the box. Which is fair enough if the boxes weren't labelled

I’m sure you thought that was rather clever, but it’s utter nonsense.

@UtterlyUnimaginativeUsername Yes his line said "there was a good thing" but it was a joke. In satire you often say something controversial in order to highlight it. It didn't celebrate the murder of the Gypsies in the holocaust. It mocked the dickheads that genuinely think gypsy lives are worthless.

Anyway, I'm reasonably certain that the appearance of this in the press two months after it came out is a publicity stunt.

I watched the special. It's not my favourite type of comedy but parts were funny. Like many, he tells outrageous jokes. They make me uncomfortable more than they make me laugh. But I don't feel they are dangerous in any way, so I can't get worked up about them.

I do not think he should be allowed to get away with this as if this was said about anybody else people would be outraged. He is not funny and think he is past his sell by date. He just uses sarcastic one liners and puts down others. As Oscar Wilde once said 'Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit'. I love dark comedy and have a weird sense of humour but I do not like humour at the expense of any minorities as find it disgusting.

So rather than a conversation about White Male Privilege its yes you can/no you can't be racist to White people.

Just more proof of how far around the houses people will go so as to not disturb the status quo, and keep that WMP right on going.

All negative 'isms' are impacted by that Privilege which isnt ever going to be properly challenged. & is why be it racism or sexism, nothing gets done.

Jimmy Carr will be fine.