Jimmy Carr. Loathsome A***

I have loathed this idiot since hearing him come out with a 'joke' many years ago about the expressions of children on the Sunshine buses who used to ferry disable children around. He is despicable and so are those who find these types of 'jokes' funny.

A joke that is not funny is not a joke - but the audience laughed. I can only think that audiences often laugh because they do not want to be judged as not "getting it." There can be no other reason for them laughing at this.

Did the "joke" open up awareness of the plight of Gypsies and Travellers, both in the past and now? Was that his motive? I suppose we are all talking about it which could be seen as raising awareness; or it could be that it is reinforcing existing prejudices.

I worked for 10 years on the Travellers Times - a national magazine for Gypsies and Travellers - as project co-ordinator, photographer and picture editor. During that time I met many Travellers, some of whom I was proud to call friends, and others that I was wary of - much like non-Travellers. There is no way that I would see a "joke" that applauded the slaughter of innocent men. women and children as being either funny or acceptable in any way.

But he knew what he was doing, and I do believe that anyone who might think this was a suitable thing to joke about is seriously out of order. And I find the idea that he was simply "consciousness raising" implausible. I suspect that he is in fact on the wrong side of the law. It will be interesting to see where that leads.

What also caused me concern is that his friend Victoria Coren-Mitchell took to twitter to defend him as being a "decent" person. I had always rated her highly.

I watched a tube of that so called joke and was wondering how on this earth he got away with it. Appalling outright racism, nothing funny, just sick.

a tube =utube

God help him if the gypsies get hold of him!!

That’s very interesting about your work Lucky. As I said up thread, I worked with many Roma children and their families. Derby had a very large Roma community, and the school where I worked was the go-to school for them. I was also responsible for teaching EAL.

Re Coren-Mitchel. This circle of comedians etc seems quite nepotistic / ‘incestuous’. They all seem to appear on the same shows, publicise each other’s books etc.

Shinamae

God help him if the gypsies get hold of him!!

Did you see my comment about Tyson Fury?
Perhaps Carr would like to share his ‘joke’ with him?

Have always disliked Jimmy Carr. Odious, self important man. Can never understand why he's given airtime.

I have made a point of avoiding Jimmy Carr since I saw him introduce a ‘Live at The Apollo’ show on Sky. At the end of the show he read out texts sent by the audience and made a reply to one woman who had texted about her daughter. It was the most vile and disgusting suggestion and even in this day and age of ‘anything goes’ I found it shocking that it was allowed to be broadcast. The comment about the Holocaust disgusts, but doesn’t surprise me. The man is vile.

Thank you Lucky, totally agree.

Like Lucky and FannyC, my work brought me into contact with the traveller community. Our area had a number of settled sites. In addition, one former mining area had been a traditional stopping area for gypsies. An area on a large council estate was home to many settled families from the Irish traveller community. The families would share a trailer so the traveller way of life could be maintained to a lesser degree. They’d travel to big events, like Appleby and to visit extended family especially between June and September

Like every other community, there were law abiding, hard working people and others who were involved in crime. Th e need for children to be literate and numerate was recognised. Many older people were attending adult literacy at the primary school their grandchildren attended

I hope this disgusting man has ended his career but how likely is that given the way some people find offensive comments amusing

I thought this was an interesting take on the joke. A caller on LBC this morning said that you had to have listened to the whole of Carr’s show to understand why the audience laughed at that point. Taken in context, the joke was part of a theme.
I have no idea what the theme was, of course, but I thought it worth mentioning as I hadn’t considered this.

Ah, what a good point Parsley.
I usually listen to Nick Ferarri, but have been having a rest from the news cycle

I suppose the audience would be self selecting, people who would know what to expect and looking forward to laughing at what my mum called jokes that were near the bone.

Being groomed in the lead up to the extremely offensive and unacceptable may be another way of looking at it.

I agree Iam. That would seem to be the case.

That’s an excellent point about‘grooming’ Iam64

Re Coren-Mitchel. This circle of comedians etc seems quite nepotistic / ‘incestuous’. They all seem to appear on the same shows, publicise each other’s books etc.
The Coren-Mitchells always seem very smug.
I do find David quite funny, not offensive like some, but they always seem very pleased with themselves, as does Victoria's brother.

youtu.be/crdaGolaBxY

This is the joke.

JaneJudge

I didn't used to like Ricky Gervais but I loved After Life series 1&2 and I have just watched Derek and loved that too.

I think Ricky Gervais’ take on things is more subtle - and you have to ‘get’ him. As someone disabled I’ve never taken offence at Gervais’ humour because it’s tongue in cheek and he credits people with the ability to laugh at themselves. The Office sometimes made us uncomfortable to the point of cringing because we could all relate to it in some way, and that same sharp observation in After Life and Derek tackled real issues with sensitivity and humour - not cheap laughs.

Baggs

That’s how a free society works, rebel, except you have been “educated” by Carr’s remarks because you now know something you didn’t know before he let out his terrible “joke”.

I can kind of see where you’re coming from but WWII history is all out there if people want a proper understanding of the Holocaust - as far as it’s possible to understand the reasoning of a madman who managed to carry a nation in his thrall. I think the way Carr skewed the perspective is the worst way to ‘learn’ - he was insinuating that they somehow ‘deserved’ it. He knew it would shock people - he said several that the joke that will end his career is already out there. I do hope so.

Callistemon oh yes, the delightful Giles.
Neither of them would probably have got anywhere if it wasn’t for their dad Alan (who I really liked, but is reputed to have been quite difficult)

And Carr did say something about the Holocaust not being taught properly in schools.
I can state that this is totally incorrect, as I’m sure he knows.
How arrogant and disgusting to claim that he’s educating the masses.
We are truly honoured Mr Carr

Thank you Dickens. Jo Brand put that so well.
It's always worth seeing this clip again.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/video/2017/nov/04/jo-brands-speech-on-sexual-harassment-silences-all-male-panel-on-have-i-got-news-for-you-video

Ricky Gervais did apologise for joking repeatedly about disability after having it explained to him, by the mum of a child with a disability, why it was hurtful.
Why he was so stupid as to make the non-jokes in the first place, is another question.

Thanks for the link Parsley3.

There are a lot of comments there, in support of Carr & the joke, some saying that it was a criticism of those who choose not to mention anyone being killed, other than Jewish people.

Perhaps the 'context' led the audience to believe that they know better than those bad people who don't give all the facts.
So the laugh was at the 'bad people'.

It still sounds like grooming, to me.