Comedy, Cancel, Carr

[Secret Chief]

"The comedian, who introduced his show as being "a career ender" and warned it contained "terrible things", said a "positive" of the Holocaust was that thousands of Gypsies were murdered."
- Jimmy Carr sparks fury with Holocaust routine in Netflix special

Is there a line, to cross or not to cross?


The relevant part is contained near the start of this:

 

[SomeRandom]

I mean you can joke about very dark topics. The trick is to do it at the expense of the “bad guys.”
In this case you should be doing it at the expense of Nazis, not you know victims of the Nazis. A distinction that is apparently lost on folks

Its why for example JoJo Rabbit works as a dark comedy. It’s purposely making the Nazis out to be buffoons but still a legitimate threat.

Also with regards to Car’s comment all I can say is

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Is there a line, to cross or not to cross?

There's definitely lines. I would say that calling the butcher of thousands a positive thing is one of those lines.

 

[Secret Chief]

His stylee...

 

[John53]

"The comedian, who introduced his show as being "a career ender" and warned it contained "terrible things", said a "positive" of the Holocaust was that thousands of Gypsies were murdered."
- Jimmy Carr sparks fury with Holocaust routine in Netflix special

Is there a line, to cross or not to cross?


The relevant part is contained near the start of this:

The bloke in the video sums it up perfectly.

 

[Stevicus]

"The comedian, who introduced his show as being "a career ender" and warned it contained "terrible things", said a "positive" of the Holocaust was that thousands of Gypsies were murdered."
- Jimmy Carr sparks fury with Holocaust routine in Netflix special

Is there a line, to cross or not to cross?


The relevant part is contained near the start of this:

Yeah, there's a line, and it seems he crossed it.

I was reminded of a skit with Buck Henry on SNL many years ago. He was playing a radio talk-show host who wasn't getting any calls, so he started saying more and more outrageous stuff in the hopes that someone would call. Towards the end, he was talking about how much he loved dead puppies: "Dead puppies! I love 'em!" - something to that effect (I'm sure I'm misremembering it).

I mean, one could have dark, macabre humor involving tragedy, but there are subtleties to it. However, one has to expect a backlash just the same.

A lot of people didn't like "Hogan's Heroes" because of the subject matter.

 

[Kooky]

Some people get offended over anything these days!

If we can't even make light of genocide any more, then what humor have we still left?!

 

[Secret Chief]

I don't particularly like Carr anyway but I do think that context is vitally important. The same words uttered in one way in one situation by one person may communicate an entirely different point if done in another way. But I agree it's a difficult subject. It seems to me the rightwing anti cancel culture brigade are as keen on cancelling as those lefty cancellers they like to criticise. They just want to cancel different things.

 

[Stevicus]

I don't particularly like Carr anyway but I do think that context is vitally important. The same words uttered in one way in one situation by one person may communicate an entirely different point if done in another way. But I agree it's a difficult subject. It seems to me the rightwing anti cancel culture brigade are as keen on cancelling as those lefty cancellers they like to criticise. They just want to cancel different things.

Humor has changed quite a bit over the past few decades. Going back to the 60s and 70s, a good example might be Blazing Saddles, which has humor which wouldn't be acceptable nowadays. The "n word" could be used on TV, but not "hell" or "damn."

So, the standards have changed.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Well at least there are still Genghis Kahn jokes.

 

[RestlessSoul]

Not sure when exactly Jimmy Carr crossed the line between edgy humour and unfunny obnoxious berk, but it seems to have been quite early on in his career. Besides, I saw him driving down Caledonian Road in a Rolls Royce once, and have yet to forgive him for that. If you're going to drive around London in a Roller Jimmy, stick to Chelsea mate.


That said, I'd probably go to one of his shows if someone offered me a free ticket.

 

[Mock Turtle]

It wasn't funny, just lame and old, and he is bright enough to know that, so why would he use it? To get a reaction? Well he can deal with it. I thought it rather stupid of him, and perhaps shows signs of him being bored. He can be very funny so why descend to this kind of humour?

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Humor has changed quite a bit over the past few decades. Going back to the 60s and 70s, a good example might be Blazing Saddles, which has humor which wouldn't be acceptable nowadays. The "n word" could be used on TV, but not "hell" or "damn."

So, the standards have changed.

A couple years ago I watched that in all its unedited glory of some TV station.

 

[Secret Chief]

Not sure when exactly Jimmy Carr crossed the line between edgy humour and unfunny obnoxious berk, but it seems to have been quite early on in his career. Besides, I saw him driving down Caledonian Road in a Rolls Royce once, and have yet to forgive him for that. If you're going to drive around London in a Roller Jimmy, stick to Chelsea mate.

One of the many benefits of tax avoidance.

 

[Kooky]

Well at least there are still Genghis Kahn jokes.

And why wouldn't there be? That song was utterly ridiculous!

 

[ADigitalArtist]

Relevant George Carlin interview about the difference between punching up vs punching down.

 

[RestlessSoul]

One of the many benefits of tax avoidance.

Ah, yeah, forgot about that. I find him even less funny now

 

[Secret Chief]

I'm offended by people starting threads on the same subject.

 

[David Young]

Plenty of comedians have made jokes about wishing harm on someone they don't like, or making light of someone who has harmed them.

Plenty of people dislike the collective behaviour of Gypsy travellers, and for justifiable reasons.

Put the two together and you have a dark, but run-of-the-mill, joke waiting to be told.

Add the right combination of delivery and context and it might even be funny.

This is hardly headline news.

 

[oldbadger]

What.....Carr?
As a kid he probably looked a bit strange as well, a target for the playground bullies. I'll bet that his quick quips got laughs and he avoided the troubles thus. In time he learned that he pick out weaker folks for laughs.....from there I reckon he developed on to the full blown scumbag.
He's clever, he can voice his nasty jests but with an innuendo that he can fall back on in any controversy, just like he can with this recent disgusting crack.
His jests are the exactness of victimising harassment, and if any here cannot see that travellers will be receiving Hollocaust cracks from morons after this, then be assured that they will. That in itself makes Carr a scumbag imo.

Other than he's probably a sweet little guy.