Comedy and offense

[Factotum]

I watched that special a month or so ago as I hadn't seen Carr in a while and he prefaces that he's about to tell jokes that are offensive. He does what he does, its not new what he jokes about.

He's that type of comedian.. Is it funny? Not my type of humour, but I don't know if you can call it hate speech. I suppose depends on whether we view those type of comedians as now outdated. If its aimed at all is it specific harassment? More intelligent people than me will be able to put that in a better way and discuss it.

[Chris B]

5 minutes ago, Factotum said:

I watched that special a month or so ago as I hadn't seen Carr in a while and he prefaces that he's about to tell jokes that are offensive. He does what he does, its not new what he jokes about.

He's that type of comedian.. Is it funny? Not my type of humour, but I don't know if you can call it hate speech. I suppose depends on whether we view those type of comedians as now outdated. If its aimed at all is it specific harassment? More intelligent people than me will be able to put that in a better way and discuss it.

"Thousands of gay people died in the holocaust. Good."

Still okay?

[Tommy!]

3 minutes ago, Chris B said:

"Thousands of gay people died in the holocaust. Good."

Still okay?

That's not even trying to structure a joke though, more relevant in this is on the intended basis of humour in the joke and where people at his gig get humour from the joke. Is it the subversion of social expectation in the leading statement and would it still function with any other non Jewish persecuted group placed in the punchline or is it just laughing at gypsy's? 

I'm not a fan of Carr myself but I could easily believe both to be honest. 

[Keith Houchen]

That going to be awkward when he next sees noted anti racism campaigner Rachel Riley. Doubt she will want to work with him again. 

[Factotum]

5 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

That going to be awkward when he next sees noted anti racism campaigner Rachel Riley. Doubt she will want to work with him again. 

Let's hope she's got her T-shirt printer in storage.

[Devon Malcolm]

Whitehall and Bishop and McIntyre rightly get pelters for being terrible comedians but how has Jimmy Carr escaped such hatred for so long? He's an absolutely terrible comedian. At least with those three you could at least see some comedy timing in them and the ability to pick out an opportunity to get in a joke. Whenever I've been subjected to 8 Out of 10 Cats, I can't honestly recall him ever ad-libbing a decent joke and he rarely even attempts to. He's fucking shit and I hate him and his Daphne from Neighbours laugh. Racist cunt.

[Keith Houchen]

11 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Whitehall and Bishop and McIntyre rightly get pelters for being terrible comedians but how has Jimmy Carr escaped such hatred for so long? He's an absolutely terrible comedian. At least with those three you could at least see some comedy timing in them and the ability to pick out an opportunity to get in a joke. 

Because he swears and punches down, the kind of shit comedy that loads on this plague island lap up like the servile dogs they are. 
 

Bet Gervais is gutted he didn’t make the joke. 

[Chest Rockwell]

1 hour ago, Tommy! said:

That's not even trying to structure a joke though, more relevant in this is on the intended basis of humour in the joke and where people at his gig get humour from the joke. Is it the subversion of social expectation in the leading statement and would it still function with any other non Jewish persecuted group placed in the punchline or is it just laughing at gypsy's? 

I'm not a fan of Carr myself but I could easily believe both to be honest. 

I watched the actual clip of his bit. The joke would definitely work exactly the same if you substituted any other minority group also persecuted by the Nazis. However he probably workshopped it and found that 'gypsies' got the biggest laugh. So really you should blame the British public. What a bunch of cunts. Unlike our Jimmy.

 

Edit: and to answer Devon's question the reason he escapes it is because he's far more popular for his hosting than hours actual stand-up. And when he's hosting he is always surrounded by other people who are funny so people associate him with laughing and somehow this illusory veil is never parted.

Edited February 4, 2022 by Chest Rockwell

[Tommy!]

27 minutes ago, Chest Rockwell said:

However he probably workshopped it and found that 'gypsies' got the biggest laugh. So really you should blame the British public. What a bunch of cunts. Unlike our Jimmy.

I'd say both sides are cunts, it's not an either or. 

As an addition I watched the bit earlier as someone posted it on twitter, and it's amazing to see he hasn't seemingly evolved or developed in any way since his first dvd in what 2003.

 

Edited February 4, 2022 by Tommy!

[Chili]

Honestly, I'd have stuck to the tax evasion. 

[Keith Houchen]

Blackface Baddiel has commented, citing his own book as he seems to do at every turn like some blue tick Pavlovian reaction.  In short, it’s a shit joke and he’s my mate so no further condemnation needed.

 

[dopper]

On 2/4/2022 at 5:44 PM, Devon Malcolm said:

Whitehall and Bishop and McIntyre rightly get pelters for being terrible comedians but how has Jimmy Carr escaped such hatred for so long? He's an absolutely terrible comedian. At least with those three you could at least see some comedy timing in them and the ability to pick out an opportunity to get in a joke. Whenever I've been subjected to 8 Out of 10 Cats, I can't honestly recall him ever ad-libbing a decent joke and he rarely even attempts to. He's fucking shit and I hate him and his Daphne from Neighbours laugh. Racist cunt.

This post is a disgrace, you couldn’t be more wrong.

 

Melanie had the silly laugh, not Daphne.

[Devon Malcolm]

34 minutes ago, dopper said:

This post is a disgrace, you couldn’t be more wrong.

 

Melanie had the silly laugh, not Daphne.

You're right, I always get them mixed up.

Also, presented without comment.

 

[Loki]

I watched the whole show last night to see what the fuss was about.

I don't think you can really say that he singles out Romani for abuse in this set, as the entire thing is two-footed attacks on almost every segment of society.  It's been a long time since I watched one of his specials but there used to be more subtlety about his act than this.

I do think Carr's word play is excellent and some of his jokes ARE funny in the grand tradition of the reverse-expectation one-liner.  But he also seems to be leaning a lot more heavily nowadays on the men's working club humour of the pre-80s era.  Lots of jokes about mothers, girlfriends, catholic priests, minorities, teh gays etc.  The bits I found most awkward were the rape and paedophile jokes, which he seems to particularly like.

The audience loves it, and they particularly like it when he goes after them personally for being fat, female, gay or whatever.  So it's hard to say that he's not funny or that the jokes don't work, because it's a performance art after all.

----

I thought a LOT of this material was potentially offensive if you were on the receiving end of it, so I probably won't watch any more of his shows as I felt uncomfortable even though none of it, really, was aimed at me.  But it's Jimmy Carr, on a show called "His Dark Materials" in a segment at the end called "career enders".  If you're still watching by that point you can't REALLY be surprised about it.  I think he adroitly understands that racism against Romany is the last mainstream acceptable racism in the UK, and in that regard perhaps he holds a worthwhile mirror to the rest of us.  I dunno.  I guess the marketplace of outrage will decide whether he's to be cancelled or forgiven.   I suspect he doesn't ACTUALLY think it was good that gypsies were murdered, and perhaps that's the distinction that will save him.

 

 

Edited February 6, 2022 by Loki

[SuperBacon]

23 minutes ago, Loki said:

 I think he adroitly understands that racism against Romany is the last mainstream acceptable racism in the UK, and in that regard perhaps he holds a worthwhile mirror to the rest of us.

What?