Jimmy Carr has come under fire over a “disturbing” joke about the Holocaust in his Netflix special.
Ahead of the His Dark Material show, which joined the streaming giant on Christmas Day, the comedian issued a “trigger warning” as he said his performance contained “terrible things”.
During the show, the 49-year-old said: “When people talk about the Holocaust they talk about the tragedy of six million lives being lost to the Nazi war machine, but they never mention the thousands of gypsies killed by the Nazis, because no one wants to talk about the positives.”
The joke was branded “truly disturbing” and “beyond tasteless”, with others saying it went “beyond humour”.
Traveller and Roma rights group Pavee Point called on Netflix to remove the special from their platform, calling it “abhorrent”.
They said in a statement: “Pavee Point decries racist and hateful material by Jimmy Carr. We call on Netflix to remove this abhorrent material. A week after Holocaust Memorial Day, we need to stand up to hate speech and promote equality for Travellers and Roma.”
@PaveePoint decries racist and hateful material by @jimmycarr We call on @netflix to remove this abhorrent material. A week after #HMD we need to stand up to #hatespeech and promote equality for #Travellers and #Roma #stoptravellerhate #LoveNotHate https://t.co/A7PlGXqdid
— Pavee Point (@PaveePoint) February 5, 2022
UK group The Traveller Movement said: “This is truly disturbing and goes way beyond humour. We need all your support in calling this out.”
The charity also started a petition calling for the “removal of the segments of His Dark Material which celebrates the Romani genocide”.
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, added on Twitter: “These comments from Jimmy Carr are beyond tasteless. The targeting of Roma and Sinti during the Holocaust is no laughing matter. Deeply offensive. I also don’t understand how this was aired @netflix.”
This is truly disturbing and goes way beyond humor. We need all your support in calling this out. #StopTravellerHate @StopFundingHate
@jimmycarr 'No one ever wants to talk about the thousands of Gypsies killed by the nazis, because no one wants to talk about the positives' https://t.co/yZa0YbXigj
— The Traveller Movement (@GypsyTravellerM) February 4, 2022
Hope Not Hate, the anti-fascism and anti-racism campaigning group, wrote: “Comedy is an amazing tool for progressive change and it’s such a shame that @jimmycarr decided to use his platform to celebrate the murder of one of the most marginalised groups in society.”
The Auschwitz Memorial added: “It’s sad to hear words that can fuel prejudice, hurt people & defile memory of their tragedy.”
Charity Friends, Families, Travellers said murder is “no laughing matter”.
