Brickbat: Now, That's Going Too Far

British Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said the government is preparing legislation that would limit streaming services from showing comedy that some people might find offensive. Her remarks came after some people expressed outrage about comedian Jimmy Carr's latest special for Netflix. In one bit, Carr said that when people talk about the Holocaust they talk about the horror of the 6 million Jewish lives taken by the Nazis but not the thousands of gypsies who were killed. "No one ever wants to talk about that," he joked. "Because no one ever wants to talk about the positives." Dorries had earlier claimed that "left-wing snowflakes are killing comedy." Asked about that remark, Dorries said Carr's joke was "not comedy."

Comments

[Adans smith]

I guess Don Rickles videos are out then.

[m4019597]

Carr told a very very bad joke, but I can’t see removing him.

As with most attempts to censor, this will end badly.

[Social Justice is neither]

Except it's not a bad joke because it is funny. It is in poor taste, sure, but given the ongoing actions of the GRT it also ties into something true about people's attitude towards them.

[Ajsloss]

Makes me think of a shirt I saw with Stalin's face on it. The shirt read, "dark humor is like food... not everybody gets it."

[mad.casual]

Dark humor is only funny when Dave Chappelle does it.

[perlhaqr]

He should have specified that by "left-wing snowflakes" he actually meant "humorless cunts who should be used for paving material".

[Agammamon]

This is just 'to be sure' in disguise.

[Rubbish!]

It's funny if you've ever been accosted by a band of gypsies

[American Mongrel]

++ Or had them stay at the hotel you were working at.

[mad.casual]

The problem with kleptomaniacs is that they're always taking things literally.

[Moonrocks]

To fight the fascists, we must become the fascists.

[Moonrocks]

Or is it "if you can't beat them, join them"?

[mad.casual]

Or maybe it was just a thin veneer. After all, the difference between fasciaists and fascists is a

[Seamus]

That's not funny; that's sick!

[Longtobefree]

How about we pass a law that everyone HAS to watch the current crop of what is referred to as comics? If everyone has to be offended, then it will be equitable and fair and just fine.

[mad.casual]

A sketchy solution, at best.

[Crackers Boy]

I watched that Jimmy Carr performance and laughed at the gypsy joke. But I've come to expect that kind of humor from him. He's really funny doing standup and hosting CountDown.

CB

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

Maybe the joke is offensive, maybe not. But a joke written out in a paper with out the full context of the night makes is utterly worthless. Standup comedy is just as much about the performance then the joke. Steven Wright doing Kat Williams' routine probably wouldn't work (and vis versa), while both have made me bust out laughing.

Having seen some of Jimmy Carr's work before I'm guessing it was funny.

[mad.casual]

But a joke written out in a paper with out the full context of the night makes is utterly worthless.

This statement feels like a pair of left-handed gloves. On the one hand, it's perfect. On the other, it's just not right.

[Don't look at me!]

The best comedy is government approved comedy.

[Brandybuck]

Great Britain has a government owned and operated media. It's called the BBC. Your choice of station, but they're all the BBC. Wholly financed by the government through taxes, including mandatory television tax.

One would thus expect extremely censorious British media that broadcasts only what the government want's broadcast.

And it may indeed be heading that way.

But miracle of miracles, there was a fifty year period where the BBC had a mostly laissez faire attitude towards television. The most buttoned up and repressed society in the west had some of the most outrageous comedy. And hard hitting shows. And questioning of the government itself. Stuff like Monty Python (poking fun at culture and mores), Yes Minister (poking fun at government), Secret Agent (outright criticizing government policy), etc.

Part of this may be do to the lack of advertising, so no external forces dictating programming. Part of it may have been the lack of a budget, so no kowtowing for funds to make the big expensive shows. And part of it may have been a certain period of post-war culture that prized liberal values. But whatever it was the key, it's gone now. we never had it in the states and never will. And England will never have it again. And the culture seems determined to stamp it out online.

Can we get it back online? Dunno. The cancel culture mindset is strongest there. And everyone wants the giant budget shows that only the biggest and most stodgy companies can finance, who are the least likely to stand up to cancel culture.

[Agammamon]

You have a massive misunderstanding of the history of British tv and the BBC in particular.

[mad.casual]

Also seems to have a distinct misunderstanding that Netflix isn't owned by the BBC, isn't a British company, and that the specific incidence of cancel culture isn't coming from Americans.

Almost like he gives zero shits about any/all facts and just wants to pretend that a British comedian making a joke about a European holocaust on an international platform and getting requests to be cancelled by the British government is, somehow, Americas' fault.

[Jefferson's Ghost]

This is a terrible, cruel, malicious joke. My wife, whose grandmother was Romani, also finds it such. She also finds it hilarious, as do I.

To steal a phrase popular around here: Fuck Nadine Dorries.

[Dillinger]

hilarious. what happens when they get to Benny Hill?

[Agammamon]

Benny got canceled because people only remember the moderately risque but extremely repetitive later years and not the brilliance of the early seasons.

[mad.casual]

Are you saying, at this point, there are no bennyfits to dying on that Hill?

[Chumby]

Carr is hilarious. If one has thin skin, maybe try SNL or Bazooka Joe.

[mad.casual]

Of all the threads that needed carpet-bombing with puns without regard for the cost of civilian lives...

Where are you, Chumby? Switzerland?

[Chumby]

Puns at a time like this would be putting the carrt before the horse.

[mad.casual]

All I can say is, thank God my Romani and Jewish ancestors aren't alive to see the Holocaust turned into a joke.

[mad.casual]

Ugh, I can't believe it took me this long:

Now, That's Going Too Far Carr telling racist joke backfires.

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

Holocaust = Always too soon.

[Chumby]

Using it in a joke will result in being showered with criticism.

[mad.casual]

*The* Holocaust? maybe. *A* Holocaust? There have to been at least a couple that were long overdue.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Asked about that remark, Dorries said Carr's joke was "not comedy."

Phew. Hypocrisy averted.

[markm23]

Dorries could just not watch Carr. But she's a fascist, so she has to try to keep others from watching him.