Jimmy Carr has broken his silence following a backlash over a “tasteless” Holocaust joke he made during his comedy special on Netflix.
Carr, 49, sparked controversy after he appeared to make light of the deaths of thousands of travellers at the hands of the Nazis during World War II.
The segment drew a furious response with critics branding it “truly disturbing” and “beyond tasteless”.
The 49-year-old comic appeared to address the criticism during his performance at the Whitley Bay Playhouse for his Terribly Funny Show on Saturday night.
The Mirror reports that he made a quip about being cancelled while on stage.
I said this every night during my Trolls: Not The Dolls tour as part of a bit arguing that it's not the subject matter of a joke that counts, it's the specifics of the individual joke. Clearly, Jimmy Carr's was the former. pic.twitter.com/xI4yWt9U0T
— David Baddiel (@Baddiel) February 5, 2022
He told the audience: “The joke that ends my career is already out there.”
At one point, a heckler yelled: “Are we going to talk about the Holocaust?”
Carr replied: “We are going to talk about cancel culture, the whole thing.”
He then predicted that he is “going to get cancelled” but added that he is “going down swinging”.
He said: “I am going to get cancelled, that’s the bad news. The good news is I am going down swinging.
“The joke that ends my career it’s already out there. It’s on YouTube, Netflix, or whatever, and it’s fine until one day it f***ing isn’t.”
David Baddiel is among several people to have condemned Carr for making the “racist” and “inhumane” joke.
Baddiel, 57, labelled his close friend’s quip as “mean-spirited” and “cruel”.
He wrote on Twitter: “You can obviously tell a Holocaust joke that is cruel and inhumane and mean-spirited and racist.
“Or you can tell one that targets the oppressors, or draws attention to the fundamental evil of it, or shines and light on the humanity of the victims.
“It’s not the subject matter of the joke that counts, it’s the specifics of the individual joke. Clearly, Jimmy Carr’s was the former.”
Ahead of the show, the 8 Out Of 10 Cats star had issued a “trigger warning” that his performance contained “terrible things”.
Mr Carr 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.”
Social media was awash with backlash saying the joke went “beyond humour” and his words even sparked a petition calling for the segment joking about the Holocaust to be removed.
Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries labelled the joke “abhorrent” as she heaped pressure on Netflix to remove the “appalling comments”.
Charity The Traveller Movement, who support the traveller community, said: “This is truly disturbing and goes way beyond humour.
“We need all your support in calling this out #StopTravellerHate @StopFundingHate.”
