Jimmy Carr has been condemned by anti-hate groups including the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust for an ‘appalling’ joke.
The 49-year-old comedian’s Netflix special His Dark Material dropped to the streaming service in December but recently drew ire after a clip from the show was shared online by Facebook user Alfie Best.
In the joke, Jimmy makes light of the ‘thousands of Gypsies that were killed by the Nazis’, jokingly referring to the deaths as being “the positives” of the devastating Holocaust.
Jimmy said: “When people talk about the Holocaust, they talk about the tragedy and horror of 6 million Jewish lives being lost to the Nazi war machine.
“But they never mention the thousands of Gypsies that were killed by the Nazis.
(Image: Stellify Media)
“No one ever wants to talk about that, because no one ever wants to talk about the positives.”
His words have since been condemned by the Auschwitz Memorial, Hope Not Hate and the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.
In a statement on Friday, its chief executive Olivia Marks-Woldman, said: “We are absolutely appalled at Jimmy Carr’s comment about persecution suffered by Roma and Sinti people under Nazi oppression, and horrified that gales of laughter followed his remarks.
(Image: GC Images)
“Hundreds of thousands of Roma and Sinti people suffered prejudice, slave labour, sterilisation and mass murder simply because of their identity – these are not experiences for mockery.”
Jimmy rounded out his joke in the special by claiming it had “educational quality”.
He added: “It’s a joke about the worst thing that’s ever happened in human history, and people say ‘never forget’, well this is how I remember.
(Image: Channel 4)
“There is an educational quality.
“Like everyone in the room knows 6 million Jewish people lost their lives to the Nazis during the second world war but a lot of people don’t know, because it’s not really taught in our schools that the Nazis also killed in their thousands, Gypsies, homosexuals, disabled people and Jehovah’s Witnesses.”
Jimmy or Netflix has yet to publicly comment on the criticism of his joke.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
