When The Laughter Stops
It is early February 2022, and Nadia Whittome, Labour MP for Nottingham East, has called for Jimmy Carr’s comedy special, His Dark Material, to be removed from Netflix. Why? A ‘joke’ about the genocidal murder of Europe’s Roma and Sinti people during the Holocaust. The majority of people (on Twitter, representing a microcosm of polarised British thought) agree with her, calling the ‘joke’ “disgusting”, “abhorrent”, and “vile”. However, some describe Whittome’s call to action as “cancel culture”, describing her as a “Labour loon” and calling the group of MPs condemning the ‘joke’ as “cunts”.
Whittome has been joined by fellow MPs, including Labour MP for Coventry South, Zarah Sultana; Labour MP for Streatham, Bell Ribeiro-Addy; Labour MP for the City of Durham, Mary Kelly Foy; Labour MP for Poplar & Limehouse, Apsana Begum; Labour MP for Leicester East, Claudia Webb; Labour and Co-op MP for Leeds, Alex Sobel; Labour and Co-op MP for Manchester Central, Lucy Powell; Labour MP for Putney, Southfields and Roehampton, Fleur Anderson; Labour MP for Tottenham, David Lammy; and, it a shock to everyone on both sides of the political spectrum, Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire, Nadine Dorries.
[Edit: Since writing this article, the Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, and the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson have condemned Carr’s ‘joke’. While all condemnations of racism are welcomed, it would possibly help his moral standing in this matter if the Prime Minister would condemn the racist comments made by, uh oh, the Prime Minister.]
The ‘joke’, as detailed in Whittome’s letter to Netflix, goes as follows: “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. No one talks about that because no one ever wants to talk about the positives.”
The audience laughs and claps. People applauded that. Was it canned? In that case, why did post-production find it necessary to add a laugh track to the ‘joke’? Because it did go through post-production. As Sunny Singh points out, dozens are part of the production. The ‘joke’ passed inspection from his agent, manager, Netflix executives.
Not only was this ‘joke’ repulsive within the historical context — and we will get to the historical context — but it is also supremely disgusting within contemporary contexts. For example, in May 2021, the Conservative Party ran Facebook adverts pledging to remove Traveller camps ahead of local elections. One placed by Chris Nelson, who was then elected police and crime commissioner in Gloucestershire, said: “Too many Travellers have exploited weaknesses in the law to act with impunity within our law-abiding communities.” The advert noted that many established Traveller communities were law-abiding but clearly demonstrated the use of antiziganist hostility as a political tool to win points with constituents and scapegoat Travellers.
In December 2021, social workers wrote to Priti Patel, opposing her “inhumane Police Bill that discriminates against Romani and Traveller families”. Several organisations co-signed the letter, against the Bill, which would, directly and indirectly, criminalise Romani and Traveller communities’ way of life. This would be done by allowing the police to “unilaterally decide what … ‘proportionate’ [action is]”. The Police Bill has been described as the biggest threat to Gypsy, Traveller and Roma communities in a lifetime. (Source: BASW)
This is not solely a Conservative issue. In April, Charlotte Nichols, Labour MP for Warrington North, handed out election leaflets that contained a pledge to “deal with Traveller incursions”. The leaflet was destroyed, with Nichols releasing a statement that the leaflet did not reflect her “personal values or those of the Labour party”. (Source: The Guardian)
Furthermore, suicide amongst Travellers is currently 6x higher than the rest of population of the UK. This is the compounding of decades of abuse and system discrimination against Travellers, paired with the antiziganism of the general populous. Hate crimes are directly linked to attempted and completed suicides. (Source: The Guardian)
The Romani (or Romany) people are found across Europe, migrating there in the 12th century. The Sinti are a Romani people living in Central Europe, predominantly in Germany, having migrated there in the early 15th century. They are still subject to what has been termed ‘the most accepted form of racism in Europe’.
During the Porrajmos (also known as Pharrajimos, Samudaripen and the Holocaust), Romanies were murdered as a means of solving the “Gypsy Question”. In the extermination camps, the Sinti were forced to wear a black triangle (indicating ‘asocial’) or a brown triangle (for Sinti, Roma or Yenish). They were shot on sight, subject to forced labour, sterilised, gassed.
Five-hundred-thousand, half a million Roma and Sinti people were murdered in the Porrajmos. That was 75 per cent of the entire Roma and Sinti population of Europe. Three-quarters of a people: gone. And you think it is funny?
Is it surprising that this ‘joke’ wasn’t flagged for condemnation earlier? No. As Marc Willers QC states: “widespread prejudice and hate speech that Gypsies Travellers and Roma face here in the UK is an unwelcome fact of their daily lives; and to our collective shame has generally [been] known as the ‘last acceptable form of racism’.” Therefore, is it any surprise that Carr felt confident that that ‘joke’ would get a laugh? No.
In a gig at the Whitley Bay Playhouse on 6 February, Carr was asked: “Are we going to talk about the Holocaust?”
He replied: “We are going to talk about cancel culture, the whole thing.” (Source: Chronicle Live)
Of the two men that waited for autographs after, one admitted that he had only found out who Carr was earlier in the day. What does this suggest to me? Other than the fact that it now seems the backlash against Carr’s ‘joke’ has garnered him an audience of the anti-progressive brigade and openly bigoted, nothing.
Simplifying the backlash as ‘cancel culture’ is the current shorthand for dismissing criticism as ‘petty, snowflake, woke whining’. But, as many have recently found out, Carr has made a career out of telling controversial (see: racist, ableist, misogynistic) ‘jokes’. So, as he has said, the joke that ends his career is already out there.
If he has gotten away with making such jokes before, sans cancellation, perhaps the criticism is so overwhelming this time because the ‘joke’ is about a “positive” side-effect of mass genocide.
People who argue it’s “just free speech” won’t like what I have to say next. Yes, you, and Jimmy Carr, and other comedians who rely on shock value humour to get a laugh are free to do so. I am then perfectly at liberty to tell you, using my own freedom of speech, that you are an arsehole. MPs are also perfectly at liberty to call it hate speech, and ask for it to be removed. You can then exercise your freedom of speech to call it cancel culture and ‘the socialist mob’ and claim it’s about control. It is called freedom of speech, not freedom from consequence.
Some not-quite-supporters-but-certainly-not-detractors have suggested that Carr’s ‘joke’ could be used as a tool to silence free speech and the ability of comedians to make jokes. I do side-eye the intervention of Nadine Dorries in the matter, as her motivations are unclear to sinister on any day of the week. However, I don’t think it would be harmful to have Netflix adhere to regulatory standards for broadcasting, and welcome intervention by Labour MPs.
Supporters of Carr also claim that it is a theme of his material to take ‘jokes’ to offensive levels. That it is the shock value that is amusing. Is it, though? Comedy that makes fun of the marginalised, that punches down, is overdone, archaic and lazy. It isn’t brave or edgy or irreverent or dangerous. Has Carr ever taken it to offensive levels while punching up? No? Okay.
It is at times like these when I think of the opening of James Acaster’s comedy special Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999: “… Edgy comedians: no one tells them what they can and can’t say. They walk straight on stage, top of their specials sometimes, do ten solid minutes just slagging off transgender people. Just straight out the gate, just making fun of transgender people. If people on the internet get upset about it, the comedian’s always like: ‘Bad luck, that’s my job, I’m a stand-up comedian, I’m meant to challenge people. If you don’t like being challenged, don’t watch my shows. What’s the matter, guys? Too challenging for ya?’ … Oh yeah, ’cause you know who’s been long overdue a challenge: the trans community. Oh, they’ve had their guard down for too if you ask me …”. Now replace Trans with Traveller, and you’ve got the Twitter diatribe defending Jimmy Carr.
Steve Brookstein made a tweet in which he brought up the lack of media coverage of Carr’s ‘joke’. Several replies exemplified the attitude that pervades British culture and leads 44% of people to openly express negative attitudes towards Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. One Twitter user replied: “It’s a funny joke though.” Going on to tweet, “I think jokes about Jews being right or Irish ppl being thick or gypsies ripping ppl off can be funny. Do I actually believe Jews/Irish/gypsies are all like this? Of course not.” But that’s not what Carr’s ‘joke’ was about, was it? Carr’s ‘joke’ was that the genocide of the Roma and Sinti people was a “positive” side-effect of the Holocaust.
Another user replied: “They’re [Travellers] too bust nicking copper piping and dumping household waste to worry about it.” This is both a common stereotype used to discriminate against Traveller people and a side-effect of institutionally antiziganist discrimination.
It is a stereotype because it is a gross exaggeration to claim that all Travellers are thieves. A side-effect because from birth Travellers are disadvantaged: less likely to reach markers of early development compared to their White British peers; particularly vulnerable to bullying in schools; face employment discrimination; more likely to suffer bad health; “considerably over-represented in prison”. Crime for cash occurs when there are no opportunities, no support, and widespread discrimination.
This is not just a one-time thing for Carr; making a ‘joke’ at the expense of Traveller people. In 2006, on BBC Radio 4’s Loose Ends, he said: “The male gypsy moth can smell the female gypsy moth up to seven miles away — and that fact also works if you remove the word ‘moth’.” Before I get the ‘it was another time crowd’, it should be noted that the BBC issued an apology and an inquiry at the time.
To those suggesting that Carr was attempting to ‘educate’ his audience on the genocide perpetrated against the Roma and Sinti as part of his routine, including Carr himself, I say bullshit.
Comedian and friend of Carr, Victoria Coren Mitchell, came to his defence, calling him a “man … full of goodness and kindness.” As many have already pointed out, people can be good and kind when amongst people they consider their peers and equals. However, it is their behaviour towards people and they and the state view as inferior that reveals their true nature.
Not only was he defended by those within mainstream media, but also by the Far-Right ‘News Network’ Breitbart. The YouTuber and former UKIP candidate Mark Meechan, said: “I … found Jimmy Carr’s joke funny …”. I find it necessary to point out at this moment that in 2018, Meechan was found guilty of committing a hate crime and fined £800. This followed his upload video of the pug he had trained to Nazi salute in response to the “Sieg Heil” command. Something he also found funny.
Words that, perhaps, could also apply to Carr.
Tell me your company, and I’ll tell you who you are.
Tell me that if I don’t like the content, I shouldn’t watch his comedy: I don’t. He doesn’t interest me. However, when there is an increasingly vocal group of people laughing with him, defending him, supporting him, using stereotypes to justify him, punching down with him, I will use my freedom of speech to disavow them.
I am not interested in dehumanising Travellers, Romani and Sinti people. I am not interested in tolerating intolerance. I am not interested in allowing racists and bigots to be emboldened.
Jimmy Carr made was an ignorant ‘joke’ to an ignorant audience, revealing himself at best an ignorant man. You cannot know the inhumanity of the Holocaust, the Porrajmos, and find it funny. You cannot look at the photographs and read the accounts and know their names were never recorded because no one cared to and find it funny. How can you look at the faces of the dead without weeping? How can you call this “positive”?
People were murdered, and you make a ‘joke’ at their expense? You are not a comedian. You are the joke.
Note from the Editor: In the strongest possible terms, we at Pandora Magazine condemn the ‘jokes’ made by Jimmy Carr, and those who support him. We recommend the following links to these organisations and charities to see the good they do and how you can support it.
So far, the ‘joke’ has been condemned by the groups and organisations: The Traveller Movement; the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust; The National Holocaust Centre and Museum; the Anne Frank Trust; the Holocaust Educational Trust; The Wiener Holocaust Library; the Roma Support Group; the Irish community in Britain; Stop Funding Hate; Tell MAMA UK; Protection Approaches; and Friends, Families & Travellers. And by countless individuals.
There is no room for antiziganist racism and misinformation here.
We would also like to note that the number (500,000) used in this article as the number of Roma and Sinti killed is, as John Henry Phillips of Romani Community Archaeology CIC, says, a “low estimate. Some scholars put it as high as 2 million.”
The Traveller Movement has started a petition to Netflix asking to remove the comedy special. Find the link here:
Find the link for the template letter against the Police Bill here:
Niall Breslin, ‘Where Is My Mind?’ Podcast: #92 Equality Is The Best Form Of Therapy — With Thomas McCann & Mags Casey:
All photos can be found in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s various collections.
