Not seen this new live show as I don't find him that funny enough to bother, but I have seen previois ones when he first emerged and if it is like that he normally pre warms that he is gonna tell a set of jokes that will make people disgusted, tells them then gives a nuanced reason as to what and why.
He apparently made several rape jokes during this course too but seems to be not headline worthy to be brought up.
The joke was meant to cause offence and has.
Is he a dick? yes,
does he mean what he said in his joke? I very much doubt it.
Is that an excuse? Not really if you are making a live show to be broadcast globally you know such a joke will be condemmed, so any flak he gets he deserves.
On the crowd cheering, two things I would say, some of the audience will be along for the ride and many will laugh, whoop, cheer at every gag told during the set unthinking, secondly there is an uncouscious and conscious bigotary still in the UK, maybe not towards the romani and sinti, but to Irish travellers and some will not even register the distinction in the joke refering to gypsies from those still refered to as gypos or tinkers when they camp up locally.
Apologies if the word gypos amd tinkers offends anyone.
I agree with all of that.
It wasn't really about that as such, it was about the joke itself. I can't work out what's funny or supposed to be funny about it, and asked someone that said they could, to help me out. Purely as a joke, putting aside who said it or who it was said about.
On the rest of it however, since we are expanding the discussion, agree on both Jimmy Carr and crowds btw.
I don't dislike him in the slightest. Yeah he comes across a bit of a dick, so what. In part, an act, in part possibly hiding behind the act.
Some things he says I will happily laugh at, he does have some genuinely funny stuff. Overall though, just not enough for me to feel I want to watch entire shows of his (and yes I have seen him live before, and seen full recorded sets too in the past). And not at all because it is 'crass/offensive', but because I just find it a bit, meh.
Re crowds, It is interesting how that dynamic can totally change a joke. I remember being at a small Jim Jeffries gig, very early on when he was unheard of (to me too, didn't know anything about him, paid cheap to go see a random guy at a comedy night). Some of the stuff he was saying, proper wince. On paper, 'wtf'.
But on that night though, the way he said it and more importantly the way the crowd reacted to it, nobody took it seriously, and it didn't feel 'meant' or particularly provocative. I have since admittedly struggled with some if his stuff, even though he has evolved a bit more of a clever angle, while I find a lot of the rest if it funny, a few bits I find a bit forced and as such off-putting.
Similarly, been to a Jerry Sadowitz show years ago, where he said jokes that were by all means offensive, but had just enough of that fine line of satire to provoke a bit of thought. That bit of hidden 'is he being racist/a biggot here, or actually making fun of racism/biggorty, and as such, the racists and the biggots by extension. But bloody hell the reaction of certain sections of the crowd fucked that dilemma right up. It made me feel actually quite uncomfortable. Far more than the jokes themselves. Eventhough, arguably those cheering and whooping ironically were potentially the butt of the joke, it just had a bit of a 'heck society is a bit fucked isn't it' feeling.
Using those two as examples, but a fair few more. I've seen 'clean' comedians leave far more offensive aftertastes in given contexts, than your typical close to the bone frankie boyle types, just based on purely engagement and reaction of a crowd.
