I'm not a Carr fan and didn't watch his show or hear the joke but I did read this and thought the context in which he made the 'joke' was valid and that his 'joke' taken in isolation and judged is probably not the correct way of viewing it. -
So, can a comedian deliberately end their career with an offensive joke? That's almost the starting point for Jimmy Carr in His Dark Material.
He begins with a trigger warning, telling the audience "tonight's show contains jokes about terrible things", explaining that "these are just jokes,
not the terrible things".
Carr continues an hour-long routine that riffs on, amongst other controversial topics, paedophiles, ugly women, rape, disability and veganism. All vintage Carr. While his fans adore his near-the-knuckle humour, others would find many of these jokes offensive.
Five minutes before the end of the show, he turns to a subject he says "should be a career ender". Carr then proceeds to tell the joke which has now been widely reported and condemned.
The show has been widely streamed on Netflix since Christmas Day.
But it was only when a clip was shared on social media recently that the storm erupted.Some believe that Carr has crossed a line, as he's picked on a community that is too often marginalised. They argue that those words, as a standalone, feel brutal, discriminatory, unfunny and indefensible.
But is there a difference when the words are taken as part of an hour-long set in which Carr specifically makes clear, from the outset, that he's going to be offensive and then frames the joke within the context of "career enders"?
After telling the joke, Carr explains why he thinks it is valid. He claims it's "funny" and "edgy" because it's about "the worst thing that's ever happened in human history" which we should "never forget".
He also says there is an "educational quality" to raising it, as people know the Nazis murdered Jews, but they don't know, claims Carr, they also killed gypsies and other groups.
Full article here -
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60292675