Quote: catskillz @ October 25 2009, 11:05 PM BSTSeriously, where did you find that photo? I think I recognise that bloke. He's an artist.
That's what they all say... 
Too Far, Jimmy Carr? Page 5
Quote: LIME5000 @ October 25 2009, 11:12 PM BSTThat's what they all say...
I haven't got a clue why he's dressed like that (especially the socks!), but he's an artist who's known for customising denim jackets. You can see one of them on the wall behind him.
Quote: LIME5000 @ October 25 2009, 6:19 PM BSTWHat "Skinner." the one eyed Leftie from Centre 70?
Yeah !
Save me having to piss twice !
In answer to the original question I'd say too far as well. And I'd consider myself a fan of his generally.
Would he have made the joke if some of the servicemen he'd met who'd lost limbs were in the front row? I doubt it. For me it's a joke you can make if you've been there. Most of us will thankfully never have a clue what some of these people have gone through. To say it raises awareness is a cop out.
Not intentionally malicious but hardly empathetic.
I'm still standing by my apparently minority view that comedy doesn't have to be so cruel!
Jx
And I agree with whoever said about the papers loving to stir it up whilst appearing to 'care'.
Quote: The Rook @ October 25 2009, 11:11 PM BSTNeither, it's an analogy. Only, I said simile because I, for a moment, forgot how to spell 'analogy' so I said simile instead.
No, it's a metaphor.
And I took no offence at Jimmy Carr's joke, but can see that families of soldiers killed in action would have found it upsetting. Provided he didn't make the joke before a gathering of families of dead soldiers, surely no offence intended.
Quote: sootyj @ October 25 2009, 5:28 PM BSTJoke isn't neccasairly poking fun at victims. But it is also drawing attention to an important story.
I agree. The really offensive thing is that the troops are getting these injuries.
Perhaps Carr should lauded for doing such risky material, or lambasted for poor taste, I don't know, but I do know it's a question which usually gets answered through using a media witch hunt.
Having said all this, I was uncomfortable seeing Russell Howard doing a gag about how the T rex died out because it couldn't use it's little arms to feed itself. It made me wonder how all the people affected by Thalidomide might feel; but really, for all I know, they might have found it especially funny.
I've done plenty of gigs for squaddies and other service personnel and I can say that if Jimmy Carr did that joke at a military gig they would p*ss themselves laughing (and indeed Jimmy Carr has visited injured troops in hospital and I wouldn't be surprised if he;d told the joke to service personnel, possibly even amputees).
Military personnel have very robust senses of humour, it's a defence mechanism for dealing with the things that they have to deal with on a day-to-day basis.
Another very good one-liner comic called Gary Delaney has done a load of army/navy gigs with me and he has done similarly dark/slightly tasteless jokes which have gone down a storm and with no complaints just cheering and applause.
The fact is that these things ARE happening, making jokes about them is much better than sweeping them under the carpet IMHO and from my experience service men and women would rather we, as comics (and writers), tackled these subjects rather than treat them with kid gloves and skirt around the issues.
One of the people who's kicked up a fuss about this is the Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, someone who voted for the war in Iraq, a decision which has lead to soldiers getting blown up, surely something that should be troubling his conscience much more than someone telling jokes.
(He's also the MP who a while back said it was perfectly alright for military personnel to call someone a "black b*****d" so I'm not sure he's the ideal guardian for moral values).
Well said, Tony.
Context, who is telling the joke and why are often as important as content. This does sound a bit like squaddie humour and I doubt it would batter an eyelid if it was a line of dialogue from Generation Kill or MASH for example.
Likewise if it was told by a comedian with a more serious political background, such as Rob Newman or Mark Thomas, who framed it in terms of "Don't say Tony Blair didn't do anything to help the ParaOlympic Team," would it have caused so much controversy as it has being told by a glib quickfire gagmeister like Carr?
What I don't understand is why this has come to prominence now when Carr has been doing this joke for quite some time?
Slow news day or the Government trying to shift blame about why troops are getting injured (and is the timing of this, in the run up to Remembrance Sunday, a bit fishy) and becoming amputees (poorly and ill-equipped troops being asked to do a job without being fully supported by a penny pinching Government who'd rather spend £80 Billion on nukes we'll never use but not a fraction of that on armoured vehicles, helicopters and body armour which would actually save soldiers lives and limbs)?
Quote: Tony Cowards @ October 26 2009, 12:17 PM BSTSlow news day or the Government trying to shift blame about why troops are getting injured (and is the timing of this, in the run up to Remembrance Sunday, a bit fishy) and becoming amputees (poorly and ill-equipped troops being asked to do a job without being fully supported by a penny pinching Government who'd rather spend £80 Billion on nukes we'll never use but not a fraction of that on armoured vehicles, helicopters and body armour which would actually save soldiers lives and limbs)?
I wonder if the allegedly appalled Defence Secretary knew Jimmy Carr from his Malcolm Tucker zeitgeist tape ("you've got 24 hours to come up with a policy on Jimmy Carr!").
The even more pro-war Neo-Con opposition can also blame the joke on the government as there would be no amputees to make jokes about if they had the right equipment.
Got to agree with you Tim on this one.
I do a couple of Comedy based theatre workshops each week with young teenagers.
The majority of the students seem to suffer from the same desire to resort to shock tactics whenever delivering their own material whether it be jokes about dying of AIDS, Gassing Jews or Paedophile jokes.
I know this is a phase that teenagers are bound to go through but I personally like to challenge their immature ideas of whats funny. Quite often they take a step back when challenged and admit that even they don't really find it funny themselves.
Giving a little direction around these subjects we can find humour in the darkest and most awful scenarios.
Take Bill Hicks or Chris Morris for example, they attack the media and politics to great effect using some of the most taboo subjects of all.
However I personally thought Jimmy Carrs joke was pretty poor in construction and the only 'joke' in it was that people have lost limbs in a controversial war.. whats funny in that ?
Footnote : I remember reading a VIZ joke that was in the readers letters section : I was at the remeberance day parade on Sunday and was shocked that we ever won the war in the first place. Half of our brave soldiers were in wheelchairs and well into their eighties. - Now that was funny (in my opinion)
Quote: Dkmj @ October 26 2009, 12:47 PM BSTHowever I personally thought Jimmy Carrs joke was pretty poor in construction and the only 'joke' in it was that people have lost limbs in a controversial war.. whats funny in that ?
The joke was that he was finding a silver lining in a terrible situation.
A silver lining for who?
Quote: Marc P @ October 26 2009, 12:59 PM BSTA silver lining for who?
The amputees, the British paralympic team, and Britain in general.