Victoria Coren Mitchell has defended Jimmy Carr after the comic faced a huge backlash over a joke he made about the Traveller community and the Holocaust in his Netflix special, His Dark Material.
In a widely-shared clip from the hour-long show, Carr joked about the horror of the Holocaust and “six million Jewish lives being lost” before making a disparaging remark about the deaths of thousands of Travellers at the hands of the Nazis as a punchline.
Carr has received widespread criticism over the remarks, with calls for Netflix to remove the joke and sparking petitions calling on him to apologise.
On Saturday evening, Only Connect host Victoria took to Twitter to defend her “close friend”, saying Carr was “a properly decent person”.
“While I’m here, might take a moment to mention I also love @JimmyCarr, a close friend who’s made about a thousand jokes I wouldn’t make myself, as a stage performer, but as a man is full of goodness and kindness,” she said.
When one unimpressed follower asked: “Do you think you would be similarly quick to defend him if he’d made a joke defending the murder of Jews in the Holocaust?”, Victoria responded: “Yes. It’s not about the joke.”
Others pointed the presenter towards comedian David Baddiel’s response to Carr’s comments.
The comedian had pointed out the difference between cruel jokes about the Holocaust and ones that target the oppressors.
“I said this every night during my Trolls: Not The Dolls tour as part of a bit arguing that it’s not the subject matter of a joke that counts, it’s the specifics of the individual joke. Clearly, Jimmy Carr’s was the former,” he said.
David added: “As a footnote, I’d add that Jimmy is a close friend of mine and a brilliant stand-up in general. Makes no difference to how I feel or think about this specific joke.”
Meanwhile, Judge Rinder star Robert Rinder labelled Carr and the audience at his Netflix special who “clapped, whooped and cheered” over the joke, “complete incorrigible turds”.
Robert, who is the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, made his feelings clear during a panel discussion about the hour-long special on Talk Radio
In a follow-up tweet posted on Saturday, Robert said the comedian’s comment was “breathtakingly racist” and reiterated his dismay at the audience’s reaction.
Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has also condemned the remarks, suggesting that new laws would hold to account streaming sites from airing jokes.
“Jimmy Carr’s comments, no one can call that, you know, snowflake or wokeishness, that’s just… it was just appalling,” Dorries said during an interview on BBC Breakfast.
Nadia Whittome, Labour MP for Nottingham East, has also urged Netflix to remove Carr’s “vile anti-GRT and antisemitic material”.
HuffPost UK has contacted Carr’s reps for comment.