British-Irish Comedian Jimmy Carr Slammed For Disgusting Holocaust Joke About Roma People, Lands Netflix In More Hot Water

Wherever you stand on the purpose of comedy, you're likely to agree with us - and most people - that British-Irish comedian Jimmy Carr's recent "joke" about the "positives" of the Holocaust goes way, way, WAY beyond the pale.

What's worse, this isn't something the comedian haplessly said on Twitter or in a random stand-up routine - somehow, these comments made it onto Netflix.

The comment came from his Netflix special His Dark Material - and surely, he knew it would be heavily controversial, because he opened it with "Strap in everyone, you ready?"

"When people talk about the Holocaust, they talk about the tragedy and horror of six 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 ever talks about that because no one wants to talk about the positives."

This disgusting comment is the proliferation of a type of racism that has been widespread across the globe for literal centuries. "Gypsies" - most of whom prefer to be referred to as Travellers, or Roma - have been marginilized across cultures, constantly pushed from their homes by intolerant populations who don't understand - or care to understand - their way of life.

The fact that the audience even laughed at this joke at all is horrifying, and shows exactly how much veiled hatred still exists for this group of people. The fact that it made it onto Netflix is worse.

One advocacy chairty, Friends, Families & Travellers, tweeted a statement asking Netflix subscibers to tell the platform to remove this extremely offensive content from their list of offerings.

How Many Times Are We Going To Have To Learn This Lesson, Netflix?

This request comes only a few months after several Netflix employees staged a walk-out over the platform's decision to keep Dave Chappelle's The Closer on, despite what were widely regarded as openly transphobic comments being a main talking point in the special.

In that situation, Netflix released this statement:

"We value our trans colleagues and allies, and understand the deep hurt that's been caused. We respect the decision of any employee who chooses to walk out, and recognize we have much more work to do both within Netflix and in our content."

They ultimately decided, however, to keep The Closer on Netflix, as Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said that he didn't believe the jokes fell into the category of "hate speech."

He also wrote, in a letter to senior executives:

"As with our other talent, we work hard to support their creative freedom - even though this means there will always be content on Netflix some people believe is harmful."

Still, even given the content of that letter, we doubt that a joke outright saying that the deaths of countless Roma people over the course of the Holocaust, one of the most horrific and disturbing events in human history, will be allowed to stand.

And if it does, we foresee a lot more walkouts and protests coming for Netflix.

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