Tommy Tiernan has jumped to the defence of fellow comic Jimmy Carr, saying that he should not be “hounded out of a job” over a “mistake”.
Jimmy Carr has faced huge criticism following a joke he made on his Dark Materials Netflix Special.
Speaking about the Holocaust, Carr joked that the mass murder of Gypies and Roman people during the tragedy was a positive thing.
Here’s what Carr said in full.
“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”.
The joked has recieved strong backlash, with the Traveller Movement calling it “truly disturbing”. They tweeted, “This is truly disturbing and goes way beyond humour. We need all your support in calling this out”.
My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding star Paddy Doherty also condemned the joke, saying that Carr should be “investigated by the police”.
“hung drawn and quartered”
However, Tommy Tiernan has said that Carr should not be “hung drawn and quartered” over this controversial joke.
“If somebody gets up onstage and tells a joke and on further reflection that joke’s actually coming from not such a good place, then just stop telling it and move on, than be hung drawn and quartered in the virtual town square”, he said.
Speaking on the Free Speech Nation: The Podcast, Tiernan added, “It can be about race, it can be about gender, it can be about the Olympics or Putin or doughnuts or lesbians or mermaids. If it’s funny, it’s funny”.
“And if people don’t find it funny, then that’s all it is, it’s just an unfunny moment”.
“I walk on a stand-up stage to free myself from autocracy. I trust laughter and I also trust the humanity of the people involved that if somebody makes a mistake it’s okay”.
“Laughter is an outlaw”
Tommy Tiernan also branded laughter an “outlaw”.
“You follow the laughter and that can take you to odd strange places”, he explained.
“I think laughter is an outlaw. Laughter isn’t the Mayor. Laughter is the weird, wild woman who lives in a tree four miles outside the town”.
“So I really would be very very slow to adopt a manifesto for stand-up”.
The Navan native also called stand up comedy, “a thing of on the one hand being free, free to do whatever comes into your mind on the stage whatever you and the audience find funny, with also kind of an examination of your own generosity maybe”.
“It’s that thing of being irresponsible, so people who are touting responsibility will find that upsetting”.
Jimmy Carr has worked with Tiernan on several comedy shows in the UK. Tommy Tiernan is to start the UK leg of his Tomfoolery Show on 17 March.
