Stand up comedian Jimmy Carr has come under fire over a joke related to the Holocaust he cracked in “His Dark Material,” a Netflix special of his.
According to the BBC, while the special was released on Christmas Day, Carr's joke came to light “more widely” after being shared on social media afterwards.
In the programme, Carr muses that, when people talk about the Holocaust, they “never mention the thousands of Gypsies that were killed by the Nazis.”
“No one talks about that because no one ever wants to talk about the positives,” he added, evoking laughter and applause from his audience.
Carr's remarks have since been condemned by UK Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries who suggested that the comments were "abhorrent and they just shouldn't be on television."
"We are absolutely appalled at Jimmy Carr's comment about persecution suffered by Roma and Sinti people under Nazi oppression, and horrified that gales of laughter followed his remarks,” said Olivia Marks-Woldman, chief executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. "Hundreds of thousands of Roma and Sinti people suffered prejudice, slave labour, sterilisation and mass murder simply because of their identity - these are not experiences for mockery."
A petition has also been launched by the Traveller Movement, calling for the removal of the segment of Carr's Netflix special “which celebrates the Romani genocide."
Carr himself has not commented on the matter, the BBC notes, pointing out that Netflix has also declined to comment.