An Australian comedian has come under fire for a risqué joke about the Christchurch terror attack from last year.
Isaac Butterfield said during his Anti-Hero comedy special that the saddest part of the 2019 terrorist attack, where 51 people were killed and 49 were injured, wasn't the lives lost, but instead 'the hundreds of people that night who couldn't make it home from nightclubs in Christchurch because all the cabbies were dead'.
While there were loads of people in the audience who sounded like they weren't happy with the joke, there were plenty who laughed and clapped.
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Clips of the stand-up routine have recently been uploaded to social media and Butterfield has copped an absolute battering.
Director of Australian Centre for Islamic Finance Almir Colman said: "I think people like Isaac Butterfield argue that there is too much political correctness (and that is a fair point) and that comedians should be free to talk about anything and nothing should be off-limits.
"We don't want to live in a totalitarian society where people are scared to demand their rights and live in fear from too powerful government or corporations.
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"But in his joke about the victims of the Christchurch massacre, Butterfield is not going against some powerful forces nor is he using his voice to speak truth to power."
Replying to that comment on Twitter, a user added: "The whole argument about free speech and dark humour doesn't stand here, he's not opposing a powerful government or some giant public figure, he's mocking innocent victims who's lives where changed forever, this is horrifying and the fact that people APPLAUDED this makes me sick."
Another said: "I've got a pretty dark sense of humour and this wasn't funny."
After receiving a hell of a lot of angry messages about the joke, Isaac has posted a lengthy video to YouTube to explain his side of the story.
He rattled off some of the incredibly offensive or outrageous DMs he copped in response, before saying: "It is a joke. It is not real. It is make believe. I don't really feel like that but that is what comedy is."
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Isaac says his comedy is inspired by fellow boundary pushers like Jimmy Carr and Frankie Boyle, who have also received some backlash in the past for their controversial jokes.
He also said that people laugh about horrible things all the time and that's the way they deal with it.
Butterfield admits that he was even offended by the risqué joke and 'that's the point'. He refuses to apologise for it because it's the type of comedy that his fans expect and enjoy.
Featured Image Credit: Anti-Hero/Isaac Butterfield