New Law Being Considered That Would See Netflix Prosecuted Over Jimmy Carr Joke, MP Says
An MP has said that a new law being considered would see Netflix prosecuted over Jimmy Carr joke.
Culture secretary Nadine Dorries says the legislation would hold streaming sites accountable for offensive content they carry.
It comes after Carr was heavily criticised for a joke he made during his new stand-up special, His Dark Material.
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In the widely-shared clip, the British comedian joked that the Holocaust, which saw six million Jews killed by the Nazis, wasn't all bad.
Carr says: "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 wants to talk about that, because no one ever wants to talk about the positives."
The joke horrified many of those who watched it, with people calling for the show to be pulled from Netflix.
Writer Mickey Walsh, who is a Romany Gypsy, said he was appalled by Carr's words.
He said: "I don’t know what I should be more gutted or disgusted by here.. the kind of racism that us GRT people are forced to live with every day.. that’s it’s still absolutely ok to demonise us and our demise as a joke…or the reactions of whooping & cheering from the audience.
"Absolutely zero accountability will come from this..we as Travellers, Roma and Gypsies in the UK know full well that hatred towards us is seen as a good thing."
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Dorries said the comments were 'abhorrent and they just shouldn't be on television' and that the government was looking into ways of making streaming sites more accountable for its content.
She said: "We are looking at legislation via the Media Bill which would bring into scope those comments from other video on-demand streaming outlets like Netflix.
"So it's interesting that we're already looking at future legislation to bring into scope those sort of comments."
She went on: "Well, that's not comedy.
"What Jimmy Carr did last night is not comedy.
"And you know, I'm no angel on Twitter, nobody is, but I just would like to say that nothing I've ever put on Twitter has been harmful or abusive.
"But that last night... Jimmy Carr's comments, no one can call that, you know, snowflake or wokeishness, that's just... it was just appalling."
When asked on Sky News if any new law would restrict free speech, Dorries said it would not.
"No, absolutely not. We've been very, very... well because I'm a Conservative, I've been very, very careful about that," she told the channel.
LADbible has contacted Jimmy Carr for comment.
Topics: Jimmy Carr, Netflix, Politics, UK News
Dominic Smithers