Andrew Castle: Jimmy Carr 'almost middle of the road' in dark humour

20 February 2022, 09:24

Andrew Castle hits out at attacks on free speech on front pages

Whilst reviewing the Sunday papers, Andrew Castle took exception to two stories which he saw as damaging the right to free speech.

Andrew Castle began by reading a news story which rekindled the controversy surrounding Jimmy Carr's new comedy special, where the comedian told child sexual abuse victims they "should laugh at his jokes".

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He went on to defend Mr Carr's humour, pointing out that he is by no means the worst offender.

"If you put comedy on now, the Jimmy Carr stuff is pretty, I would say it's almost middle of the road compared to some of the other stuff you can get."

"Don't kid yourself that Jimmy Carr is the only person that tries to get a laugh out of things which are completely unacceptable to laugh about."

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He went on, arguing for the freedom of speech: "You do have the right to say things which offend, and that's a very important right to defend, I think."

Andrew then read the news of staff at a firm linked to the Home Office being put under investigation for "racist" Whatsapp messages.

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"If my WhatsApps came out – and my producer's WhatsApps came out – He'd be fired! I'd be fired! We'd all be fired!"

"Nothing is going to look good on the front of a newspaper that comes out of too many fun WhatsApp groups" he insisted, wondering "where is the right to free speech? Where is the right to private messaging?"