Jimmy Carr: A Comedian, Being Funny and Making People Laugh by Telling Jokes!

It never fails to astonish me how some well mannered, educated and polite people can be so painfully stupid! I was scrolling through some Jimmy Carr stuff and I came across a post where one person had asked someone.

“So you’re a feminist who think what jimmy carr said about women exercising is funny?”

My question: why wouldn’t someone who believes in equality for women, find Jimmy Carr funny?

The response to the question was:

“No. If you take a look, I actually posted a caption in response saying “One of many reasons to hate Jimmy Carr.” I hate his comedy and I don’t think he’s a very nice person. His jokes are stemmed from the dehumanisation and oppression of those who don’t fit the socially privileged characteristics he possesses of being white, heterosexual, middle class, middle aged and male. It is pretty common knowledge that he makes jokes about sexual harassment, rape and humours anybody over 10 stone” There is then a link provided to this video and she says, “Watch this video of him epitomising the double standard by congratulating a male audience member for his sex life and calling the female audience member “a dirty little hussy” for embarking on the same sexual activity. I could literally make a playlist of 1000s of videos where Jimmy Carr has used his privilege to degrade minority groups and even his own audience members. “I guess in this society being male and an asshole makes you worthy of our time,” to quote Kat Stratford from 10 Things I Hate About You.”

Now, where do I begin? How about at the very beginning, “a very good place to start” to quote Maria from The Sound of Music. Okay, you don’t like Jimmy Carr’s comedy fair enough. But you don’t know the man so how can you say you hate him? You can hate his comedy, by all means, but let’s be realistic. I’m going to assume that, since you’re not a fan, you’ve never met him. Therefore you are in no position to comment on whether he is a “nice person” or not. I, on the other hand, have met him and he is a very polite, charming, funny and grateful man. He is thankful to everyone who goes to his shows and tries to make the experience as great as he can for them – which is why (even though he must be exhausted) he stays behind after the shows and does a signing and has a chat with people who want to talk to him. I’m sorry, I fail to see how he is not a “very nice person”.

“His jokes are stemmed from the dehumanisation and oppression of those who don’t fit the socially privileged characteristics he possesses of being white, heterosexual, middle class, middle aged and male.” BULLSHIT! They mention these topics yes, and do you know why – because what he says is funny. It’s called “dark humour”, and guess what, he’s on stage talking to people who have paid money to see him. They chose to be there or to buy the DVD, you also chose to watch these videos. You’re creating your own misery – if you don’t like him don’t watch him. His jokes are not about rape being funny, his jokes are all about word play and taking serious issues and making light of them because that’s how people cope with horrible things. This is one of his jokes:

“They say there’s safety in numbers.

Try telling that to six million Jews.”

Now, at first glance, that’s about the Holocaust – the worst thing that’s happened in Modern History. But when you actually process the joke, it’s not about the Holocaust. It’s a play on words. He’s not saying “hahaha six million  Jews died. LOL that’s so funny!” he’s saying “here’s an innocent lead up, and here’s the punch line, that’s not what you were expecting, ha it’s funny because it’s a surprise and it’s word play”. Not everyone gets it, and that’s good – if everyone had the same sense of humour the world would be a very boring place.

His jokes are not about “dehumanisation and oppression” they are jokes about life. He doesn’t make jokes that say being gay is wrong because he believes that, he says it because it’s funny to make fun of homophobes.

“I think Civil Partnerships...are gay”

Where’s the harm in that? It’s true and funny. It’s also another example of word play. Because he says “gay” in the way a lot of people use it, as a derogatory term, but he literally means homosexual. No one got hurt, no one was dehumanised or oppressed by him.

As for him making jokes about “sexual harassment, rape and humours anybody over 10 stone” that is because he can make it funny. His jokes do not say that sexual harassment is a good thing, they don’t say that rape should be promoted, and he doesn’t make fun of anyone over 10 stone in weight, he mentions the topical issue of obesity and makes jokes referring to society’s attitude towards overweight people.

Not a direct quote but Jimmy Carr has made a joke saying that “rape” is not a nice word

and that it should be called “a struggle snuggle” because

“you couldn’t stay angry and a struggle snuggler”.

Again, his joke is coming from the use of words. It’s all word play. None of his jokes are “rape is good, haha she got raped, sucks to be her”. None of it!

Onto the issue of “Watch this video of him epitomising the double standard by congratulating a male audience member for his sex life and calling the female audience member “a dirty little hussy” for embarking on the same sexual activity.” You are a complete moron if you can’t see the joke behind this. The complaint you’re making about the double standard is the reason he made the comment. He is laughing at the whole double standard. HE DOESN’T MEAN IT! It’s called IRONY! Look it up! In the name of all things funny, it is one of the most common forms of comedy. He has taken something he doesn’t mean and said it to make a point through comedy.

“I could literally make a playlist of 1000s of videos where Jimmy Carr has used his privilege to degrade minority groups and even his own audience members.” Well as I’ve stated previously, you obviously don’t understand his comedy. Jimmy Carr does not do discriminatory jokes, he does not hate minority groups. He ridicules double standards.

“I’ve got a friend who can read the Qur’an backwards.

And that’s good because, that’s how you read it.

He then goes onto say that he made a joke like that because

he’s “not a fucking idiot” and follows that up with,

“What are Christians going to do? Forgive me? Good luck with that.”

Now, this is funny because he basically makes a joke about how it is socially acceptable to make fun of Christians because they’re not going to blow him up, which is the ignorant fear held by many people. His jokes are clever, they have deep meaning in them and if you actually looked you’d understand that jokes like this are not about what they appear to be about. It’s a lot of irony and word play.

He doesn’t use his privilege for anything. He routinely makes fun of his own accent and his background.

This may not be exactly right but I’m working from memory.

“Some of you may be having trouble with the accent.

I do not actually have an accent; this is just what it sounds

like when things are said properly”.

A further exhibition of your ignorance is that you seem to think it’s a terrible thing that Jimmy Carr makes fun of his audience members. You obviously don’t know his fanbase very well. We all go to his gigs and buy the DVDs because we have a dark sense of humour, we can take a joke and we know he doesn’t mean it. Some people go to his gigs in the hope that he will pick on them. To a lot of his fans, having him “shout abuse” at them is an honour because that’s his skill and it’s brilliant. I’ve got a front row seat at a gig on his next tour and I don’t care if he talks to me or not but if he did I’d enjoy every minute of it. I’ve met him twice and he is a very kind and polite man. You can tell when people are fake and I’ll tell you, that is one thing he is not. He appreciates his position and is respectful to all of his fans because he knows that without us, he’d have to go and work in Starbucks. He is one of my favourite comedians and it really pisses me off when people are so ignorant about these things. I mean, I’d understand if you didn’t get it, but his tone and delivery are dripping in irony. It is painfully obvious that he isn’t being genuine in most of the things he says until he says thank you.

I probably rambled and repeated myself a lot in this but I ramble in all of my posts and the repetition was purposeful. I was trying to get the point across that this girl is an idiot who does not understand: irony, satire, word play or the function of the “stop button”.

Hate Speech and Free Speech. Know the difference.

Browsing through pinknews.co.uk and I came across this story. The Daily Mail being accused of homophobia – SHOCKER! I’m so used to seeing/hearing that, it didn’t even faze me. It wasn’t until I read a bit of the story that I started to get angry. Back story: The LGBT... group Stonewall paid for adverts to go on buses. The adverts had one of their slogans on it, “Some people are gay, get over it!” Now, people were smiling at these adverts and other people were just like “wha...oh, what ever. On with life.” Other people decided that they needed to balance out the discussion with “the other side” and tried to put adverts up which said something like “Post gay and proud. Get over it!” Boris Johnson said no and didn’t allow these adverts to go up, which then caused people to kick up a fuss that it was violating their human right of “free speech”. And THIS is when I started to get angry.

Yes, putting up these adverts is part of their free speech and yes if they went into the centre of town and started proclaiming their post-homosexuality status, they’d be within their rights to do so. It is also, within Mayor Boris Johnson’s right to tell you you’re not allowed to do this.

You can complain it’s not fair and that it’s preferential treatment and how your basic human rights are being ignored whereas other groups are getting their opinions out. But here is why Stonewall can have their adverts. Stonewall’s adverts are showing support and sending out a positive message to LGBT kids everywhere. Whilst the wording may appear to be directed at homophobes, it’s not for homophobes. These adverts are up to show kids that they can be who they are without having to worry about prejudice. Your sexuality or gender identity feels like a big deal to you, before you come out, it’s not until afterwards you realise NO ONE CARES! These adverts are showing kids that people don’t care. They don’t have to hide and they don’t have to be scared. There are kids all over the world, wishing they were dead just because they’re attracted to the same-sex or because their gender and sex don’t match up. These adverts could, theoretically, save someone’s life.

Cut to the opposing adverts claiming that you can stop being gay. That’s a dangerous message.

Firstly: it tells people that being gay is something you should change.

Secondly: it encourages people into a system of mentally damaging and harmful therapy

   which opens them up to ridicule and abuse.

Thirdly: It tells people that being gay is bad and does nothing but perpetuate the idea that    

          you’re different and therefore wrong.

My response to the first point. I’ve written about this before but no harm in saying it again. I’ve received a lot of hassle due to my sexuality – I’ve been verbally, emotionally and physically abused for no reason other than being honest about myself. I was told I deserved the abuse because I “advertised my sexuality” even though I didn’t. I was outed – that’s hardly my fault. It’s had long-term effects on me and I still suffer with it. But you know what, I wouldn’t change it. It’s made me who I am. I’m stronger, smarter and a better judge of people for it. I’m more quick-witted because I’ve had practise at comebacks. I first discovered that I’m funny through this abuse. So no, it’s not something that should change. LGBT... people don’t need to stop being LGBT...other people need to change how they treat LGBT...people.

Second point. “Conversion therapy” is very harmful process that DOESN’T WORK! It doesn’t stop people being gay it just teaches them how to ignore and repress their feelings. And most of the time it doesn’t even do that. The most common result of conversion therapy is them leaving with more problems than they went in with. It’s an abusive, humiliating and emotionally destroying system based upon idiotic ideas.

Third point. If everyone who was different was wrong then we’d have no one. Just because there’s not as many of us as there are heteronormative people – doesn’t mean they’re better. Everyone has their own little quirks and traits which makes them special. Your sexuality/gender identity could lead to you having experiences which highlight various skills and abilities you have, which you may not have known about otherwise. This girl only started talking to me because she thought she was bi and needed someone to talk to and I suppose I was the only approachable lesbian she knew. Cut to now, she is one of my closest friends – I wouldn’t have her if I wasn’t gay, because we’d have no reason to talk. My “gay husband” probably wouldn’t be this close to me if I wasn’t gay and my current girlfriend, we probably wouldn’t even be friends if I was straight. I know that’s a big assumption but if I didn’t have my “gay husband” I wouldn’t be working for his production company, I wouldn’t have started working with a certain gorgeous girl, I wouldn’t have had a reason to talk to her and we wouldn’t have any kind of relationship. I didn’t know I was reasonably good at promotions until I joined this company (I’m not brilliant but I know my way around advertising now). I wouldn’t have a show – that I wrote – being performed next year, because I wouldn’t have had the experiences which inspired it. A lot of bad things happened to me. But that wasn’t because I’m gay. They happened because of the attitudes other people had about me being gay.

So yeah, you can buy your adverts and have them say what ever you want them to – that’s your right as a citizen in a democratic country. But it’s our right to disagree. It’s out right to say no. And it’s Boris Johnson’s right to stand up and not allow your hate speech to influence more, already vulnerable, people. If you’re going to use your right to free speech use it with a rational brain. You might be targeting the weak kid in the playground, but that kid has friends and those friends will do anything they can to protect him.

University Students is Clever

DISCLAIMER – THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WITH SOME KIND OF LEARNING DIFFICULTY. YOU HAVE A LEGITIMATE REASON.

Yes, those with keen eyes will have noticed the grammatical inaccuracy of the title. And yes, it is intentional. I know this may seem nerdy but one thing I was looking forward to about University was getting away from people who speak in a way that would cause Microsoft Word to put a line under almost everything they say. People who say things like “I seen this” or “I done this”, drive me INSANE! And I do correct them, to the point where people are very irritated by me, but I don’t care. Everyone has their “pet peeves”, this is mine, it may seem unimportant to some – and it is in comparison to other things – but it’s a big deal to me. So yes, I was looking forward to getting away from these people.

Cut to a couple of weeks into Semester 1, doing some group work and we decide to take it in turns to type – seemed only fair. So, one of the members of my group sat down to type up the work, we all brainstorm the report and get it done fairly quickly. It gets posted and when I get my copy of it I can’t believe it. The amount of spelling mistakes, the incorrect grammar, the pathetic excuse for sentence structure – it was ridiculous! It barely made any sense. But I kept my mouth shut because I barely knew these people. Every time we did this work (and I didn’t type) it was horrific. These people had no learning difficulties and they were clever enough (obviously, they got into University) but this was appalling. And I know I sound like a snob but seriously, it’s spelling and grammar we get taught this in school for years! These people also made statements like “I’m horrible at spelling”. SO WHAT?! I was horrible at it for years but I practised and now I’m not as bad. If you know you are bad at something THAT YOU NEED why wouldn’t you work at it?! I wouldn’t be as bothered but these reports were going to be graded! A percentage of our module grade was resting on these reports and I was ashamed to have my student number associated with them.

First semester was over and I was happy to find out that I wouldn’t be doing any group work in the second semester. Second semester, going pretty well all the way through, no group work, happy, happy. Psychology Research Methods report lecture. Going through it, all fine, same as last semester until near the end when one of the slides said this:

“Spelling and Grammar

l  “Whether” (as in “whether or not”), NOT “weather”

l  “Their” means belonging to

l  “They’re” means “They are”

l  “There” as in “over there”

l  “Where” is a place, “were” as in “they were” “

That is word-for-word what the slide said. I think it is a joke that a University lecturer has to make these things clear. I understand maybe 3^rd year pupils at Secondary School making these mistakes but First Year at University – come on!

Maybe I’m just being a bitchy snob, maybe I’m just arrogant but I, personally, think that this stuff should be common knowledge. And I am in no way claiming to be perfect, I make mistakes – of course I do – but I try to not repeat them. In fact, it is very likely that there is a mistake or two in this post but I know the difference between “your” and “you’re”, I know that “their” states possession, “there” states location” and “they’re” is a contraction of “they” and “are” – I know it because I was taught it and I paid attention. I’m not blaming teachers, which I know a lot of people do, I’m blaming students who don’t pay attention. 

Thoughts?