Jimmy Carr’s comment about the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities are “deeply disturbing”, Downing Street has said, while declining to say that broadcasters should no longer feature the comedian. The response came after Sajid Javid, the health secretary, suggested viewers should boycott Carr after a much-condemned section of his Netflix special, His Dark Material. Carr joked about the horror of “6 million Jewish lives being lost” before suggesting the deaths of “the thousands of Gypsies” at the hands of the Nazis had been one of “the positives” of the Holocaust. Boris Johnson’s spokesperson said: “Those comments are deeply disturbing and it is unacceptable to make light of genocide.” He pointed to plans already in place for the government to pass legislation giving tighter control over the content of streaming services. Downing Street’s intervention came more than a month after Carr’s comedy special became one of the biggest comedy hits of the year. Netflix does not release viewing figures but estimates by analytics company Digital I suggest 1.8m British Netflix accounts watched His Dark Material in the week after it was released on Christmas Day – with the total audience likely to be much larger. However, the joke became a political issue only after a short clip was uploaded to Twitter last week, where it quickly went viral. Unlike domestic British broadcasters, Netflix is not overseen by Ofcom and is overseen instead by the Dutch media regulator. On Saturday, the UK culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, had suggested future legislation could prevent the broadcast of Carr’s comments, telling BBC One Breakfast that they were “abhorrent and they just shouldn’t be on television”. But Johnson’s spokesperson declined to say if he agreed. He said: “I’m not necessarily going to draw on a specific example. We are clear that any change in legislation should be proportionate to ensure freedom of speech that is within the law is not stifled.” Asked if Netflix should remove Carr’s show, he said: “That would be a matter for them.” Carr has been condemned by groups including the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, the Auschwitz Memorial and Hope Not Hate for his remarks. The show opened with Carr telling viewers: “Before we start, a quick trigger warning. Tonight’s show contains jokes about terrible things. Things that may have affected you and the people you love. But these are just jokes. They’re not the terrible things.” Asked about the comments, Javid told Times Radio they were “horrid”. He added: “I think we all have a right to react to that. And one of the best ways anyone can react to that is show these platforms what they think about Jimmy Carr by not watching or listening to him, and that will send him a very strong message.”
In the special, Carr sought to explain what he said was the context of the joke, saying it was “edgy as hell” and had an educational value. “It’s a joke about the worst thing that’s ever happened in human history, and people say ‘never forget’, well this is how I remember,” he said. “There is an educational quality. Like everyone in the room knows, 6 million Jewish people lost their lives to the Nazis during the second world war. But a lot of people don’t know, because it’s not really taught in our schools, that the Nazis also killed, in their thousands, Gypsies, homosexuals, disabled people and Jehovah’s Witnesses.” Johnson’s government has separately been accused of seeking to effectively criminalise Traveller communities in a section of the new policing bill that would make living on land without the permission of its owner a criminal offence, and would allow police to seize vehicles.