A politician in the UK has expressed desire to criminally prosecute anyone who might dare laugh at supposedly ‘offensive’ jokes.
This is frightening stuff.
Julie McKenzie, an SNP politician in the UK, has accused the Netflix special featuring Jimmy Carr of spreading “hate speech” for including a joke about the holocaust.
“Jimmy Carr and his Netflix hate speech, and his applauding audience should be prosecuted,” McKenzie tweeted.
Scottishdailyexpress.co.uk reports:
The SNP member has been mocked for her views that are seen as anti-free speech and authoritarian. She has since made her profile on Twitter private.
One Twitter user said: “Just so I can get this right, you think people who laugh at offensive jokes should be jailed and thought this would make the SNP look good how?”
Another joked: “I didn’t attend but watched it on Netflix. Do I need to hand myself in?”
Others thought that account itself was a parody and linked in with accusations aimed at the SNP for being “thought police”.
Victoria Coren Mitchell who has appeared on TV with Mr Carr defended his comments and said: “While I’m here, might take a moment to mention I also love Jimmy Carr, a close friend who’s made about a thousand jokes I wouldn’t make myself, as a stage performer, but as a man is full of goodness and kindness. He’s a properly decent person.”
Netflix is under pressure to censor the episode entitled His Dark Materials, which begins with the admission that it may be a career-ending comment but goes on to include disparaging remarks about the murder of Gypsies in the Holocaust.
It’s followed by an explanation that the joke works because it’s “edgy as hell” and has 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.”
On Saturday, the UK Government culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, suggested the introduction of new legislation to prevent the broadcast of such comments, telling BBC One Breakfast that they were “abhorrent and they just shouldn’t be on television”.
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.”
UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid branded the comment “horrid” and said that the most effective way to react is to not listen or watch Jimmy Carr’s content.
It’s been tied in with the controversy surrounding American podcat host Joe Rogan who has been hounded for his past use of the “n-word” and as a consequence has seen many of his episodes removed from Spotify.
