Jimmy Carr at Sheffield City Hall: What has comedian said about controversial Holocaust joke?

The latest date in the 8 Out of 10 Cats comedian’s Terribly Funny tour is going ahead despite calls for him to be banned from the public venue as Roy Chubby Brown had been over his material.

But what exactly did he say to cause such a furore and how has he responded to the backlash?

It was a line on Carr’s Netflix special His Dark Material which landed him in hot water, when he joked that people never mention the ‘thousands of gypsies’ killed by the Nazis ‘because no one wants to talk about the positives’.

The show first aired on Christmas Day but it was only after a clip of that joke began circulating on social media in February that it prompted national outrage, with calls for Netflix to remove the show as fellow comedians, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and even Prime Minister Boris Johnson joined the chorus of disapproval.

Such was the opprobrium it generated, Carr even took a three-week break from Twitter on which he is usually very active, and he has still yet to respond publicly to the accusations of racism.

He did, however, reportedly address the matter on stage during his tour after being heckled by a member of the audience.

What did Sheffield City Hall bosses say about Jimmy Carr show, will Holocaust joke feature and how many tickets have been sold?

According to The Mirror, during an appearance at Whitley Bay Playhouse, when asked ‘are we going to talk about the Holocaust?’, he is said to have replied: “We are going to talk about cancel culture, the whole thing. We are going to talk about f***ing everything, people. Relax.”

The comic reportedly added: “We are speaking, my friends, in the last chance saloon. What I am saying on stage this evening is barely acceptable now. In 10 years, f***ing forget about it.

“You are going to be able to tell your grandchildren about seeing this show tonight. You will say I saw a man and he stood on a stage and he made light of serious issues. We used to call them jokes and people would laugh.”

He then told the audience: “There’s a rare psychological disorder that causes people to tell inappropriate jokes. I know I have got it.”

Sheffield City Trust, which runs Sheffield City Hall, said it did not in any way condone Carr’s comments and had been assured by the promoter that the show does not repeat the Netflix material.

Its website states that the show is not suitable for people aged under 16, but it appears to make light of Carr’s penchant for courting controvery by adding: “Having political correctness at a comedy show is like having health and safety at a rodeo. Now you’ve been warned, buy a ticket.”

The uproar doesn’t appear to have harmed sales and may even have had the opposite effect, with tickets for Saturday’s gig having sold out and only a handful of seats available for another date on December 16 which was added due to ‘phenomena’ demand.