RSS
Home
The Jimmy Carr outrage over amputees
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Jimmy Carr has sparked off outrage by making a joke about those British servicemen who are amputees.
Jimmy Carr's joke on Saturday night has not gone down well:
"Say what you like about these servicemen amputees from Iraq and Afghanistan, but we’re going to have a ******* good Paralympic team in 2012."
Not well in certain circles that is. There's the usual predictable outrage from a politician, in this case the Defence Secretary:
Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said: "Our Armed Forces put their lives on the line and deserve the utmost respect.
To which the correct response is, well, why then Bob are you sending them into battle without the right equipment or enough training? However, the outrage doesn't seem to be universal:
Meanwhile, an amputee British squaddie backed Jimmy - saying he "laughed out loud" at the gag. L/Cpl Rory Mackenzie - who lost his leg to a roadside bomb in Basra in 2006 - said: "That brand of black humour is exactly the same as a squaddie's. "We're proud to represent Britain - whether it be on the battlefield or in the Paralympics."
And of course if you really want to know what the Army itself thinks about such jokes then the place to go to is ARRSE: the Army Rumour Service.
Carr is a smug git, but if that comment had been made on here first then I guaranteed it would have been classed as genius by many.
So perhaps that is the squaddie's black humour then? And there's a very interesting little point made. Jimmy Carr has actually been to Headley Court, where such amputees are treated and prepared for future life. And the Paralympic team people have also been there:
As much as I dislike this one-line merchant I believe this was probably a line he picked up from Headley Court from the guys there in rehab and so feels justified in using it 
BTW the local news here (Meridian) did a piece about the Paralympic training team going to Headley Court and other placers to give the Ex-soldiers/airmen some guidance on fitness for the future with a view to 2012/2016. So as distastful as it may seem to some, I suspect he's more guided and informed than most.
So perhaps rather than Carr making a joke about troops, perhaps he was repeating one he had heard from the amputee troops themselves? That puts a rather different complexion on the whole matter, doesn't it?
Related Articles:
Comments
