Start The Carr For Jimmy As Joke Attacked

Caius old boy Jimmy Carr has been savaged on social networking sites for a controversial joke relating to smokers getting cancer.

Many fans of the former PPS student were left fuming when he recently tweeted an insensitive joke about cancer. The quip evoked strong reactions from fans on Facebook and Twitter, and it quickly became fiercely debated. Fifty comments ensued within 15 minutes, and hundreds more were to come.

The joke read: “Great news for smokers. Scientists have discovered something that stops smokers lighting up ever again. Cancer.”

The funnyman may have to rethink his idea after a barrage of negative comments

Its style might be characteristic of Carr’s sense of humour, but it induced a huge backlash from people who smoke or know someone to have battled with cancer. One comment, posted within two minutes of Carr’s original post, summarises the feelings of those offended: “Cancer jokes are NEVER funny.”

Of course, the joke was not without praise and had many people defending it. The post has racked up 885 likes on Facebook so far, and this comment was posted a couple of hours after the event: “I only wish you could filter out the twats that subscribe to Jimmy and then get offended by him.”

The joke got a veritable shitstorm of comments in the first two hours.

It’s not the first time Cambridge graduate Jimmy Carr has become embroiled in fierce debate about the taste of his jokes. In 2009 a joke of his about soldier amputees became a topic of national outcry when he delivered this gag on tour: “Say what you like about those servicemen amputees from Iraq and Afghanistan, but we’re going to have a fucking good Paralympic team in 2012.”

This news follows last year’s social media shitshorm, when Stephen Fry called former Cambridge student and Tab writer Milo Yiannopoulos a “cynical ignorant fucker.”