Comedian Jimmy Carr shocks with ‘vile’ joke about deaf audience member

Jimmy Carr's shock comedy often leaves audiences gasping. Photo / Getty Images

Comedian Jimmy Carr is in hot water after jokes at a recent gig left one woman saying he used his platform to “put down those who have a tough life”.

Carr, whose shock comedy often leaves audiences gasping, was performing a warm-up gig in for his upcoming tour when he began directing comments to a woman in the audience.

Carly Ahlen, 44, was in the front row at the Orchard West Theatre in Kent, England, when Carr asked her why she was wearing a beret.

“I used my right hand to lift my beret, exposing my hearing aid,” Ahlen, who is deaf, told Metro.

“I hoped he was at least a decent guy and would move on, knowing I was deaf. It didn’t work. It had the opposite effect as I was like a sitting deaf duck now,” she said.

Jimmy Carr has made his name with his shocking material. Photo / Supplied

She said she was using a transcribing app to read Carr’s jokes as he performed them.

Carr pushed on, asking if she was going to use her phone to “call for back-up from the French Resistance”.

Ahlen said the British-Irish comic then doubled down, claiming “you can say anything about deaf people because they can’t hear you”.

“I was shocked — this isn’t comedy,” she said.

“Comedy is an amazing tool for progressive change, yet Jimmy decided to use his platform to put down those who have a tough life.

“There’s a joke and then there’s absolutely insulting. It’s vile to the deaf community.

‘It’s just not acceptable.”

“I’ve spent far too long feeling miserable and ashamed of my hearing loss because of the stigma attached to it,” she told Metro.

Carr recently shared his experience with a Hells Angels gang member in Aotearoa.

Speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience last year, the comedian detailed how he engaged with the man during a gig in Hamilton.

“I met a guy in Hamilton in New Zealand where they have biker gangs ... I met him on stage. I’m chatting to a guy in the front row. What do you do?” the comedian asked the patched member.

That’s when the audience member explained he was a member of the bike gang Hells Angels.

Carr continued: “The guy looked kind of scrawny. I said ‘what do you do’? And he said ‘accounts’.

“He’s the accounts guy! But he was wearing the biker [jacket] and he had the biker tats, but he was a really scrawny guy.”

Carr then doubled down, poking fun at the man’s role for the Hells Angels.

“I just love the idea that someone joined a biker gang and gone ‘right, what am I doing? Am I getting the crystal meth? Am I running the hookers? Am I transportation? Am I protection’?

“No, we need someone to do double-entry bookkeeping because this is getting out of hand. There’s no toilet paper, someone’s doing the admin, someone’s doing that for the Hells Angels.”

Rogan interjected, adding: “Do you guys need shell accounts? ... I guess they have to otherwise they’ll fall apart. wild!”