Jimmy Carr peddled shocking bigotry – but the Tory handwringing reeks of hypocrisy

‘As disturbing as Carr’s remarks were, the audience’s laughter – rather than, say, shocked silence or gasps – was at least as horrifying.’ Photograph: Rob Parfitt/Channel 4

Comedy is a barometer of popular attitudes. What people deem funny, and what they feel is acceptable to laugh at, tells us a lot about society. After the comedian Jimmy Carr “joked” that the Nazis’ industrialised extermination of Europe’s Roma population was a “positive”, several Tory ministers decided that a line did actually exist in public discourse, and that this time it had well and truly been crossed.

Carr’s comments were “abhorrent and they just shouldn’t be on television,” declared the culture secretary and newly minted tribune of the oppressed, Nadine Dorries. The health secretary, Sajid Javid, denounced Carr’s “horrid” joke and called for audiences to boycott him.