Comedian Jimmy Carr breached broadcasting rules by joking about the nose of a comedian with Jewish ancestry, the media watchdog has ruled.
Carr was seen making the remark in a trailer for an episode of Roast Battle, a show on Comedy Central in which two comedians taunt each other with racy jokes.
The footage showed an exchange when Carr asks comedian Tom Rosenthal “You’re not Jewish?”
When Rosenthal says he is not, Carr replies: “Someone needs to tell your face”.
It provokes laughter from the studio audience and from Rosenthal himself, who is shown holding his nose.
Rosenthal is of Jewish descent through his father, the sports broadcaster Jim Rosenthal, but does not consider himself to be Jewish.
Ofcom said it had received a complaint that the trailer was antisemitic because it was “drawing on the racial stereotype of a ‘Jewish look’”.
Paramount UK, which broadcasts Comedy Central Extra +1, said no offence was intended by the trailer, adding it “was not solely aimed at the Jewish community, or any particular community, but simply gave an overall indication of the style and nature of the show”.
It said the context made clear that the programme contained offensive material, adding that the trailer was withdrawn shortly after the complaint on September 18 this year.
The joke itself was not shown during the episode of Roast Battle promoted by the trailer.
But Ofcom said that there had a significant rise in reports of antisemitism across Europe and in the UK.
The watchdog said in its ruling: “Jimmy Carr was clearly trying to elicit humour from the size of Tom Rosenthal’s nose, through the use of a well-known negative stereotype about Jewish people.”
The fact it was broadcast in a trailer did not give viewers an opportunity to put it in context or give viewers any form of warning or information in advance, it added.
Ofcom concluded: “we considered that the offensive content within this trailer was not justified by the context and exceeded generally accepted standards.”
