Jimmy Carr faces backlash over Russell Brand prison joke

Jimmy Carr has faced scrutiny from fans after using a joke about Russell Brand to plug his latest tour. 

The 54-year-old came under fire after sharing a clip of the joke on X an hour after rapist Brand was sentenced to ten and a half years behind bars while promoting tickets for his brand new tour, Killing Jokes. 

In the 30-second clip from a previous show, a heckler called out to Jimmy and asked: ‘What do you think about Russell Brand?!’

The comedian immediately quipped: ‘Well… this is interesting. It is crazy to think Russell Brand is going to jail for something he did not do – get consent. 

‘I think Russell Brand’s views on sex and consent are going to radically change in the next week.’

However, many have criticised the British comic for the joke, with one branding the jibe as ‘beyond despicable’. 

Another said: ‘Trying to sell tickets on the back of a rapist being sent down is a scum move.’

Others accused the comic of being a hypocrite, having previously featured on numerous shows with Brand during his TV career. 

‘It’s a pity you weren’t so forthcoming when you were repeatedly appearing on TV shows and comedy line-ups with him,’ one wrote. 

The Daily Mail has approached Jimmy Carr’s representatives for comment. 

It comes after 51-year-old Brand was found guilty of raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others. 

Yesterday he was sentenced to ten years and six months for his crimes.

The comedian and actor, 51, closed his eyes as he was convicted of raping a 21-year-old fan he picked out of the crowd after one of his Hammersmith Apollo gigs in 2009.

Overawed by Brand’s fame, the woman agreed to go to the star’s £2.3million Hampstead mansion a few days later for sex.

But she said the encounter started with Brand unnervingly forcing her to strip, shower and brush her teeth before they went to bed together.

Brand, then 33, pushed the woman face down into a pillow on his ‘enormous’ bed and removed his condom while raping her, leaving her struggling to breathe. 

She was left bleeding and afterwards said Brand ordered her to ‘clean up the mess you’ve made’, before switching on the TV to watch the sci-fi series Quantum Leap.

During the trial, Riel Karmy-Jones, prosecuting, said women were a ‘disposable commodity’ to the comedian, who she dubbed ‘a sexual predator’. 

‘They didn’t matter to him. He didn’t even need to know their names. They were just a means to an end.’ 

The woman recounted that she later told Brand: ‘You treated me like an animal,’ And that he replied: ‘I’m sorry.’

Brand’s victims told the court how he forced them into sexual activity, sometimes within seconds of first meeting them, while exploiting his fame in pursuit of a goal of sleeping with 5,000 women. 

After an explosive four-week trial, and eight-and-a-half hours of deliberations, Brand was convicted of the 2009 rapes as well as a sexual assault of an MTV worker at a party in Soho. But he was cleared of orally raping her in a toilet afterwards. 

The born-again Christian, who said he wore the ‘full armour of God’ in court, was also found guilty of sexually assaulting a Capital Radio worker after encountering her in a corridor in 2005. 

He was also further convicted for sexually assaulting a Channel 4 employee during a forced massage in 2009. He was cleared of two charges of rape and one of attempted indecent assault. 

Following the proceedings, it was revealed that Brand also faces accusations of raping two more women, including a 16-year-old schoolgirl. The Crown Prosecution Service is seeking to bring further charges. 

Prosecution papers, not seen by the jury, disclosed that the rapist faces possible ‘outstanding charges’ over his relationship with a schoolgirl, who he is accused of raping after grooming the virgin when he was 30 years old. 

Known by a pseudonym in a Channel 4 Dispatches programme which exposed Brand in 2023, ‘Alice’ claimed that a BBC car took her from school to the star’s house where she was later abused. 

During their three-month relationship, Brand called her ‘my little dolly’ and she had to punch him to stop one attack, she alleged.

BBC bosses will face questions after Brand previously boasted that his boss, Lesley Douglas, then the BBC’s controller of Radio 2 and 6 Music, was ‘incredibly tolerant’ of his inappropriate sexual behaviour while he was a star presenter.

In his memoir, he claimed this included allowing him to use the BBC’s disabled toilets for sex with 6 Music competition winners.

Channel 4 bosses, who turned a blind eye to Brand’s sordid behaviour, will now also be facing questions as to why he was allowed to commit sex attacks in plain sight. 

Meanwhile, detectives weighed up whether to bring charges against the entertainment industry, as well as Brand’s aides for enabling his crimes. However, they decided there was not enough evidence. 

At least two other women came forward to accuse Brand of sexual abuse before the trial, but the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to proceed with their allegations. 

This week, detectives have appealed for more victims of the comedian to come forward as it was revealed officers had submitted files of evidence in the hope of bringing new charges.   

The 51-year-old is also facing civil claims in both Britain and America, after a woman lodged a High Court claim alleging he forced himself on her at his LA mansion in 2008. 

Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley said he would not be surprised if ‘many more’ alleged victims of Russell Brand now came forward.

‘It does make a difference because people see it is possible, and you will be believed,’ Sir Mark told BBC Breakfast. 

‘There’s two more cases we’re investigating at the moment. I clearly wouldn’t be surprised if many more came forward.’

Meanwhile, Sir Mark said some of what he heard reported from Brand’s trial was ‘getting very close to victim blaming’.

‘The wider point I would make: this looks at one hand it’s a celebrity, but most sex offending is where someone of power exploits that with someone who is less powerful themselves,’ he told Times Radio. 

‘It might be an uncle, it might be a teacher, it might be a vicar. Could be a whole range of different situations. 

‘And what cases like this show is, it doesn’t matter how powerful the person is, we will support you, and we will try and bring down the person who did something ghastly to you.’

Meanwhile, comedian Katherine Ryan spoke of her ‘grief and relief’ after Brand’s conviction for rape and sexual assault.  

The stand-up and TV star added there are ‘a lot of women speaking privately and quietly’ following the verdict, who feel ‘a very nuanced mix of emotions’.

Ryan previously claimed in an interview with Louis Theroux that there was a ‘predator’ in the entertainment industry.

She added that she could not name the male comic as it would be a ‘litigious minefield’ but mentioned that she had been on a TV programme with him and told the individual he was a ‘predator’ to ‘his face’.

It was widely speculated she was referring to her time on Comedy Central’s Roast Battle in 2018 alongside Brand, but the Canadian comic has not confirmed she was referring to Brand and has not named the show she was working on.

Reflecting on the guilty verdict on her podcast Telling Everybody Everything, Ryan said: ‘It really made me feel just quite dysregulated again, caught off-guard, emotional, in awe of the survivors who also had nothing to gain.

‘They came forward despite Russell Brand having fame, power, money, and a legion of fans ready to attack them.’

She added: ‘I will never be someone who like, dances on graves. There has been some justice done today. There’s a level of relief, but there’s grief alongside relief.

‘Everything’s nuanced, and it was proved in court that a terrible thing happened, and that means that a terrible thing happened.

‘I just think again and again about people who have been hurt, and who have to carry that, who’ve carried that around long enough, and will continue to carry that in some way, regardless of what justice is done.

‘This verdict came because women were hurt, and I worry as well about what happens next.

She continued: ‘There are a lot of women speaking, like the way we always do, privately and quietly, the way we’ve learned to do, to avoid being attacked and to keep each other safe, and a lot of those women feel a very nuanced mix of emotions today.’

Ryan also blasted the actions of Brand’s barrister, who launched into a tirade at a journalist outside the courtroom.

Ian Winter KC confronted Sunday Times journalist Rosamund Urwin, whose investigation led to Brand’s victims coming forward, telling her: ‘I hope you are pleased with yourself.’

Ms Urwin responded: ‘I’m pleased justice has been done,’ before Mr Winter said: ‘Well, it wasn’t. You f***** it.’

‘Congratulations,’ he added.

Ryan said: ‘That was so unprofessional, so inappropriate, so aggressive. Really sickening.’

During the trial, Mr Winter had argued that reporting of allegations against Brand by Ms Urwin and others had ‘poisoned the well’, and rendered it impossible for him to have a fair trial.

The trial judge, Mr Justice Bennathan, dismissed an attempt by Brand to block his trial from taking place because of negative media coverage.

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