Jimmy Carr is facing a backlash after sharing a Russell Brand joke while promoting his latest stand-up tour.
The 54-year-old comedian posted the clip on X just an hour after Brand was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison. Carr was using the video to advertise his new tour, Killing Jokes.
In the 30-second extract from an earlier performance, an audience member shouted: “What do you think about Russell Brand?”
Carr replied: “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.”
The gag quickly drew criticism online, with one person describing it as “beyond despicable”.
Another wrote: “Trying to sell tickets on the back of a rapist being sent down is a scum move.”
Some users also accused Carr of hypocrisy, pointing to his previous appearances alongside Brand on television and comedy line-ups.
“It’s a pity you weren’t so forthcoming when you were repeatedly appearing on TV shows and comedy line-ups with him,” one critic posted.
Jimmy Carr has faced scrutiny from fans after using a joke about Russell Brand to promote his latest tour
The Daily Mail has contacted Jimmy Carr’s representatives for comment.
The controversy follows Brand’s conviction for raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others.
The 51-year-old was sentenced yesterday to 10 years and six months in prison for the offences.
Brand closed his eyes as he was found guilty of raping a 21-year-old fan whom he selected from the audience after one of his Hammersmith Apollo performances in 2009.
The woman, overwhelmed by Brand’s celebrity status, agreed to visit his £2.3million home in Hampstead several days later to have sex.
She told the court that the encounter began with Brand unnervingly ordering her to strip, shower and brush her teeth before they went to bed.
Brand, who was 33 at the time, pushed her face down into a pillow on his “enormous” bed and removed his condom while raping her, leaving her struggling to breathe.
The woman was left bleeding. She later said Brand told her to “clean up the mess you’ve made” before turning on the television to watch the science-fiction series Quantum Leap.
During the trial, prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones described women as a “disposable commodity” to Brand and referred to him as “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 said she later told Brand: “You treated me like an animal.” She recalled that he replied: “I’m sorry.”
Other women who gave evidence said Brand pressured them into sexual activity, in some cases within moments of meeting them, while using his fame in pursuit of his stated ambition to sleep with 5,000 women.
After a four-week trial and eight-and-a-half hours of jury deliberations, Brand was convicted of the 2009 rape and of sexually assaulting an MTV employee at a Soho party. He was cleared of orally raping the same woman in a toilet afterwards.
Brand, who has described himself as a born-again Christian and said he wore the “full armour of God” in court, was also convicted of sexually assaulting a Capital Radio worker after encountering her in a corridor in 2005.
He was further found guilty of sexually assaulting a Channel 4 employee during a forced massage in 2009. He was cleared of two rape charges and one count of attempted indecent assault.
After the trial, it emerged that Brand is also accused of raping two other women, one of whom was 16 at the time. The Crown Prosecution Service is seeking to bring additional charges.
Prosecution documents not shown to the jury referred to possible “outstanding charges” relating to a schoolgirl whom Brand allegedly groomed and raped when he was 30.
The girl, identified by the pseudonym “Alice” in the 2023 Channel 4 Dispatches programme that exposed allegations against Brand, claimed a BBC car collected her from school and took her to the star’s home, where she was later abused.
She alleged that, during their three-month relationship, Brand called her “my little dolly” and that she had to punch him to stop one attack.
BBC executives are also expected to face questions after Brand claimed that his former boss, Lesley Douglas, then the BBC controller of Radio 2 and 6 Music, had been “incredibly tolerant” of his inappropriate sexual behaviour while he was a presenter.
In his memoir, Brand alleged that this included being allowed to use BBC disabled toilets to have sex with 6 Music competition winners.
Channel 4 executives, who have been accused of ignoring Brand’s behaviour, are likewise facing scrutiny over why he was allegedly able to carry out sexual attacks in plain sight.
Detectives also considered whether charges could be brought against people in the entertainment industry and Brand’s aides for allegedly helping to facilitate his crimes. They ultimately concluded there was insufficient evidence.
At least two other women approached authorities with allegations of sexual abuse before the trial, but the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to pursue those cases.
This week, police appealed for further alleged victims to come forward after officers submitted evidence files in the hope of securing additional charges.
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Brand is also facing civil claims in Britain and the United States. One woman has filed a High Court claim alleging that he forced himself on her at his Los Angeles mansion in 2008.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said he would not be surprised if “many more” alleged victims came forward following Brand’s conviction.
“It does make a difference because people see it is possible, and you will be believed,” Sir Mark told BBC Breakfast.
“There are two more cases we’re investigating at the moment. I clearly wouldn’t be surprised if many more came forward.”
Sir Mark also said some of the commentary surrounding Brand’s trial had come “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. It could be a whole range of different situations.
“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.”
Comedian Katherine Ryan has also spoken about feeling both “grief and relief” after Brand was convicted of rape and sexual assault.
The stand-up performer and television star said many women were speaking “privately and quietly” after the verdict and experiencing “a very nuanced mix of emotions”.
Ryan previously told Louis Theroux that there was a “predator” in the entertainment industry.
She said she could not identify the male comedian because doing so would create a “litigious minefield”, but claimed she had appeared on a television programme with him and told him directly that he was “a predator”.
It was widely speculated that Ryan was referring to her appearance on Comedy Central’s Roast Battle in 2018 alongside Brand. However, the Canadian comedian has never confirmed that Brand was the person she meant or identified the programme in question.
Discussing Brand’s 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.
Hi, I’m Alex Matthews, Editor of The Crime Desk.
Russell Brand has been found guilty of rape and three sexual assaults – and our reporters Caroline Cheetham and Liz Hull were in court every day to witness it all. They sat down with Detective Inspector Laura Nelson, who explained why the women who accused him in the infamous documentary were not involved in his rape trial.
“They came forward despite Russell Brand having fame, power, money, and a legion of fans ready to attack them.”
She continued: “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.”
Ryan added: “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.”
She also criticised the conduct of Brand’s barrister, who confronted a journalist outside the courtroom after the verdict.
Ian Winter KC approached Sunday Times journalist Rosamund Urwin, whose reporting helped bring Brand’s alleged victims forward, and said: “I hope you are pleased with yourself.”
Ms Urwin replied: “I’m pleased justice has been done,” prompting Mr Winter to say: “Well, it wasn’t. You f***** it.”
“Congratulations,” he added.
Ryan described the exchange as “so unprofessional, so inappropriate, so aggressive. Really sickening.”
During the trial, Mr Winter argued that coverage of the allegations by Ms Urwin and others had “poisoned the well” and made it impossible for Brand to receive a fair hearing.
Mr Justice Bennathan rejected Brand’s attempt to stop the trial on the grounds that extensive negative media coverage had prejudiced the proceedings.
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