A new Channel 4 program that asks a studio audience to vote on whether comedian Jimmy Carr should demolish an Adolf Hitler picture has drawn criticism.
For Jimmy Carr Destroys Art, the channel has purchased pieces by Hitler and other “problematic” artists.
The program will be “a careful and nuanced investigation of the boundaries of free speech in art,” according to Channel 4.
The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, meanwhile, criticized it as being “very inappropriate” and referred to Carr as an “inflammatory” presenter.
The comedian received harsh criticism earlier this year for including a Holocaust-related performance in his most recent Netflix stand-up special.
The Channel 4 program, which will be broadcast later this month, is also anticipated to include artwork by sexual predators Eric Gill and Rolf Harris, two former entertainers who were convicted guilty of sexually assaulting minors.
Carr would moderate a live debate on television about what to do with the in-question pieces, according to Ian Katz, the programming director for Channel 4 who spoke to the Guardian.
Every work of art has supporters, he added. “So you have a supporter of Hitler. Someone will argue that Hitler’s moral character should not determine whether or not a work of art exists, rather than for Hitler.”
In danger of Trivializing
“There is nothing fun or laughable about Hitler or the death of six million Jews, and the oppression of millions more,” Holocaust Memorial Day Trust CEO Olivia Marks-Woldman remarked.
The program was elevating the Nazi dictator “This is terribly improper and dangerously trivializing at a time when the Holocaust is being distorted more and more,” she continued.
“The extent to which art may be related to its creators is an important subject, but this presentation is just a shock value stunt and cannot justify the trivialization of the horrors of Nazism,” said one critic of the event.
“Choosing Jimmy Carr to front this show is purposefully provocative and controversial given his background,” Ms. Marks-Woldman continued.
A representative for Channel 4 stated: “A careful and nuanced examination of the boundaries of artistic freedom and the question of whether works by morally repugnant artists still merit seeing may be found in Jimmy Carr Destroys Art.
“It is in keeping with a long legacy of Channel 4 programming and speaks directly to the current debate around cancel culture.”
Carr remained silent in public regarding the criticism he received for his Holocaust joke earlier this year.
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