Top 10 Controversial Jokes By British Comedians

Monty Python’s Life of Brian is by far the oldest entry on this list and a beloved comedy classic. It also sparked one of the most famous cases of controversy in British film history, causing outrage amongst the Christian community. The film was banned in several countries and the Python’s were forced to justify their work, however it all ended up being a land mark victory for freedom of speech, sparking lively debate and starting a huge trend in comedy and comedians pushing boundaries.

Sometimes it’s difficult to tell when a seemingly offensive joke is just a brutal and satirical look at our world and when it’s just plain offensive. This joke made by Danny Baker was deemed offensive, racist and in very poor taste, resulting in Baker losing his job. In case you don’t remember Baker tweeted a picture of a monkey, claiming it to be the offspring of Prince Harry and Megan Markle. Megan is half black which makes the whole thing incredibly dodgey, and while many comedians stepped up to support Baker, the historically racist connotation of the ‘joke’ is hard to deny.

You knew Jimmy Carr was going to make an appearance on here and his most recent outrage is definitely a rather harsh and nasty piecework even by Carr’s typically edgy standards. In the joke Carr speculated as to whether or not that dwarfs were abortions that managed to survive. It left a very bad taste in many people’s mouths and as you might expect it caused a lot of upset in the dwarf community including Warwick Davis. Jimmy Carr is, of course, no stranger to such controversy.

One of the most recent occurrences on this list and another example of the complicated issue regarding freedom of speech. Jo Brand made a joke about Nigel Farage after he was hit by a milk shake, Brand suggested a “better” alternative. It might not be the wittiest joke but it definitely upset Farage resulting in the police investigating. They maintained it was just a joke, but Brand decided to apologise rather than drag it out. Was she wrong to make that kind of joke? Or do Farage’s actions have larger implications on what we are allowed say? Jury’s still out.

The brilliant series, Brass Eye was also no stranger to controversial humour as well as being seriously funny… but this special episode upset quite a few people. In fact you could probably fill an entire list with the jokes contained within as the whole episode is full of controversial material about paedophilia: Like the rap song “Little White Butt” as well as the notion of a child being locked in a spaceship with a child molestor. This all happened at a time when the issue was red hot and had millions worried and upset.

Hey it’s Jimmy Carr again who knew he had such a filthy mouth? After making a joke about war veterans he caused more than a little outrage amongst the tabloids, soldiers and their families. Carr suggested that the next batch of victims who had lost their limbs to the war would make for a fantastic team in the next Paralympics. Was there a valid and satirical point being made? Or was it just shock for shock’s sake? Either way many believe that making light of young men and women being permanently harmed seems in very poor taste.

It won’t come as a surprise for most to see Frankie Boyle on this list. Frankie kicked off this feud with Katie Price when he made a joke about Katie fighting for custody of Harvey and who would keep him, except it wasn’t that mildly put. Some decried saying it was more than a little insensitive considering everything Harvey has had to contend with. However, Boyle has stated that he intended the joke to be satire of how he felt Price was exploiting her son’s conditions for fame.

Dapper Laughs has always been a controversial act, his humour tending to appeal to a more laddish niche that borders on the side of homophobic and misogynistic for most. However in one case whilst on stage Dapper made a joke about how a woman in the audience was “gagging for a rape”. This was a step too far for most and resulted in an online petition for ITV to cancel Laughs’ show. It worked too, he seemed to vanish over night although recently he has resurrected his persona but seems to be confined to the likes of Celebrity Big Brother.

Julian Clary is no stranger to making a few rude double entendres. However when he went on prime time T.V and made this joke about performing a lude act on Tory MP Norman Lamont it caused quite a stir. Don’t forget this was 1993, England was far more conservative, South Park and Brass Eye were still yet to happen. Even now making jokes about this kind of thing is still quite controversial outside of appropriate shows and context, Clary was banned from performing on live TV as a result.

This one left a nation divided. Regardless of whether you found it funny or not or even if the outraged folk may have over reacted there’s no denying this simple prank phone call back fired and went nuclear. If you’re unfamiliar (which doesn’t seem likely as this story took forever to die) Russell Brand and Jonathon Ross made a prank call live on radio and told Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs, quite bluntly, that Brand had slept with his granddaughter. Who amongst you would want to receive that call?