A MAYOR has hit back at comedian Jimmy Carr's jibe aimed at Colchester after the funnyman told an audience there are better looking cities in the Donbas region of Ukraine.
Carr, known for his controversial one-liners, made the quip in front of a sold-out crowd at Colchester's Charter Hall on Thursday night.
The joke landed well with the audience, but Colchester's mayor Tim Young, who confessed he is not a fan of the comedian, questioned whether he should make light of an ongoing war costing thousands of lives.
"I'm a fan of Monty Python, I do like humour that stretches the boundaries," he said.
"But whether you should be making jokes about a war which is currently going on, I'm not sure. I expect it got a laugh, but he doesn't obviously know Colchester very well.
"I know Jimmy Carr had a sold-out show, he has a lot of fans.
"But get your facts right, come and look at, collectively, what Colchester has to offer.
"If Jimmy wants to come back and see all the wonderful sites we've got with Dedham, Tiptree, the town centre, the castle, St Botolph's Priory, the Mercury Theatre, Jumbo water tower, he might change his mind.
"Colchester is on the up. Any place can be improved, but Colchester is the cultural capital of Essex.
"He doesn't know what he's talking about."
Carr, whose material took aim at everything from Covid-19 sceptics to the gender debate, made several quips about his use of a tax avoidance scheme, revealed by the national press in 2012.
Read our review: 'Rapid-fire' Jimmy Carr brings big laughs at Colchester Charter Hall
He also opened with a tongue-in-cheek swipe at the quality of the venue.
He described Charter Hall as the kind of place people gather after a natural disaster, to big laughs from the crowd.
Mr Young said the venue is a "multi-functional hall" which also hosts "not just stage shows and concerts".
"Sports are played there, there are conferences held there, as well as the count for elections," he said.
"It's the biggest venue we've got in Colchester. If we want A-list acts to come, the Mercury and the Arts Centre can be too small."
He accused Carr of recycling old jokes, "much like his hair".
Carr himself joked about having a hair transplant during the act.
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