I'm guessing the soldiers themselves who probably don't want to be pitied or given well-natured but ultimately unproductive sympathy. It's exactly the kind of humour that plays well with soldiers or those in jobs with an element of danger. My ex-father in law is a retained fireman and says this is common in the service: way of coping with some of the worst aspects of the job, because if you didn't laugh you'd go mad.

I rather the Mail is in full-on hypocrite mode, hoping to deflect a bit of flak.

the more realistic it seems. I'll lay a bet now that an ex service amputee wins a gold medal at the 2012 paralympics. I doubt the Mail will praise Jimmy Carrs foresight should it happen.

...but it was a joke and I certainly wasn't offended by it. The fact is, those with diffculties in this department - the disabled etc - in general, don't want to be treated differently, and want to be included in every part of life, including piss-taking. And that's all it was - piss-taking.

Are we never to take the piss now? Is that what the world has come to? Anyway, it was a pretty positive piss-take. It's just something else for the professional offence-takers to get in a lather about. IE, zero.

Jimmy Carr whose act has long made jokes about those well-known acceptable subjects paedophilia, rape and domestic violence without attracting particular ire from the Mail?

A cynical person might wonder if the Mail were attempting to deflect attention from the rather collosal log in their own eye...

Doesn't it exhaust everyone to be constantly on the look out to be offended all the time? I've found the past week exhausting just watching everyone else get offended and outraged.

Like with the Jonathan Ross incident, the gag itself seems pretty throwaway stuff and hardly worth the trouble its caused. I've heard far edgier stuff from Carr.

If you want to see something *Really* offensive, here is Daily Mail Readers favourite Jim Davidson entertaining the troops:

william shatner entertaining the troops

I can't stand the bugger. ( That Dan Leno's a rum cove ).

Headley Court in teh past, has spoken with servicemen without patronising the arse off them and maybe even (being a comedian) took the idea of the joke from something one of them said to him. Or stole it wholesale. (allegedly - Word lawyers) - is pretty key I'd say.

Whether you personally find Carr funny is neither here nor there but i'm all for humour that makes you laugh and think. Jerry Sadowitz goes much further with saying the unsayable and testing how far audiences will go.

First time I saw Carr live he had this line - "My act does involve the use of strong language. If this offends you I'd advise you to not be a cunt about it"

In fact I'm sure I saw news footage of Carr leaving Ross's house during the Sachs scandal - a friend rallying round. Marked man at the Mail from then on? Maybe. I bet they wish he was a Beeb employee rather than one of 4's stars.

compared to much else of his output. Makes a change from the default laugh territory du jour of paedophilia.

I'm not really a fan of his but I admire his technique. The joke in question is actually one of his more positive ones, and the sort of humour that I'm sure would play well with squaddies.

The only thing I slightly take issue with though is when the likes of Carr and Gervais say the sound they like the best is that 'ooh' immediately following a laugh, as in 'should I really be laughing at that?'. Fine, but couldn't the same have been said about the likes of Bernard Manning, an undoubtedly skilled comedian?

It's been discussed on here before, but I'm still not 100% convinced that the 'new offensiveness' school of comedians are basically great people who obviously don't mean the things they say (that being the premise that supposedly lets them 'get away with it').

As Ricky Gervais said recently 'one false move and I'm Jim Davidson'. It's a fine line indeed.