Warning: this article contains racism.
A range of First Nations social media users have called out an Australian comedian over jokes that say are racist.
A subsequent attempt by the comic, Isaac Butterfield, to contextualise the offensive jokes has also been met with scepticism.
The 29-year-old posted a TikTok from a recent show with the caption “the most offensive Aboriginal jokes”.
In the clip, Mr Butterfield said “Aboriginal pornography” was The National Geographic and that no one would have seen a “Transgender Aboriginal” because “the ladies already look like blokes”.
“It’s so easy to write Aboriginal jokes… they write themselves. The most Aboriginal word in the world Corroboree has the word robbery in it,” he said.
“White people in Australia never really culturally appropriated Aboriginal culture because there’s nothing that we really wanted except for the kids.”
Mr Butterfield uploaded the video to TikTok and Instagram but has since deleted them.
A screenshot of the original video Isaac Butterfield posted on his TikTok account. Credit: TikTok
Finding humour in 'the worst things possible'
On Sunday, Mr Butterfield posted a video to YouTube titled “I’m Being Cancelled For This Joke”.
In the almost 15-minute video, he explains the jokes he wrote were “deliberately bad” and that was the "whole point of them".
"We are not laughing at Aboriginal people here, we're laughing at how f*cked up the joke is itself," he explained.
Mr Butterfield did not apologise in the video, and argued that the joke videos lacked the context his whole live routine provided those in the audience.
Comedian Isaac Butterfield has been called out before after making an "offensive" joke in 2019 about the Christchurch massacre. Source: Instagram
Heated backlash
"We don't need to be in the room to read it," Goreng Goreng artist Rachael Sarra commented on the Instagram video.
"You're not a comedian..."
Creative Luke Currie-Richardson also spoke out against the routine and the comedian's motives.
"The thing is mate, these are the jokes that lead to high rates of youth suicide in our communities," he wrote.
"You posted a racist Aboriginal joke cut out of context shortly after the 26th of Jan, great media ploy knowing the high tension this time of year holds."
South Sydney Rabbitohs' Cody Walker also bit back, sharing his disgust at the clip.
"I lasted a minute of this video and I'd still react the same way if I saw it live or on video," he wrote.
"Disgusted in what's come out of your mouth!
"I for one don't find this funny at all."
In 2020, Butterfield was called out for a joke he made during his Anti-Hero tour about the 2019 Christchurch massacre, which saw 51 people killed and 49 injured as they made their daily prayers at a mosque.
Mr Butterfield said felt for the "hundreds of people that night who couldn't make it home from nightclubs in Christchurch because all the cabbies were dead".
In a video uploaded after he was called out, Mr Butterfield said he "won't apologise for the joke" because its intent was to be offensive.
NITV contacted Mr Butterfield for comment.
