Comedian Isaac Butterfield has come under fire by the Anti-Defamation Commission following his performance at the Melbourne Comedy Festival on April 11.

A Jewish woman who attended his show said he made the remark “imagine the joy of people when they heard the Jews were sent to the gas chambers” during the gig.

Offended by the comment, she sent Mr Butterfield an email, saying: “Sitting there hearing about Jews being gassed, eight million perished including children, watching family members being gassed or tortured or shot, is not remotely funny.”

He replied: “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the oven.”

The woman, who did not want to be identified, saw this as a further attack on her community.

“This is simply disgraceful, I am outraged and distressed that this type of attitude and ignorance exists and is a topic of humour for a one-man show,” she said.

Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dvir Abramovich said the comedian should apologise for the comments.

“It’s never OK to spew such hate rhetoric, and Isaac Butterfield should be ashamed for his hideous remarks that crossed all lines and which trampled on the memory of the dead,” he said.

“It is beyond shocking to exploit the extermination of six million Jews in the Holocaust to generate despicable jokes.

“When you consider that the corpses of those killed with the poison gas were often cremated in ovens, Mr Butterfield’s email response of ‘get out of the oven’ is disturbing and vicious.”

He urged the festival organisers to consider whether he should be given a platform in future.

However, a Melbourne Comedy Festival spokeswoman said performers are able to express their views, even those deemed offensive.

“The festival does not censor artists’ work and the annual event represents the individual views, observations and humour of the artists involved,” the spokeswoman said.

“Melbourne audiences have the intelligence to make calls about the work of various comedians and either support them or hold them to account for their views.”

Mr Butterfield declined to respond to questions by the Herald Sun.

His performance Why So Serious? is said to “explore the PC culture of our ever so changing world — from the good, the bad to the ugly”.

Almost 20,000 people have signed an online petition for him to be elected to the House of Representatives this May to challenge “this crazy left-wing agenda and politically correct world”.