CHANNEL Ten's comedy show Good News Week had overstepped the boundaries of humour according to the Federal Government, after it made continued jokes about autistic children on last night's program.

Federal parliamentary secretary for disabilities Bill Shorten has slammed the producers of the show, claiming he was bombarded with calls from upset families after it went to air.

"I've got a good sense of humour but I fail to see the funny side of making people feel terrible," he told The Daily Telegraph.

"Kids with autism and their parents' battle prejudice every day. Now I'm not in the political correctness brigade but there have been many parents that have rung me and are upset.

"Humiliating kids who are vulnerable is not humour."

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The attempt at humour came initially from the show's guest, UK comedian Russell Kane, who appears to trademark his comedy routine by attacking people with autism.

He was boasting about how his team beat the show's host Paul McDermott's team in the great comedy debate. He later tried to mimic an autistic person.

"We went at you like an autistic kid on a drumwe destroyed you," said Mr Kane, to a muted response from the audience.

Mr McDermott replied: "You can see that they don't like autism humour here." Later in the program another of the show's alleged funny men Mikey Robbins also made reference to autism.

NSW mother of six Candy Jubb, who has three children with autism, said she was a regular watcher of the program but was appalled at the comments.

"I was pretty disgusted with it," she said. "I watch that show a lot and I was very disappointed. I did a bit of research and found that Russel Kane uses autistic jokes a lot." "We are sorry for any offence the autistic comment may have caused but felt Good News Week host Paul McDermott's immediate comment of 'you can see they don't like autistic humour here' made it clear it was a step too far," said a Network Ten spokesperson.

"TEN is a strong supporter of autism awareness. We are currently supporting the Alpha Autism campaign and we intend to increase our Community Service Announcement commitment for the AEIOU Foundation.

"We are also looking at opportunities to increase awareness of issues surrounding autism through our regular programming line-up and will include a link on The Good News Week website for viewers who would like to get involved with an autism support organisation.

Anthony Perl, the head of autism support group Aspect NSW, said the joke was unfortunate considering April was Autism Awareness month.

Mr Shorten invited the show's hosts to meet with families of children with autism so they could be educated as to what the reality of life is like for them and their parents.

Originally published as Outrage over autistic kids joke