The Limits of Laughter? Jimmy Carr Explains Why Not Everyone Can Take a Joke

“Comedians are a competitive bunch and I think, at our worst, we don’t want to acknowledge how funny our colleagues are.”

What’s the view from your sofa?

I’m on the road a lot touring, so I watch the majority of things on a laptop, sadly. When I’m at home, I just enjoy being at home.

What have you watched recently?

Quentin Tarantino wrote this brilliant book, Cinema Speculation, which talks a lot about ’70s cinema, so I’ve been doing a deep dive through old Stanley Kubrick and Steve McQueen movies. I came to the US comedy Hacks [Sky Comedy/Now] very late. Because it’s about comics, I thought, “I do that at work,” but the performances are incredible.

TV, for me, is very much about Christmas and the double edition of Radio Times. It’s such a lovely thing when the nation comes together and watches telly, like the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special.

You host Last One Laughing UK, where 10 comedians, including Sara Pascoe, Bob Mortimer and Richard Ayoade, try to make each other laugh. What would you do to make them laugh?

Comedians are a competitive bunch and I think, at our worst, we don’t want to acknowledge how funny our colleagues are. I appear to be quite proper and use wordplay, but I don’t know if that’s the way to play this game. It’s about the weird and wonderful: a fart gag from me would be very unexpected.

Who makes you laugh?

Sean Lock [who died in 2021] made me laugh more than anyone. I was unable to control myself – it was like that sensation of being at a funeral or a school assembly and you’re not meant to laugh. While hosting 8 Out of 10 Cats, he made me laugh so much that I’d cry and my makeup had to be retouched, and I’d do my weird honking goose of a laugh. I miss him very much.

Have you always had that laugh?

Yeah, but I didn’t have it for the first few years that I was on TV. It took a while before I was relaxed enough to really let it go, which is the weird thing about kind of growing up in public. It’s an odd laugh, but I quite like it.

Do you think any jokes are off-limits?

You can joke about anything, but not with anyone. I subscribe to the benign violation theory where jokes are safe spaces, and you take something that is a violation and you make it OK through laughing at it, as a way of processing and getting through tough times. Also, never refuse the muse. If something strikes you as funny, you write it down and then try it in front of an audience, and let them decide what is and isn’t funny or acceptable. There’s a wisdom in crowds.

You’ve been in comedy for 25 years – has it changed much?

It feels like comedy is going through a golden age. It’s a broad church. You get edgy, transgressive stuff, which is what I do, and then in 2023, Britain’s Got Talent was won by this incredible clowning act [Viggo Venn]. With the streamers and YouTube now, there’s something for everyone, whenever you want it, and that didn’t really exist when I was growing up.

I don’t often think what comedians do is important, but I think a show like Last One Laughing UK, which is unapologetically silly, giddy and joyful, in a world where there’s a lot of hand-wringing and angst, feels like the right show for our times.

The Top Secret Comedy Club in Covent Garden has recently banned guests with Botox in order to liven up the crowd. What do you think about that?

I would look surprised… if I could. Does that mean Katherine Ryan and I can no longer play the club? Because we’re mostly Botox. Of course it’s a PR stunt, but it’s a fun PR stunt. It speaks to something interesting, which is when you watch live comedy, the person on stage isn’t the only one performing. Being in an audience is performative: people laugh out loud in a way that maybe they wouldn’t if they were just staring at their phone.

The first four episodes of Last One Laughing UK are available on Amazon Prime Video from Thursday 20th March. Tickets for Jimmy’s brand new live tour, Laughs Funny, are on sale now.

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