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Return of the charm offensive

added 27.11.04 Alexander Edwards reviews the new DVD from
stand-up comedian Jimmy Carr...
barbed disdain | horribly wrong
Barbed disdain
You know its almost Christmas when the smug-faced host of lowest-common-denominator TV game shows like Distraction and Your Face or Mine? releases his own DVD of stand-up comedy. Fortunately for Jimmy Carr, his is rather good.

Anybody at all familiar with former oil-executive Carr will know that he is the master of the barbed, tactless one-liner, “my father used to say that whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. That was before the accident.” being a good example. Carr reels off this and many other jokes with a little panache and a great deal of self-confidence-cum-arrogance. Indeed, Carr’s aggressively superior on-stage persona is displayed to full effect here, sneering with calculated middle-class disdain throughout.

Carr’s greatest trick, however, is to make his audience enjoy being implicated in his shameless prejudices by laughing at his remarks about women, gypsies, the handicapped and others, for instance his claim that he isn’t gay, unless you come from Newcastle, “in which case ‘gay’ means ‘owns a coat’ ”.

Horribly wrong
This works best in a hilarious section of the show in which Carr takes the audience through several fake ads he has placed in various newspapers across the country, along with the distinctly less-original (but still funny) crank letters to various public figures, including one letter to Prof. Stephen Hawking, a stunt that Carr ruefully admits went “horribly wrong”. Stunts like this are frequently nauseatingly adolescent in nature, but Carr is so brazen you can’t help but be swept up in it.

If there are any downsides to the show on this DVD, it’s that much of the material is relatively old, with some dating back to Carr’s breakthrough Royal Variety performance gig (which is, incidentally, included on the Bonus Features). However, it’s still worth the purchase as it collects it all together in one neat package. Roll on next year’s tour…

Jimmy Carr's website

Comments for "Return of the charm offensive"

also, why did all* the comedians (and various other presenters etc) go to cambridge? shouldnt they be happy in their graduate oil executive roles?! dont comedians start out at 15 in sweaty pervy working mens clubs and work their way to the top by the time theyre 50 and fat? not really a complaint... more a (rubbish) observation

(and before you say it, no i didnt apply to oxbridge ;)

*some of
ladysadie
30/11/2004 20:59
I once saw Jimmy Carr outside the Odeon cinema in Liverpool. One of those situations where you spend three hours thinking 'Who WAS that???' Then going 'aaaahhhh I remember.'
Sean
30/11/2004 12:13
Ah, the man responsible for the classic "Throwing acid is wrong- in some people's eyes."
Mark
29/11/2004 17:16
i love jimmy carr
mim
29/11/2004 12:38