I’m not sure if there’s anything available online, but putting Jimmy Carr out there as a potentially interesting analysis. My recollection from seeing him some 15 years ago was of it mostly being a string of one liners, not linked, which got a lot of laughs in the moment, but didn’t make for a good show overall. There was one point where he was literally reading jokes off a clipboard. I remember it as one of the worst comedy shows I’ve been to!
Hehe, well! Let's have a look at a Jimmy Carr routine.
Caveat: I'm here to analyse craft, so positive/negative comments shouldn't be taken as endorsement/condemnation of specific acts.
I'm going to look at the first three minutes of Jimmy Carr's 2024 show Natural Born Killer on Netflix. Let's look at a transcript. Paragraph break every time there's an audience response (laughter OR cheer OR vocal response):
CONTENT WARNING: transphobia, suicide, paedophilia, misogyny
People say - you will have heard this - people say, “You can’t joke about anything these days.” Watch me now. We’re gonna kick off our evening with some short, edgy jokes, get the measure of each other, see if we’re gonna be friends. Eyes down, everyone. Let’s fucking do this. I bought my girlfriend a bath bomb. I say that - toaster. She was shocked. When my girlfriend found out I’d been drunk driving, she hit the roof. [physical performance] I was in Hong Kong. Their Chinatown is fucking massive. I’ve got a half brother. Sorry. Transgender. It’s a cliché I suppose, but I used to tell jokes at school to stop kids from bullying me. They used to shout mean things like, “Get out of our playground, you paedophile!” I’ve got feelings. My art teacher at school was a paedophile. So it really was back to the drawing board. I write a lot of my jokes on my iPhone, but the autocorrect is always fucking up the lunchline. Sure. Everyone in here’s got a mobile phone, right? And they’re incredible. They’ve done so much for us. But it has come at a price. They’ve robbed us of out ability to concentrate, those mobile phones, yeah? A good example. Last week, I had to do a simple piece of mental arithmetic, ‘course, I couldn’t do it in my head, needed the app on the phone. Before I’d even opened the calculator app, I checked my email, updated my Instagram, and hit a cyclist. Are you aware of the mobile phone secretly listening to your conversation? It’s creepy, right? You’ll be chatting to a friend about the good old days, and then for the next two weeks, you’re bombarded with adverts for anal beads and butt plugs? My girlfriend likes to be tied up, but it turns out, really scared of railway tracks.
You might be expecting a brutal takedown of this material from me, yes? But actually, I'm only here to analyse the craft. And Jimmy Carr ... is very good at the actual craft of standup comedy.
If you hate his comedy, consider this an explanation of why he's nonetheless ludicrously famous and popular.
Let's take a look.
People say - you will have heard this - people say, “You can’t joke about anything these days.” Watch me now.
An extremely efficient opening to the show. One of Jimmy Carr's main promises as a comedian is the erotics of breaking taboos.
And hey, a lot of people like taboo-breaking comedy. How many Tumblr posts have you reblogged today that make light of serious subjects? It's a human pleasure, and Jimmy Carr is offering precisely that kind of comedy.
The laugh comes from anticipation. People are excited for dark jokes, and Carr promises to deliver. The laugh's bigger because of his facial expression - he smiles mischiveously, his eyes are wide with wonder.
There's science here. When we smile, we actually feel happier! When we see someone else smile, we feel a fraction of that same happiness. Carr's smile makes the audience happy.
We’re gonna kick off our evening with some short, edgy jokes, get the measure of each other, see if we’re gonna be friends.
And this is the second half of the promise. YES, there will be offensive jokes - but that's because we're bonding. We're becoming friends. This line gets a big cheer.
"We're gonna kick off our evening" is quite a formal introduction. Carr is quite an unusual presence on stage. Unlike many dark comedians, there's a stiffness to his body language.
He's made this work for him by embracing it. He wears a suit, and he talks like a host or presenter. This gives the show a sense of structure and classiness.
Eyes down, everyone. Let’s fucking do this.
Another cheer. Carr starts the show by encouraging cheers before getting to the jokes.
Comedy shows go better if the audience feels comfortable laughing out loud. A quiet audience can be encouraged to laugh louder by being encouraged to make OTHER loud noises too. This is why comedians sometimes as audiences to cheer, or to practice whooping and applauding.
"Eyes down" is what a teacher would say in an exam. Another example of formal language, but it's also doing something else.
Exams are an ordeal. You're in your seat for a fixed amount of time, focusing intently.
Carr is a one-liner comedian, and it's hard to focus on a full hour of one-liners. "Eyes down" subtly indicates to the audience that, yes, in a way, we have to emotionally prepare ourselves for a show that won't be the easiest to enjoy!
I bought my girlfriend a bath bomb. I say that - toaster.
A lot of Carr's jokes work like this. On the surface, a misogynistic joke about violence and suicide - but really, it's just a play on words. Carr has a reputation for offensive comedy, but a surprising number of gags only seem offensive because of their context.
Imagine, for instance, a tumblr post that read:
"i'm depressed, so i bought myself a bath bomb. (toaster)"
It's the same joke, and it's still incredibly dark, but the misogynistic context is gone. You might tag it with "cw suicide" when you reblog, but tumblr would enjoy this joke, no?
A lot of the craft in Carr's work is in his physicality and timing. He slows down to deliver the words "bath bomb". When he says the word "toaster", he holds out his hands to indicate the size of a toaster. These tricks help the audience absorb the information more quickly.
Slowing down for "bath bomb" is similar to writing text in bold. It draws attention, so we know it's important. Miming holding a toaster is a tiny visual clue that helps us imagine a toaster sooner, so the joke lands harder.
As the audience laugh, Carr's eyes dart around, as though to check if he got away with the offensive joke. This makes him more likable - like a naughty child who's played a prank, rather than a grown man who's made a joke about encouraging his girlfriend to take her own life.
She was shocked.
Delivered with absolute silliness. Comedians call this kind of joke a "topper" - a short extra punchline on top of the previous joke. It's efficient, because it doesn't need additional exposition.
And it's just a pun! This is the kind of punchline we see in children's comics. But attached to the earlier joke, it has the affectation of a dark, edgy joke.
When my girlfriend found out I’d been drunk driving, she hit the roof.
A subtle half-laugh on the word "roof" encourages the audience to notice that this is the punchline. Laughter is contagious, so comedians will sometimes allow themselves to laugh on stage to increase the response to a joke.
[physical performance]
As with most of his jokes, Carr keeps performing physically during the laughter. He does a little shudder. Similar to darting his eyes around, this is a physical acknowledgement that he's just said something horrible, which helps the audience enjoy the joke.
It's a charming enough performance to get a second, smaller laugh.
I was in Hong Kong. Their Chinatown is fucking massive.
Now listen. I actually really like this joke.
Carr emphasises the word massive, and holds out his hands to reinforce the size. As before, this helps the audience absorb the punchline more quickly.
I’ve got a half brother. Sorry. Transgender.
Playing on the phrase "half brother", which normally means step-sibling, taking advantage of his audience's understanding of transgender identities, which is vague and incomplete.
To many - especially older audiences, and more conservative audiences - binary trans identities and non-binary or genderqueer/genderfluid identities are all considered the same confusing mass of somethings. It's strange and alien and a bit worrying, so it's reassuring when a comedian makes a dismissive joke about them.
"Don't worry," this joke says, "It's FINE you don't really understand your trans relative - it's just a bunch of confusing nonsense, isn't it?"
The joke gets a HUGE cheer and round of applause. I think it's a fair criticism that a joke getting that kind of reaction isn't helpful to the trans community. That's a bigoted cheer, and a responsible comedian would consider cutting the joke from the show.
As an aside, it's not a strong line - as with the toaster joke, you could use a slightly different punchline and tell this joke to a child. "I have a half-brother- he's really short!" But Carr has made this a trans joke, making the silly wordplay seem edgy and controversial.
It’s a cliché I suppose, but I used to tell jokes at school to stop kids from bullying me. They used to shout mean things like, “Get out of our playground, you paedophile!”
This joke is longer than the others so far, and that's on purpose. Comedy is funnier when we mix up different types of joke. Too many short jokes in a row is hard to absorb. So here's a longer one, to give the audience the chance to relax their minds.
The joke itself is known as a "pull-back-and-reveal". As in cinema, we're given a scene, but then we pull back to find out new information, changing the context of the joke.
Jimmy Carr told jokes to children. We assume he was a child himself at the time - but no! He was an adult! It was inappropriate for him to be there!
This is a very common type of joke in standup, especially among one-liner comics, and very new comedians. "The other day, I was listening to music on my headphones while masturbating. And then I got off the bus." New information changing the context.
I’ve got feelings.
Another topper! This is a new type of punchline. Most of Carr's jokes are wordplay, but this one's absurd. The joke is that he was hurt by the cruel children calling him a paedophile. It's a bizarre idea, so it gets a laugh.
On a meta level, it's funny for Carr to say he was hurt by being called a paedophile, when his own jokes are often cruel in exactly the same way.
My art teacher at school was a paedophile. So it really was back to the drawing board.
Here, the physical performance is essential for the joke to work.
The implication is that children would keep their backs against the drawing board to deny their art teacher access to their behinds. Carr mimes standing with his back to a wall, and widens his eyes as though frightened. When the laughter comes, he turns down the corners of his mouth and darts his eyes around to emphasise the performance of fear.
I write a lot of my jokes on my iPhone, but the autocorrect is always fucking up the lunchline.
Another joke that could be in a children's joke book, but with a swear word so it still feels adult.
Carr performs a little tutting motion to sell the punchline.
Sure.
I have to praise Carr here. He's an extremely experienced live performer. The lunchline joke gets a longer laugh than he expected, and he allows himself to look surprised, then grins, then says "sure", and this gets a second laugh.
He's reminding us that this is a live experience, and that if the audience reacts unexpectedly, his performance will change accordingly.
This is one of the most powerful tools in a live comedian's arsenal. Why bother seeing live comedy when we have access to so much entertainment on our phones? Well, because we get the thrill of seeing the interaction between the performer and the environment. Not just crowd work, but seeing choices made in the moment in response to stimuli.
This is why we like streamers, isn't it? The authentic reaction of someone live in the moment.
Everyone in here’s got a mobile phone, right?
Another bid for audience volume - of course they have a mobile phone, but Carr encourages everyone to cheer to confirm this.
And they’re incredible. They’ve done so much for us. But it has come at a price. They’ve robbed us of out ability to concentrate, those mobile phones, yeah? A good example. Last week, I had to do a simple piece of mental arithmetic, ‘course, I couldn’t do it in my head, needed the app on the phone. Before I’d even opened the calculator app, I checked my email, updated my Instagram, and hit a cyclist.
Longest joke so far! Another opportunity for minds to relax, so the audience isn't overwhelmed by one-liners.
This is another pull-back-and-reveal. We didn't realise Carr was DRIVING when using his phone!
This is also another famous comedy technique - the "rule of three". List three things, and the third thing will be a change of paradigm. Different from the first two things, and therefore funny.
"Three things I learned at school - always do your homework, never annoy the headteacher, and SOMETHING ABSURD THAT YOU WOULDN'T EXPECT ME TO LEARN AT SCHOOL lol"
Carr checked his email, updated Instagram, so we think he'll have done a third thing on his phone. But no! He hit a cyclist! That is so different from the first two!
Are you aware of the mobile phone secretly listening to your conversation?
Another cheer, another chance to encourage more volume from the audience. But there's another effect here. Not everyone DOES know about phones secretly listening to you. But when most of the audience cheers, the rest of the audience accepts that this must be true.
It's also a chance for people to absorb the premise. It's easy to make quick jokes about phone apps (becaue people use them every day) or schoolteachers (because everyone's had extensive experience of schoolteachers), but most people don't think about spyware every day. So encourage the audience to cheer, to get used to the idea that this is the subject of the next joke.
It’s creepy, right? You’ll be chatting to a friend about the good old days, and then for the next two weeks, you’re bombarded with adverts for anal beads and butt plugs?
Carr delivers this joke unlike his previous jokes - sounding like a question at the end. His mime conveys "what's THAT all about?", a physical performance we haven't yet seen. The novelty keeps the audience engaged.
The joke itself is another pull-back-and-reveal - when Carr mentioned the good old days he experienced with his friend, we didn't imagine for a second that he meant anal sex toys.
My girlfriend likes to be tied up, but it turns out, really scared of railway tracks.
Another pull-back-and-reveal, because we thought he meant BDSM etc etc.
Also a visual joke. Standup benefits from strong visuals, since otherwise all the audience sees is a performer on stage the whole time. We can SEE the railway tracks, and a woman tied to it. Maybe we imagine Carr with a long moustache, looking like a classic villain.
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