Jimmy Carr

James Anthony Patrick Carr Jr (born 15 September 1972 in Slough, England) is an English comedian, author, actor and presenter of radio and television, known for his deadpan, satirical and often very dark humour.

Sourced

• I immediately adored performing. It really empowers you when everyone's laughing. It gives you an immense buzz. You just feel on top of the world.
  • Paddy Hoey (April 6, 2007) "Football's loss was definitely stand-up's gain", Daily Post.

• I think being successful in comedy is being funny and making jokes - anything beyond that is the icing on the cake.
  • Charlotte Cripps (January 31, 2007) "Stand up and be counted, comedians", The Independent.

• But what's true about comedians is that we've all got a huge hole in our personality. In a room of 3,000 people, we're the one person facing in the opposite direction - yet we have this overwhelming desire to be liked.
  • Stephen Armstrong (December 3, 2006) "He who laughs last... - Comedy", The Sunday Times, p. Culture 10.

• Jokes spread around the world and embed themselves in our shared culture; the most resonant of them get lodged in the language in the same way as clichés or old wives' tales do.
  • Jimmy Carr and Lucy Greeves (September 21, 2006) Only Joking: What's So Funny About Making People Laugh?, Gotham, ISBN 1592402356, p. 3.

• So they've laughed and then they've thought, should we have laughed at that? Well, too late now. You did. I imagine I get more than my fair share of that.
  • Patrick Barkham (September 9, 2006) "Here's Jimmy!: Jimmy Carr as Jack Nicholson in The Shining", The Guardian.

• The great thing about being a comedian is that it kind of doesn't matter how you look. It's actually a disadvantage to be too good-looking. There's a Darwinian advantage to being funny. If you're a good-looking fella, you can't be bothered to make up jokes.
  • Simon Mills (November 14, 2005) "Top Table", The Daily Mail.

• I did quite a lot of TV shows over the latter half of 2004 - all those 100 Greatest and 100 Worst and all that kind of stuff. So I was a little bit overexposed. But I think you need to do that once in your career, and that's how you become famous. You get overexposed once, and then people know your name and you can relax a bit.
  • Peter Ross (August 14, 2005) "The Joker As the face of Channel 4 he's known for his sharp suits and sharper one-liners, but what has spurred Jimmy Carr on during his swift rise from anonymity to ubiquity?", The Sunday Herald.

• TV's not the same buzz. If someone tells you three million people watched the show last week, that's good but, when you walk out in front of 1,000, you think, 'Oh my God, this had better be good'.
  • Paddy Hoey (July 15, 2005) "Carr's a comic with universal appeal", Daily Post.

• I'm a stand-up. And no one on the circuit's terribly impressed if you're on TV. I suppose I've stolen my ethos from Jay Leno. You can do all the TV in the world, but that's a team game, and anyone can be dropped from the squad. And if you haven't gigged in a while, you're not firing, you're not match fit. So I try and do it whenever I can.
  • Ed Caesar (February 21, 2005) "Think this is a laugh? You must be joking", The Independent.

• I literally can't believe my luck. Torturing Americans should not only be easy, but a pleasure!
  • On hosting the American version of his game show, Distraction — reported in James Rampton (February 19, 2005) "Comedy: Pick of the Week", The Independent.

• As soon as I did my first five minutes of stand-up I knew that I would rather be a failure at comedy than a success in marketing.
  • Will Hodgkinson (December 16, 2004) "Comedy's overgrown schoolboy", The Irish Times.

• I love those people who do story-telling and who ramble on, but I don't do that, I tell jokes - the sort of jokes that anyone really could tell in the pub.
  • Nick Ahad (November 19, 2004) "Comedian who delivers some nice lines", Yorkshire Post.

• I think that comedians, more than any other type of celebrity, have to keep their humour and keep their feet on the ground. If they start taking themselves too seriously, they're heading for a fall.
  • Charles Hutchinson (November 19, 2004) "Preview: Jimmy Carr , Grand Opera House, York November 20", North Yorkshire County Publications.

• My writing process is editing. It's taking all the funny thoughts you've had over the last 12 months, and editing out everything that's shit. You're left with an hour and a quarter of funny stuff.
  • Alastair McKay (August 10, 2004) "Obsessed by punchlines", The Scotsman, p. 4.

• To me, my approach is the most sensible. You're a comic. Therefore you want to get laughs. How do you get the most laughs in an hour? Tell short jokes. And don't say boom boom at the end. Just let the audience laugh then tell another joke. It's the shortest route to where you want to go.
  • Allan Brown (August 1, 2004) "Benefits of being game for a laugh - Edinburgh Festival", The Sunday Times.

• All comedians are a bit attention-seeking and I'm no different. Anyone with the audacity to want to be listened to for an hour and a half must be.
  • Beverley Lyons and Lee-Ann Fullerton (February 28, 2004) "The Razz: Jimmy's Brent on being funny", The Daily Record.

About

• His idea of wit is a barrage of filth and the sort of humour most men grow out of in their teens.
  • Ann Widdecombe — reported in Adam Sherwin (December 24, 2008) "Gordon is game for a laugh at Chequers lunch - People Adam Sherwin", The Times, p. 11.

• He's basically the only comedian on telly at the moment and the rest of us are all jealous.
  • Howard Read — reported in Leo Benedictus (August 16, 2005) "G2: Arts: Edinburgh: Trendspotting: Carr crash humour", The Guardian.