Jimmy Carr
James Anthony Patrick Carr is a British-Irish comedian. He began his career in 1997 with a series of successful stand-up performances. He has regularly appeared on television as the host of Channel 4 panel shows such as The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, 8 Out of 10 Cats, and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. Carr is known for his rapid-fire deadpan delivery of one-liners.
Early life and education
James Anthony Patrick Carr was born on 15 September 1972, in Isleworth, London. He is the second of three sons born to Irish parents Nora Mary and Patrick James "Jim" Carr, an accountant who became the treasurer for computer company Unisys. His parents were married in 1970 and separated in 1994, never divorcing.Carr spent most of his early life in the village of Farnham Common, Buckinghamshire, where he attended Farnham Common School and Burnham Grammar School. Carr was diagnosed with dyslexia and could not read or write at his expected level until around ten or eleven years old. He completed sixth form at the Royal Grammar School in nearby High Wycombe.
After earning four A grades at A-level, Carr studied social science and political science at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, graduating with first-class honours in 1994. He went on to work in the marketing department at Shell, but took voluntary redundancy in January 2000 as he felt "miserable" there. He performed his first paid stand-up gig later that month, having done his debut pub show unpaid only the previous December. He said a course in neuro-linguistic programming helped him realize how his mind was working to hold him back from following his dreams of becoming a comedian.
In 2001, Carr's mother, Nora Mary, died of pancreatitis, at age 57. Following her death, Carr's relationship with his father became "severely strained". In 2004, his father was arrested and accused of harassing Carr and his brother Colin, but was cleared and won an apology from the Metropolitan Police. In 2021, Carr said he had not spoken to his father since 2000 and had not seen him in person, with the exception of an autograph signing after a gig in 2015, where they saw each other but did not speak.
Career
Television
Hosting
Carr has hosted Channel 4 game shows Distraction and Your Face or Mine?. He presented the 100s series of programmes for Channel 4: 100 Worst Pop Records, 100 Worst Britons, 100 Greatest Cartoon Characters, 100 People Who Look Most Like Jimmy Carr and 100 Scary Moments.Since 2005, Carr has presented the comedy panel show 8 Out of 10 Cats. The show aired on Channel 4 until 2016, when it moved to More4. It later went to E4. Since 2012, Carr has also presented over 150 episodes of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, a combination of his panel show 8 Out of 10 Cats and daytime quiz show Countdown.
In April 2010, Carr hosted the first British version of a comedy roast show, Channel 4's A Comedy Roast. On 6 May 2010, he was a co-host of Channel 4's Alternative Election Night, with David Mitchell, Lauren Laverne and Charlie Brooker. He joined the three presenters again for 10 O'Clock Live, a Channel 4 comedy current-affairs show, which started airing in January 2011.
In 2014 and 2015, Carr guest-presented two episodes of Sunday Night at the Palladium on ITV. In 2018, he presented American comedy panel show The Fix on Netflix. From 2018 to 2020, Carr hosted the Comedy Central series Roast Battle. From 2021, he has hosted the Channel 4 quiz show I Literally Just Told You.
In March 2025, he hosted the first series of LOL: Last One Laughing UK with Roisin Conaty. In October 2025, Carr hosted the first series of Am I The A******? with GK Barry and Jamali Maddix on Comedy Central
Guest appearances
Carr contributed sketches to Channel 4 topical comedy TV programme The 11 O'Clock Show and has appeared on panel shows A League of Their Own and QI. During a guest appearance on the BBC motoring show Top Gear, Carr set a new celebrity test track lap record on the 'Star in a Reasonably Priced Car' segment. He was described as "the worst driver we've ever had" and "the luckiest man alive" by Top Gear test driver the Stig.Carr has appeared as a contestant on celebrity editions of Deal or No Deal, The Chase, Benchmark, Tipping Point, Catchphrase, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, winning £1,000.
Carr was a guest presenter for one edition of Have I Got News for You; in 2007 he joined Ian Hislop's team in the edition of the show chaired by Ann Widdecombe, with whom he "flirted" outrageously. Later in the episode, Widdecombe said: "I don't think I shall return to this programme."
Radio
In January 2006, Carr made a joke on Radio 4's Loose Ends, the punchline of which implied that Gypsy women stank. The BBC issued an apology, but Carr refused to apologize and continued to use the joke. He appeared in two episodes of the radio series of Flight of the Conchords in 2005.Carr has appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity a total of seven times since 2011. He was the Museum Curator and a guest on the 2018 Annual Stock Take Christmas special, alongside Lee Mack, Jo Brand and Sally Philips.
Podcasts
Carr's podcast appearances go back to at least 2010 with a one-off podcast called Jimmy Carr and Frankie Boyle: Meet the Comedians. Carr's podcast appearances ramped up significantly during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, with recent appearances during this period including The Betoota Advocate Podcast, You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes, The Comedian's Comedian, The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast, and Dane Baptiste Questions Everything.Stand-up comedy
Carr performs stand-up tours continuously over most of the course of the year, originally taking only five weeks off between them.His first five minutes of stand-up were at an Islington pub, the Tut 'n' Shive, in December 1999. From 2000 to 2003, he started appearing regularly, around London, at Up The Creek, The Banana Cabaret and The Bearcat Comedy Club. In 2003, he was listed in the Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.
In 2004, he threatened to sue Jim Davidson for using a joke that Carr considered his own. The matter was dropped when it became apparent that the joke in question was an old one used for decades by many different comedians. He toured the country with his show A Public Display of Affection, starting on 9 April 2005 at the Gulbenkian Theatre in Canterbury and ending on 14 January 2006 at the Gielgud Theatre in London's West End. He also appeared at the EICC during the Edinburgh Festival in August 2005 with his Off The Telly show.
In August 2006, he commenced the tour Gag Reflex, for which he won the 2006 British Comedy Award for "Best Live Stand-Up". He released his third DVD, Jimmy Carr: Comedian, in November 2007.
In 2007, a poll on the Channel 4 website for 100 Greatest Stand-Ups, Jimmy Carr was 12th. A national tour, titled Repeat Offender, commenced in autumn 2007, beginning at the Edinburgh Festival. On 3 February 2007, Carr's performance in front of 50 people in London was broadcast simultaneously on the virtual platform Second Life.
His Rapier Wit tour opened on 20 August 2009 with eight shows at the Edinburgh Festival before touring the UK. He released a DVD entitled Jimmy Carr: Telling Jokes on 2 November 2009. Also on 5 and 6 July 2009, Carr was the warm up act for Las Vegas band The Killers at their DVD record gigs.
In October 2009, Carr received criticism from Sunday tabloid newspapers for a joke he made about British soldiers who had lost limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying the UK would have a strong team in the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Carr defended his own joke as "totally acceptable" in an interview with The Guardian. He had met with staff and patients at the rehabilitation centre, Headley Court, in March 2009.
Carr's sixth Live DVD, Jimmy Carr: Making People Laugh, was released on 8 November 2010. Carr's 2010–11 tour, entitled Laughter Therapy, started with a run at the Edinburgh Festival before touring the UK. Carr was criticised in November 2011 for a joke about the Variety Club's Sunshine coaches, which offer holidays for children with Down syndrome. The charity and Down Syndrome Education International condemned the joke. Carr defended himself by saying nothing should be off limits.
A Guardian profile in 2012 said: "In terms of reach and earning power... one of the nation's most popular stand-up comedians... in his ability to pull in crowds which generate millions in tour and DVD sales..." and as "the undisputed king of deadpan one-liners...". Carr released the Jimmy Carr: Laughing and Joking DVD on 18 November 2013.
In June 2019, Carr was criticised for the content of his touring show Terribly Funny. Among the controversial jokes were jokes about dwarves, fat women and female genital mutilation. Carr was also criticised by charity Little People UK, accusing him of prejudice for an "offensive" abortion joke he made about people with dwarfism.
During his Terribly Funny Tour he wrote his next tour by trying out new material in every gig. As a result of this, Jimmy Carr Laughs Funny started 17 April 2024.
On 17 April 2024, the Netflix recording of Carr's Terribly Funny 2.0 tour was released as Natural Born Killer. The one hour special attained a Top 10 spot in 29 countries. In the week 15–21 April 2024 Netflix listed the show as being 8th in the global Top 10 with 2.3 million viewing hours.
In September and October 2024, Carr joined Australian comedian Jim Jefferies for a number of joint gigs, slotted between dates for Jefferies's own tour, in Canada. Their shows were billed as The Charm Offensive Tour.