I very much enjoy Jimmy Carr when he is personable, e.g. In his tv-shows (and his new game show is really fun, check it out!), but it seems specials changes his humor too much for me to enjoy. Let me explain.
I think Jimmy does his best humor when he stands face to face with people in his game shows. In that space it feels like he is close enough to the people he is joking about that he hits the right level of 'making fun of' and 'laughing with'. In this special it is clear that he is too distanced from the people he makes fun of and too shallow to hit the depth of the material required for a 'dark joke' to land well: It makes his jokes feel superficial (and because of that, more mean-spirited than 'lets' joke away the pain').
Another issue with Jimmy's material being this detached from his targets is that when he goes for personal insults he falls back on stereotypes and social norm. E.g. Women who have multiple partners = bad (the numerous 'large vagina' jokes), or when he deals with heckler Charlie, he doesn't 'make fun of' Charlie, he makes fun of his mother. The best way to insult a man is to insult the women in his life? Where have I heard that six million comedians later... There was also some cringy material this time around, like slagging off vegans, makes him seem old and out of touch to be honest.
Finally, his interesting opening line, to avoid spoilers, something to the effect of 'raping someone isn't the same as joking about rape'. Ok, but joking about rape isn't non-harmful. What makes it worse is that he clearly shows some understanding for that later in his show when it comes to racial jokes he makes, how is he oblivious to it when it comes to gender?
I think Jimmy does his best humor when he stands face to face with people in his game shows. In that space it feels like he is close enough to the people he is joking about that he hits the right level of 'making fun of' and 'laughing with'. In this special it is clear that he is too distanced from the people he makes fun of and too shallow to hit the depth of the material required for a 'dark joke' to land well: It makes his jokes feel superficial (and because of that, more mean-spirited than 'lets' joke away the pain').
Another issue with Jimmy's material being this detached from his targets is that when he goes for personal insults he falls back on stereotypes and social norm. E.g. Women who have multiple partners = bad (the numerous 'large vagina' jokes), or when he deals with heckler Charlie, he doesn't 'make fun of' Charlie, he makes fun of his mother. The best way to insult a man is to insult the women in his life? Where have I heard that six million comedians later... There was also some cringy material this time around, like slagging off vegans, makes him seem old and out of touch to be honest.
Finally, his interesting opening line, to avoid spoilers, something to the effect of 'raping someone isn't the same as joking about rape'. Ok, but joking about rape isn't non-harmful. What makes it worse is that he clearly shows some understanding for that later in his show when it comes to racial jokes he makes, how is he oblivious to it when it comes to gender?
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