Jimmy Carr: Funny Business

I am not overly familiar with comedian Jimmy Carr, but I do know of him. When I stumbled upon this 2016 stand-up comedy special on Netflix in 2022, of course I opted to watch it.

Now, ironically then the show is titled "Jimmy Carr: Funny Business", however I have to say that the funny business is up for interpretation. Now, I get that everyone have a different sense of comedy, and I have to say that this 2016 special sort of fell short of providing me with much of laughter or entertainment.

There was no red thread throughout the course of the show, as Jimmy Carr was essentially just randomly blasting off jokes left and right, switching theme every other second. That was a little bit annoying for me, because I felt like I would get equally much out of just type in "jokes" on Google.

Something that astounded me in "Jimmy Carr: Funny Business" was the way that comedian Jimmy Carr is lashing out at the audience without any sense of filter or sense of when to stop. It was toe-curling at times to watch him dish out personal attacks against members of the audience.

Sure, a good amount of the jokes were actually funny, but without a proper red thread to guide the show, then it was essentially just 62 minutes of random jokes pulled from a hat, laced with some behavior that certainly felt like overstepping a line to me.

After having seen "Jimmy Carr: Funny Business", then I am not really feeling prompted to rush out to get to watch more of Jimmy Carr's material.

My rating of "Jimmy Carr: Funny Business" lands on a three out of ten stars.

This is excruciating. I couldn't manage it all the way through. It seems to have been cobbled together from jokes that have been doing the rounds for years. It's lazy comedy. If you have been living in a bunker underground for the past few decades it might be amusing, but then again, so might a urethroscopy.

Two basic characteristics of Jimmy Carr are totally moronic laughter, which is impossible to get used to, and pushing the boundaries of offensive to infinity. This man not only picks topics that most people would not touch with a two-meter stick, but also manages to turn the things that you never thought could be offensive into total shockers. Just when you think that this does not get any worse he proves you wrong. Jimmy Carr always can make it worse. Most of the performance I couldn't manage to laugh because my jaw was hanging open in disbelief. I do not know how this man is not afraid for his very life. His picture should be in the dictionaries next to the word "offensive", because this man manages to push the limits of offensiveness to absolutely any topic that could come to your mind.

9/10

Properly laugh out loud funny, Jimmy's quick wit ruthlessly ruins members of the audience.

If you get easily offended, you won't like this show. If you sometimes get offended, you won't like this show. If you never get offended, you'll absolutely love this show.

Jimmy Carr is a notorious divider of audiences. With his jokes he severely pushes the limits of ethics and morality, and makes jokes of subjects that most other comedians (even in today's society) wouldn't even touch with an iron rod. And for the most parts of the show this approach works brilliantly.

I'm not generally a big fan of stand up comedians that uses explicit sexual contents as a basis of their stand up routine. Mostly because I find that jokes on the subject usually's delivered in a very crude and unsophisticated manner. But Jimmy Carr manages to turn a simple sex joke that normally would be used for shocking effect and cheap laughs into comedy art. His confidence and timing is just that good.

In this routine he involves the audience quite a bit via his amazing observational comedy, which he is very well known for in Britain. He asks audience members a bunch of mundane questions and perceives to destroy them after receiving their answers. Perhaps not very original, but nevertheless very amusing. He also does a bit where he includes the audience in a way that I for one haven't seen before. I won't reveal the gimmick in this review, other than to say it worked fantastically and made me laugh out loud.

Personally I've never much enjoyed heckling in stand up routines, and Jimmy has quite a big segment in the show devoted to it. This was the only part of the show that really didn't work for me. Not because of Jimmy's abilities to cope with the material being thrown at him, but rather that people in the audience only shouted stuff where the only correct response would be: "something, something 'Your mom!'". And for the most parts that was what his response was.

All in all a very entertaining show, good for loads of laughs. I think I can say with a fair amount of certainty: You'll either love or hate this show. I, for one, loved it.