Jimmy Carr: Natural Born Killer

I'm generally a fan of Jimmy Carr but Natural Born Killer is just awful. It reeks of a desperation to be 'edgy' and puts more focus on seeking to offend than it does to be funny.

Don't get me wrong, there are funny moments, but they are too few and far between to rescue the performance.

The number of times that he seemingly had to prompt the audience to laugh was embarrassing. I really wanted to enjoy the show and I fought through the want to turn off after 15 minutes...how I now wish I'd have taken that option...

Jimmy seems to have become the offensive, out of touch, creepy uncle who only seems able to entertain himself. Sad & disappointing.

This stand-up special by Jimmy Carr is the first time I have not enjoyed his work. I do not mean that his jokes were not funny. On the contrary, I found much of the material to be pretty good, not his best, but pretty good. Even so, I emitted no more than a chuckle throughout the show. That is because the camera work in this is unprecedented, and not in a good way.

Every so often the camera operator would repeat a moving shot of Jimmy by coming in from the side of the stage, all in for a close-up of him talking and then continue passing all the way across in front of him, followed by circling behind him.

I found this pointless continual movement so distracting that it made me utterly lose track of the topics and not even hear what he was saying. I cannot recall ever seeing this before in any stand-up special ever, by anyone. This began early in the routine and was repeatedly used all the to the end. I found it so off-putting that the only time I laughed was when I was not actually looking at the screen.

My main emotional response was not laughter, but rather feeling bad for his audience in the theater. I wonder how they remained in a humorous mood when I can only imagine they were having their show spoiled by absurd camerawork being performed directly in their line of sight. I would love to know about why this approach was used and the chain of poor judgment that allowed it to happen. It must be utterly bizarre or tragically pathetic.

Thank you for reading this.

I mean if even Jimmy Carr cannot produce better material than this who else could?

He talks about his feeling that he may lost his edge and he is totally right. Having a kid changes you. Sadly he doesn't realize this but the audience does.

He is not the same guy who told the brilliant mosquito joke. Other than the emotional and mental change he looks different, too. Really skinny and tired.

Honestly I could not remember a single joke from this last special it was so ordinary and boring. What a disappointment.

I don't know what's going on with these stand up comedians lately but they all lack something which they had in the past.

Definitely goes over a ton of controversial subjects so will likely offend a lot of people for differing reasons. I'd say over 90% of his material can be considered offensive. He talks fast so there's a lot of jokes. I'd say 1/3 funny 1/3 decent 1/3 corny. One second I'd think he's being over the top or offensive for the shock. Then he'd do the same thing but I'd find it funny. Really tough to judge when every joke is so unique to the person hearing it. But if u don't get offended you'll find more than enough to stick through. I watched alone and lold at least a dozen times. Going into this I'd seen his other specials no more than once and always thought he was decent. This special was better than expected to me. But ya a lot of the jokes weren't huge crowd pleasers so it's hard to recommend to everyone. I also forget his old material specifically but know he's always leaned intro controversial topics so this seemed on brand for him.

Brilliant comics age, just like everything else, and Jimmy Carr is a brilliant comic.

He's one of the smartest, funniest, most inventive British comics of his era, but the nature of being sharp and inventive is that it has a shelf-life. There are still flashes of the old brilliance but a lot of it feels like treading old ground. That's not to say that he can't get back to his old level of brilliance, because great comics can adapt and reinvent themselves.

The "I'm so edgy" shtick is just cringe, and pretty standard for many comics whose glory days are behind them. Just make sure you have the best material, and get on with telling the jokes. It's not the 1950's and the only people who are "offended" are newspaper columnists who are only pretending to be for adclick revenue. Truth is, most people aren't actually watching - they have their own lives to get on with.

If anyone is genuinely offensive, they won't get a Netflix special - the comic genius of Jerry Sadowitz is an example. It's tough for ageing comics but it is possible for them to revive their act. It starts with them admitting to themselves that their act needs reviving, not deluding themselves that they're an "edgy" 51 year-old.