Jimmy Carr: Telling Jokes

Film Review by Steven Dalziel | 22 Oct 2009
Film title: Jimmy Carr: Telling Jokes
Director: Tristram Shapeero
Starring: Jimmy Carr
Release date: 2 Nov
Certificate: 18

Jimmy Carr is a comedian in the most traditional sense: as the subtitle suggests, he tells jokes. In fact, it's something of an obsession that he has, having written a book on the history of joke telling going as far back as ancient Greece. The bane of many an alternative comic's life, his particular brand of one liners is pushed to its limits here, in both form and content. One section involves a ten minute Power Point presentation (well, it's a bit snazzier than that) to aid the gags and an attempt to concoct jokes in as few words as possible, while his encore involves an experiment to find the most offensive joke in the world. You'll already be familiar with Carr's penchant for bad taste, but here he takes it to the limit, with some seriously sick stuff littered among the punning, observations and burying of hecklers. An assured performer, he gets the most important thing right: he's funny. [Steven Dalziel]