Jimmy Carr
James Anthony Patrick Carr (born 15 September 1972) is a British-Irish comedian, presenter, writer and actor.[1] He is known for his rapid-fire deadpan delivery of one-liners which have been known to offend some people.[2] He began his comedy career in 1997, and he has regularly appeared on television as the host of Channel 4 panel shows such as 8 Out of 10 Cats, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and The Big Fat Quiz of the Year.
For other people named Jimmy Carr, see Jimmy Carr (disambiguation).Jimmy Carr
James Anthony Patrick Carr
15 September 1972
London, England, UK
- United Kingdom
- Ireland
1997–present
Karoline Copping (2001–present)
2
Early life and education[edit]
James Anthony Patrick Carr was born on 15 September 1972,[3] in Hounslow, London,[4][5][6] the second of three sons[7] born to Irish immigrant parents Nora Mary (née Lawlor; 19 September 1943 – 7 September 2001)[8][9] and Patrick James "Jim" Carr (born 1945), an accountant who became the treasurer for computer company Unisys. His parents were married in 1970 and separated in 1994, but they never divorced.[7][10]
Carr spent most of his early life in the village of Farnham Common, Buckinghamshire, where he attended Farnham Common School and Burnham Grammar School.[11] He completed sixth form at the Royal Grammar School in nearby High Wycombe.[12][13]
In 2001, Carr's mother, Nora Mary, died of pancreatitis, aged 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.[14] 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.[15]
Carr's parents remained in contact with their Irish relatives, and the family made frequent trips to Limerick and Kilkee. After earning four A grades at A-Level,[16] Carr read social science and political science at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.[13] He graduated with first-class honours[17] in 1994.[11][18] He went on to work in the marketing department at Shell, but took voluntary redundancy in January 2000 as he felt "miserable" there.[13] He performed his first paid stand-up gig later that month, having done his debut pub show unpaid only the previous December.[11] He has claimed that a course in neuro-linguistic programming helped him realise how his mind was working to hold him back from following his dreams of becoming a comedian.[19]
Controversies[edit]
2011 amputee joke[edit]
At the Manchester Apollo in 2011, Carr suggested war injuries had a positive side. "You can say what you like about these servicemen amputees from Iraq and Afghanistan," he said, "but we're going to have a fucking good Paralympics team in 2012." The Prime Minister's office condemned the joke. Newspapers and radio stations phoned the mothers of soldiers maimed in battle, recited the joke, then reported their outraged reactions. Carr contended that it was a good joke.[138]
2012 tax avoidance[edit]
In June 2012, Carr's involvement in an alleged K2 tax avoidance scheme came to light after an investigation by The Times.[139] The scheme is understood to involve UK earners "quitting" their job and signing new employment contracts with offshore shell companies based in the low-tax jurisdiction of Jersey. Prime Minister David Cameron said: "People work hard, they pay their taxes, they save up to go to one of his shows. They buy the tickets. He is taking the money from those tickets and he, as far as I can see, is putting all of that into some very dodgy tax-avoiding schemes."[140] Carr subsequently pulled out of the scheme, apologising for "a terrible error of judgement".[141]
Viewing figures of the episode of his topical show 8 out of 10 Cats, recorded on the day of his apology and broadcast the following day, almost doubled compared with the previous week.[142] Earlier in 2012, during the second series of Channel 4's satirical news programme 10 O'Clock Live, Carr had lampooned people who avoid paying their taxes.[141] A sketch from the show, in which he poked fun at the 1% tax rate of Barclays Bank and described tax lawyers as being "aggressive" and "amoral", was regarded as having "come back to haunt him".[141]
In February 2018, Carr appeared on Room 101, where he talked about the controversy. Though he admitted that what he did was wrong, he said there was some level of hypocrisy in the comments that Cameron had made about him in 2012, stating that members of Cameron's family and Queen Elizabeth II had subsequently been mentioned in the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers tax evasion scandals. Carr said that the law should become clearer by eliminating any loopholes, instead of leaving it up to individuals to decide what is morally right.[143] Carr continues to reference the scandal in his performances and public appearances.[144]
During the show, Carr defended his joke saying that it had the educational value of raising awareness about groups who suffered genocide in the Holocaust.[145] The show had been released in December 2021 without comment on the joke but received widespread attention the following February after a clip was posted and shared online. He was condemned by the Auschwitz Memorial, Hope not Hate[146] and The Traveller Movement, who called anti-Romani prejudice the "last acceptable form of racism" in the UK.[147] He also faced criticism from British politicians, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary.[148][149] The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust said they were "absolutely appalled" and "horrified", and described Carr's joke as "abhorrent".[150][151][145] Despite the criticism, Carr stood by the joke.[148]
Personal life[edit]
In the late 1990s, when he was 26 years old, Carr had what he calls "an early midlife crisis" during which he lost his Catholic faith.[152] He has since made comments critical of organised religion. In 2015, he said: "As for being a Christian, yes, it seems ridiculous now, but I genuinely believed there was a big man in the sky who could grant wishes. Writers like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins helped change my view, but I don't go on stage banging on about being an atheist... I'm just a guy who tells jokes."[153] He has stated that he underwent a lot of psychotherapy (specifically neuro-linguistic programming) at the time of his crisis in order to help him cope with his loss of faith, and that he is qualified as a therapist.[154]
Carr has dual British and Irish citizenship, travels on an Irish passport, has spoken of his pride in having Irish ancestry, and was presented in 2013 with a certificate of Irish heritage in his parents' home city of Limerick by the city's mayor.[155]
Carr lives in North London with his Canadian girlfriend Karoline Copping, a commissioning editor for Channel 5,[11] with whom he has been in a relationship since 2001.[156] Their son was born in 2019.[157][158]