Talk:Jimmy Carr

Controversy section

I've not edited in a while but have just noted the April heading relating to "criticism or controversy section". I have tried editing this section in the past and my text was removed. I gave up.

Re the Paralympics joke - there is an excellent overview of what actually happened on https://thecarrtell.blog/2025/04/17/paralympics-joke-2009/

Re the Holocaust joke - Regardless of what you think about the joke / dark humour as a comedy mechanism, Carr ended up as a football between the various traveller groups and the then Con UK Govt. The Govt were about to bring in a Bill to punish travellers by confiscating caravans etc. and one side used the joke to demonstrate the discrimination that they suffer (trying to stifle the bill) - and the other actually used it as a weapon to bring in more restrictions on FOS / Expression (Nadine Dorries was very vocal at the time).

We had the ridiculous situation where half the Govt (inc. the PM) gave soundbites about how vile the joke was.

I'm saying "ridiculous" because what no one actually bothered to do was listen to the full joke, within context. Even Carr's Wikipedia page crops it at the MOST damning point, ending on the word "positives". See video below.

The summary would be - man's joke was cropped (within 24 hours of the special's release) and circulated to be a vehicle for a campaign, social media was set on fire and he had 22 weeks of horrific abuse (I tracked it at the time), Politicians gave soundbites, the MSM reported it all with no further investigation into the actual joke, people protested outside his gigs. Hysteria and hate all round.

We even had people screaming about the audience "whooping and cheering" being a hate crime. The Netflix Special was a cut down version of a 2 hour show and that joke was towards the end. The "whooping and cheering" started as soon as he'd said the first few words - because everyone knew he was going to rachet things up a little. They were NOT cheering because they hated one particular group.

And one final point (before i get shouted at for waffling on). Comedians that have a dark sense of humour don't like their jokes being written down and circulated, for this very reason. The people in the gigs (it had been told for 18 months previously, to 1000s of people) knew it was just wordplay, with no malice behind it. But when you print HALF of it in the Daily Mail you are shoving it under the noses of people who probably would hate ANY humour relating to darker topics.

Which is a similar playbook to the practice of phoning the parents of servicemen/women and asking what they thought of the Paralympics joke. It's all clickbait.

So, yes, I would like to see this section edited as I've never thought it was neutral. I don't have the time to do it but will happily supply information if someone else wants to tackle it.

Full joke -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJurYs12ay4

Comedy Nerd77 (talk) 10:25, 21 May 2025 (UTC)

I listened to the full joke and I don't see how it changes the context at all. Other than his third point saying the joke "educates" which is already included in the article.

There was controversy, that is a fact and therefore we will document it. Salmon Of Ignorance (talk) 11:28, 10 July 2026 (UTC)

The version circulated ended on the word "positives" which MASSIVELY changed the context. It's like me saying "I could murder a sandwich" and you removing the last 2 words.

Anyone that publishes HALF a joke is changing the original meaning, intended by the comedian.

Anyway - made my point, not interested in arguing over it (done enough of that on X). Comedy Nerd77 (talk) 11:46, 10 July 2026 (UTC)

Remove copy edit template?

I see the article's been checked as the "latest accepted version" but there is still a copy edit template on the article that was placed prior. Should the template be removed or are we agreeing there is still copy edit work that needs to be done? TXstockman5 (talk) 22:24, 26 May 2025 (UTC)

"Latest accepted version" just means that we think the displayed version of the article hasn't been vandalised recently. If an unregistered or newly-registered user edits this article, that edit doesn't show up to the general public until it's been reviewed. It's part of Wikipedia:Pending changes. Belbury (talk) 20:50, 27 September 2025 (UTC)

Oh! Ok. Thanks for clarifying! I learn something new every day! TXstockman5 (talk) 20:27, 29 September 2025 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 5 December 2025

Change Children to 2. Jimmy has admitted that he has 2 children here:

https://youtube.com/shorts/kHU5yykMaXo?si=j9hgYy2AAABpD8NQ ~2025-31382-88 (talk) 23:58, 5 December 2025 (UTC)

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. This needs a better source; the video you provided is a stand-up comedy performance, and Carr's statement that he has two children could be part of a bit or gag. Day Creature (talk) 01:14, 6 December 2025 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 19 December 2025

Change opening line "James Anthony Patrick Carr (born 15 September 1972)" to "Jimmy Anthony Patrick Carr (born James Anthony Patrick Carr; 15 September 1972)"

He changed his name by deed poll, according to this notice: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/3625289 ~2025-41848-00 (talk) 22:16, 19 December 2025 (UTC)

 Done Framl (talk) 12:39, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

Copy editing, changes to layout

Working on copy editing for July 2026 backlog drive. I'm making minor edits as I go, but the main section that has been flagged for review is the very long career section. I agree it could be reorganized, and I'm looking at pages of other TV hosts like Ryan Seacrest for examples.

A few major changes that could help: I think "Stand up" should be moved to the top of his career section, since it begins earlier chronologically and he also primarily considers himself a stand-up comedian. I also think the "US" section can be combined into existing categories, or listed as a subcategory of "Television."

Also, I don't want to hide the controversial parts of his stand-up career, but a lot of it is duplicated both in the "Career" section and under "Critcism." I would remove redundancies.

Windchimes098 (talk) 19:27, 30 June 2026 (UTC)