Jimmy Carr: Natural Born Killer

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 do generally enjoy the somewhat edgy comedy that Jimmy Carr delivers. And thus I needed no persuasion to sit down and watch this 2024 stand-up comedy special.

Sure, I had not heard about it, prior to stumbling upon it by perusing the stand-up comedy collection on Netflix, but still I had some expectations to the show, as Jimmy Carr usually delivers good stuff.

And I will say that the 2024 show "Jimmy Carr: Natural Born Killer" definitely is an enjoyable and entertaining show to watch. Jimmy Carr does what he does best, so it is either a take it or leave it situation, I guess. Either you like his edgy material or you don't, as he easily can offend those with frail levels of tolerance and a lack of humor.

I was genuinely entertained throughout the course of the 59 minutes that the show ran for. And if you are a fan of Jimmy Carr, then you definitely will enjoy this 2024 show.

My rating of "Jimmy Carr: Natural Born Killer" lands on a six out ten stars.

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.

I cannot profess to being the biggest fan of Jimmy Carr, nonetheless as his new Netflix special, Natural Born Killer was available I decided to give it a watch.

As likely as not I have not watched anything by Jimmy since his previous special His Dark Material in 2021.

Well, aside from laughing out loud around three or maybe four times, this was thin gruel, it really felt like he was trying very, very hard to be offensive and funny, and ended up being neither to any great extent.

It just did not work for me.

The show almost settles into two halves as around or just beyond the half-way point and with the aid of the audience Jimmy seems to loosen up, it becomes more fluid and is a bit funnier all be it in a comparative sense.

I felt for the audience who I presume had paid good money to see this, it felt that they just weren't that into it, maybe it was just one of those nights but this Aylesbury audience did not seem to be having the best of times.

I guess it is mildly amusing to see Jimmy's face, teeth and hair evolve over time all with the aid of modern surgery and dentistry but beyond that there is little to recommend here.

Jimmy needs to have a long hard think about his future career or there may not be much career in his future.

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.