Jimmy Carr: How to Build Confidence, Find Love & Stop Wasting Your Life

1. 0:00 – 1:52

   Young Men Are Stuck

   1. DJDavid McIntosh Jr0:00

      45% of young men between the ages of 18 and 25 have yet to ask a woman out.

   2. JCJimmy Carr0:04

      Let's, let's give some advice then. So first off...

   3. DJDavid McIntosh Jr0:08

      So I sat down with Jimmy Carr.

   4. JCJimmy Carr0:10

      Jimmy Carr.

   5. DJDavid McIntosh Jr0:11

      Jimmy Carr.

   6. JCJimmy Carr0:12

      Mr. Jimmy Carr.

   7. DJDavid McIntosh Jr0:14

      One of the most respected comedians in the world, the king of dark humor, the lord of one-liners, and a man who's spent decades turning uncomfortable truth into laughter.

   8. JCJimmy Carr0:23

      [laughs]

   9. DJDavid McIntosh Jr0:23

      This is the rawest, realest, most unfiltered and funniest we've seen him yet. Everyone, this is Jimmy Carr.

   10. JCJimmy Carr0:29

       Girls tend not to find boys attractive. They find men attractive. People talk about gold diggers. There aren't any gold diggers. It's just money happens to be a very good proxy for competence. You can see that there's a revolution going on. When you think about what a revolution is, it's the replacement of elites, the conservatives and labor. I can't see either of those parties winning another election. That's a, that's a political revolution.

   11. DJDavid McIntosh Jr0:50

       When I speak to a lot of my working class peers, they seem to have lost a lot of agency.

   12. JCJimmy Carr0:54

       No one else cares. No one else cares enough. No one, no one cares about you more than you do. What if you're in charge? What if you're in charge of everything? God wasn't there at the beginning of the universe. He's there at the end. The universe creates God. So if you think about what people are talking about with AI at the moment, all-knowing, all-powerful, lives in a cloud.

   13. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:14

       I wanna talk about Sean Lock.

   14. JCJimmy Carr1:15

       The first thing I heard him say was, "How do you stop a dog from humping your leg? Pick it up. It's [beep] ."

   15. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:21

       [laughs]

   16. JCJimmy Carr1:24

       Today, the world of comedy remembered Sean Lock, who has died at the age of 58. See, I was in bits when he died, but looking back, you go, "I was kind of in a double act." We made so much TV together.

   17. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:35

       What is something that you secretly struggle with?

   18. JCJimmy Carr1:42

       Uh, well, there's, there's a couple of things.

   19. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:46

       Jimmy Carr, welcome back to Origin Story.

   20. JCJimmy Carr1:48

       Yeah, I can't believe I got tricked into this twice.

   21. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:50

       [laughs]

   22. JCJimmy Carr1:51

       Surely the point of an

2. 1:52 – 4:18

   Jimmy’s Back Glasgow Banter

   1. JCJimmy Carr1:52

      origin story is that you just have to do it once.

   2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:54

      [laughs]

   3. JCJimmy Carr1:54

      Like a repeat.

   4. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:55

      Well, you're still rooting it.

   5. JCJimmy Carr1:57

      Sorry, I, uh, I, I, I messed up last time. It was all a lie.

   6. DJDavid McIntosh Jr2:00

      [laughs]

   7. JCJimmy Carr2:01

      I was actually born in North Korea.

   8. DJDavid McIntosh Jr2:03

      [laughs]

   9. JCJimmy Carr2:03

      A, a, a small orphan girl.

   10. DJDavid McIntosh Jr2:05

       [laughs]

   11. JCJimmy Carr2:05

       And I fought my way out.

   12. DJDavid McIntosh Jr2:07

       Yeon Mi Park.

   13. JCJimmy Carr2:07

       It's a hell of a story.

   14. DJDavid McIntosh Jr2:08

       Yeon Mi Park. [laughs]

   15. JCJimmy Carr2:12

       [laughs] The, um, yeah, I don't know what we're talking about today, 'cause we've done the origin story. Uh, um, very much enjoyed our first episode.

   16. DJDavid McIntosh Jr2:18

       Yeah?

   17. JCJimmy Carr2:18

       I'm liking the show as well. Well, it's had kind of a rebrand, which is quite interesting.

   18. DJDavid McIntosh Jr2:21

       It's had a facelift.

   19. JCJimmy Carr2:22

       Yeah. I get... Well, as, as, haven't we all?

   20. DJDavid McIntosh Jr2:25

       [laughs]

   21. JCJimmy Carr2:25

       A lot of this is new.

   22. DJDavid McIntosh Jr2:27

       Me, I'm in the queue for one of those influencer deals to go to Turkey and get a hair transplant. I'll make-

   23. JCJimmy Carr2:32

       You should be front of the queue really.

   24. DJDavid McIntosh Jr2:33

       [laughs]

   25. JCJimmy Carr2:34

       Who are you fooling with that comb forward bullshit?

   26. DJDavid McIntosh Jr2:36

       [laughs]

   27. JCJimmy Carr2:36

       Who's... Who... I imagine in the mirror from that, that angle, you're thinking that's...

   28. DJDavid McIntosh Jr2:41

       I had a comment on TikTok the other day, and it was like, "You look like you're mid-transition, but we don't know what fuck, what fucking way you're going." [laughs]

   29. JCJimmy Carr2:48

       [laughs] Yeah. There's a, um... I don't know. I, I think that thing about plastic surgery, hair transplants, anything like that, if it... What you're solving for is confidence.

   30. DJDavid McIntosh Jr2:58

       Mm.
3. 4:18 – 7:27

   “Media Diet” & Mental Health

   1. JCJimmy Carr4:18

      in the day. There's certain things we do. I think people think about diet and exercise. They think about diet as if it's just the food.

   2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr4:26

      Mm.

   3. JCJimmy Carr4:26

      Not the stuff you listen to. I'm very interested in people's media diet. So you talk about, like, p- how much of mental health, how much of a hardware problem is actually a software problem, right? So, or, no, how much of a software is a hardware problem? That's the way around. Okay, so you say you're depressed, and you're anxious, and you feel sluggish and awful. Okay? You can... But anyone that feels like that, you go, "Okay, well, are you sleeping eight hours a night? Are you drinking?" Which is... What is drinking? We're borrowing happiness from tomorrow, is what it is.

   4. DJDavid McIntosh Jr4:59

      Mm.

   5. JCJimmy Carr4:59

      And are you eating well? Are you exercising? Like, if you take care of the physical things, and then you're still depressed, okay. And it's, of course, the most annoying thing, because when you're in the middle of one of those kind of funks in life, it's the hardest thing in the world to go for a walk and get some fresh air and take care of yourself and eat something green.

   6. DJDavid McIntosh Jr5:16

      Do you think people are conflating or confusing depression and sadness, worry and anxiety?

   7. JCJimmy Carr5:22

      Yeah. I think we've pathologized normal human existence. I think it's also people only see the hole. They don't look at the donut. You know, I look at anxiety, and I think, "What's anxiety ever done for me?" Well, it's given me a full career in comedy. Everything I've ever done is out of being creative, and being creative is about having a whirring mind. So it's worrying. So the same thing that wakes me up at 4:00 in the morning, like, in a panic, is the thing that m- writes jokes for me. It's the same pathology. It's just pointing in the right direction. It's doing something with it. Um, I mean, for me, it's... I, I like talking about worry and sadness, not depression and anxiety. The difficulty with depression is, of course, it is a feeling, and also it can be a very serious mental health- Um, diagnosis. And they're- so, and we conflate the words. We sort of need different words for it. Um-

   8. DJDavid McIntosh Jr6:13

      I think anxiety is labeled as, like, a malfunction, but it's, it's a function of being human.

   9. JCJimmy Carr6:18

      It's very important function

   10. DJDavid McIntosh Jr6:18

       We're anticipatory humans.

   11. JCJimmy Carr6:20

       Yes, but i- it's that thing if you go ... Okay, so th- I think about it like this. I think about, um, happiness is a time machine. Okay? So if you think about the past, you could be depressed or sad. It's about thinking about the past. If you're gonna be worried or anxious, that's about the future. If you're right here, if your head is where your feet are couple of times a day, you could be pretty happy. But what problems do you have right now, in this room right now? And then, and then we kind of ... But, but actually, the idea that you go, you just wanna be here and meditate and be a Buddhist monk. Well, no. That anxiety you had about the future was the thing that made you work. Oh, my God, I'm worried I won't have enough money. I'm gonna be poor when I retire, and I'll be destitute, and I'll, I'll live in misery. Okay. Well, we need to make some money and do something now then. So it's that thing of going ... Uh, I think we spoke about it last time we spoke, the idea of God is the future. The idea of, uh, you know, hard life now, easy life later. The idea of working in order. And that's anxiety a lot of the time is driving that. So there's, there's, there's positives to it as well. It's, I think, the, the pathologizing normal human experience. I mean, it's like here's

4. 7:27 – 8:23

   ADHD, Boundaries & Discipline

   1. JCJimmy Carr7:27

      my hot take on ADHD. Everyone's got an ADHD diagnosis, right? Ev- I presume. Right?

   2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr7:34

      Especially in this room.

   3. JCJimmy Carr7:34

      Yeah. I mean, listen, you only ... I could get a diagnosis from someone watching one of my specials. This guy's telling 300 jokes in an hour? Yeah, that's ADHD. But for me, it's like i- show me a child without boundaries, I'll show you a kid with an ADHD diagnosis. And the problem is once we pass 18, well, really 15, like, it's not, not our parents setting boundaries anymore. Life is self-assignment. We're setting our own boundaries. What do I need to do every day? What kind of a person am I? And, you know, so Hormozy's point, to loop it round, going to the gym, is kind of that thing of like, am I the person that shows up every day? Am I the person that looks like this, that puts themselves together? So, so it's kind of, it's, it's, I suppose, that respecting yourself and, you know. Again, an Alex Hormozy line, my favorite, "Giving the world irrefutable proof you are who you say you are."

   4. DJDavid McIntosh Jr8:22

      I love that one too.

   5. JCJimmy Carr8:22

      Oh, my

5. 8:23 – 13:46

   Arenas, Imposter Syndrome, Movies

   1. JCJimmy Carr8:23

      God. He's so good.

   2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr8:24

      On a very similar vein to your point there, we spoke last time around imposter syndrome, and what you came to me with was saying that you should be out of your comfort zone every 18 months. You should have imposter syndrome.

   3. JCJimmy Carr8:34

      Yeah.

   4. DJDavid McIntosh Jr8:34

      You said, "I'm doing arenas next year. I don't need to do arenas, but I'm doing arenas next year." So even Jimmy Carr is still embracing anxiety, embracing this new challenge, 'cause you c- you could retire, quote-unquote, now under some-

   5. JCJimmy Carr8:48

      I think, I think I might be retired. Um, okay. So I like being outside my comfort zone. I think that's where, uh, learning and growth is. And so this year, so I did the arenas. You came last night.

   6. DJDavid McIntosh Jr8:59

      10,000 people.

   7. JCJimmy Carr8:59

      I can't believe you bought a ticket. I would've hooked you up. I know a guy.

   8. DJDavid McIntosh Jr9:03

      [laughs]

   9. JCJimmy Carr9:03

      Uh, I got some pretty good seats. Um, it was really fun to do. Really ... Uh, 'cause I played it in the round like a boxer.

   10. DJDavid McIntosh Jr9:09

       Yeah, yeah.

   11. JCJimmy Carr9:09

       And I learnt from the best. I learnt that from ... I, I do gigs quite a lot with me and Dave Chappelle are in the same city, we tend to do a show together. So we were in, uh, Melbourne, Australia, and he was playing the Rod Laver Arena. And I'd never seen it before, but he played the arena in the round, and it meant that no one had a bad seat. Like, no one's more than 2,000 seats back. So you got pretty good theater seats anywhere you are in the room because you're not, like, right at the back, as I'm, I'm in the center of things. And I did that with him and loved it, and then I thought, "Well, I can do arenas if I do that." And then last night was ... I don't, I thought it was a pretty good show.

   12. DJDavid McIntosh Jr9:41

       Awesome.

   13. JCJimmy Carr9:41

       Like, good heckles, fun. Everyone felt like ... It felt like more of an event in that size room. And my new imposter syndrome is I'm in the movies, baby.

   14. DJDavid McIntosh Jr9:50

       Yeah.

   15. JCJimmy Carr9:51

       I'm going to Hollywood. Yeah. What's your dream?

   16. DJDavid McIntosh Jr9:53

       F- Fuck 'em all.

   17. JCJimmy Carr9:54

       Fuck 'em all. Sorry. You've made it sound ... Oh, Christ.

   18. DJDavid McIntosh Jr9:56

       [laughs]

   19. JCJimmy Carr9:57

       Christ, it does sound like fuck 'em all. Oh, my God. Oh, Christ. What are we gonna do? It's too late now. We've printed the posters.

   20. DJDavid McIntosh Jr10:03

       Y- you know, man, like, arena tour, y- last one laugh- last one laughing, Am I the Asshole? the movie. Like, what's next, man? Like, a fragrance with your name on it must be the next thing.

   21. JCJimmy Carr10:13

       Well, yeah, it's ... I, I have got a fragrance coming out. It's called Pull My Finger.

   22. DJDavid McIntosh Jr10:16

       [laughs]

   23. JCJimmy Carr10:16

       And it's ... I think it's gonna s- I think it's gonna be a hit. Um, it's, it's gonna turn heads. Um, I don't know. I mean, I think the movie is kinda the next thing that's very exciting, um, in terms of going ... I don't know quite where that takes me. Uh, uh, the stand-up is the thing though. I mean, I think I'm quite stoic about it. Do less better. It's all from the same place of, like, it's all jokes. It's all, like, if I can write jokes every day, then I get better at that, and everything else is kinda gravy that isn't stand-up. So the movie business is great. You've got, like, a lottery ticket there, and who knows. We've got, like, at the time of recording, we've got 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, 'cause no one's seen it yet. It's just been reviewed. But it got reviewed very nicely, which is ... I mean, it's such a lovely thing. I didn't realize you could get good reviews. I haven't had a good review in 20 years because I'm, you know, slightly too out there. Um, but it's, it's lovely. It's lovely to have kind of, uh, a little ticket in that lottery, and you think, "Well, who knows. If that's a big hit, then we do another." My aspiration, and I'll, I'll speak openly about it, is to be the British Mel Brooks.

   24. DJDavid McIntosh Jr11:21

       Mm.

   25. JCJimmy Carr11:22

       Is to make funny movies that people go to the cinema, and it's a ... I don't think you can lampoon something you don't like. Like, the Fuck 'em All is Downton Abbey meets Airplane! with a sprinkle of Richard Curtis. You know, Notting Hill and Four Weddings and a Funeral. Little bit of romance in there. So rom-com with a Downton, Airplane!, Naked Gun, um, Top Secret. That kind of spoof.

   26. DJDavid McIntosh Jr11:47

       I love those films.

   27. JCJimmy Carr11:48

       So, yeah. I, I, and I love Downton Abbey. I genuinely love Downton Abbey. I use Downton Abbey as a, uh, proxy for Valium when I got canceled one time.

   28. DJDavid McIntosh Jr11:58

       Okay.

   29. JCJimmy Carr11:59

       I think it was the taxation cancellation.

   30. DJDavid McIntosh Jr12:01

       [laughs]
6. 13:46 – 16:21

   Early Comedy Influences

   1. DJDavid McIntosh Jr13:46

      for the first time? I recount that your mum was quite a funny figure.

   2. JCJimmy Carr13:50

      Yeah, she was ki- she was hilarious. I'm just trying to think of, like, the people that would've been around the, you know, the stand-ups in the... 'Cause stand-up wasn't really a thing. It's quite a new medium, really. It's having kind of a moment now, but it, culturally, people didn't go to stand-up shows. There wasn't... You know, Billy Connolly was, like, touring throughout-

   3. DJDavid McIntosh Jr14:07

      Yeah

   4. JCJimmy Carr14:07

      ... but it was quite sporadic. Uh, and he would, he would hire a room. So he would be kind of our George Carlin. He would hire a room, and people would come and see him, and, and they would love the show, but there weren't many of those. And Ben El- Ben Elton might do, I don't know, 30 or 40 nights around the UK. I was not aware that you could go and see a stand-up comedian. I was not aware that that was an option. I knew bands were a thing, but I didn't realize going to see comedy was, was a thing growing up. So there was, there's... It was, would've been something on TV. Probably would've been, you know, Friday Night Live or something. Um, Bill Hicks was weirdly big here and not as big in the States.

   5. DJDavid McIntosh Jr14:42

      Mm.

   6. JCJimmy Carr14:42

      Like, there's areas of, you know, Texas where he's kind of really well remembered that he played a lot, but he was bigger in the UK than America. He would've been someone that I remember kind of that at 18, 19, kind of being aware of him and friends having tapes. Um, we had the Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Um, they used to make little cassettes, little tapes of them being absolutely outrageous. I remember those being passed around just thinking, "This is wild." Just hilarious.

   7. DJDavid McIntosh Jr15:07

      When did you get the notion that you could do something similar?

   8. JCJimmy Carr15:10

      I don't, I don't know. I mean, I suppose everyone's funny with their friends. It's weird. You, you don't see... So it's, but I mean, I've definitely said this before, but it's that thing of like, what do you find easy that other people find difficult? That's a really interesting thing for people to... That's a great directional tool. Like, well, I could do this all day. It's work for them. It's play to me. So that idea of going, I found it easy to be, uh, because of my childhood maybe, but the, um, the thermostat on the room. Okay, well, that's, I, I, I'm able, able to do that, and I'm able to be funny. I find that kind of, I mean, comparatively easy, and I was weirdly drawn to standing up in front of people. Now, lots of people would be horrified by that. The idea of standing up in front of 10,000 people is like, oh my God, I can never do that. Well, okay. But, uh, you know, it's, it's that uncomfortable feeling is that I, I'm willing to feel it. I'm willing to go through that to get what I want.

   9. DJDavid McIntosh Jr16:05

      Where do you think that ability to shoulder that feeling comes from? Did you maybe face something more difficult in your earlier life?

   10. JCJimmy Carr16:12

       I don't think so. I think it's like you start small and you build up, and you, you... The weight doesn't get lighter. The back gets stronger.

   11. DJDavid McIntosh Jr16:18

       Mm.

   12. JCJimmy Carr16:18

       So you start in little tiny bars, and the stakes are

7. 16:21 – 17:32

   How You Build Confidence

   1. JCJimmy Carr16:21

      pretty low, and it doesn't matter, and you don't invite friends and family the first time, and you, you just, you do a little thing, and you try some jokes, and they're not very good, but there's something. And then I don't know why you're... I mean, it, it, it's almost that thing of, uh, you're drawn to it. You're weirdly drawn to, to doing this, and for me it felt like... There's a lot of motorbikes. Um, it felt like it was a, an ability to kind of escape an ordinary life.

   2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr16:48

      Growing up, I remember you from the DVD era, so I had-

   3. JCJimmy Carr16:50

      Yeah

   4. DJDavid McIntosh Jr16:50

      ... all of your DVDs.

   5. JCJimmy Carr16:51

      Oh, thank you.

   6. DJDavid McIntosh Jr16:51

      I would watch you on telly, and one of your first specials was at the SEC Armadillo. Is that correct?

   7. JCJimmy Carr16:56

      Yeah. We just re-edited it, actually.

   8. DJDavid McIntosh Jr16:58

      Did you?

   9. JCJimmy Carr16:58

      I've just sold it to Amazon, so we did, like... And Amazon said, "Oh, can you..." 'Cause they used to be quite long. They would be, like, two hours, and they said, "Oh, we want an hour's edit." So I re-watched it again recently.

   10. DJDavid McIntosh Jr17:06

       Did it feel all right watching?

   11. JCJimmy Carr17:07

       And I, I really enjoyed it. I, I really enjoyed, like, I look very different 'cause of, you know, I take better care of myself now than I did then. Um, it was good. There was kind of a good... Like, I remember, like, I kind of laughed at the opening line 'cause I totally... Once it's written and recorded, you know, you do the tour, and then you do the show, and you, you're there for the edit, and you've seen it a lot, and you, you're like, "I'm done with that." And then going back is quite interesting. It's like you, you sort of make yourself laugh. It's quite weird. But the gag was quite good. It was, like, the first

8. 17:32 – 18:52

   First Glasgow Joke - DVD Era

   1. JCJimmy Carr17:32

      time I was ever in Glasgow, and, uh, like, in the back of a car on the way to the stand, I think it was.

   2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr17:37

      Mm.

   3. JCJimmy Carr17:37

      And a guy went, um, he goes, uh... I, I was like, yeah, I needed it for some joke, a punchline of, like, for a real, like, shit area. The worst, the roughest bit of town. I said, "Excuse me. Do you mind me asking, where's rough in Glasgow?" And the guy went, "For you, everywhere."

   4. DJDavid McIntosh Jr17:52

      [laughs]

   5. JCJimmy Carr17:53

      I was like, "Fucking great."

   6. DJDavid McIntosh Jr17:55

      That's very Glasgow.

   7. JCJimmy Carr17:55

      And then I said it on stage and went, and went, uh, you know, Glasgow's quite an aggressive town. And a guy in the club went, "No, it fucking isn't it."

   8. DJDavid McIntosh Jr18:04

      [laughs]

   9. JCJimmy Carr18:04

      Okay.

   10. DJDavid McIntosh Jr18:07

       I love that, Jimmy. Last night at the Hydro, a few years on from that first DVD special, 10,000 people, bums on seats- When you look at that, like, you know, you know I'm a, I'm a huge fan of you. Uh, and I, I've been very keen with my words towards you because you're a hero of mine. But even watching you as someone that I admire, watching 10,000 people surround you like that, I had a sense of pride as a fan almost.

   11. JCJimmy Carr18:30

       I think it, I think that thing though of like, with comedy, I think it's kind of the same with music, especially with comedy, 'cause it's your sense of humor, right? So your sense of humor's very, uh, integral to your sense of identity. So if you like a comic and they do something, you kind of, you're in it with them. You like, you like that thing. It's like, uh ... Because I suppose that thing about friendship and comedy are quite linked. If you think

9. 18:52 – 20:28

   Comedy = Friendship

   1. JCJimmy Carr18:52

      about the kind of comedy that I do, right? So my theory on friendship is, who's your best friend? I'll tell you who your best friend is. It's the person you have the least filter with, right? You meet someone, let's say we've met on an airplane, right, and we're traveling for an hour. "Okay, how's the weather?" "Oh, I see the news about Scotland getting into the World Cup." Whatever the, whatever the thing is, it's very shallow, right? And your best friend in the world, you're like, "Oh my God, you gotta see these hemorrhoids. Take a picture."

   2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr19:17

      [laughs]

   3. JCJimmy Carr19:17

      The, you've got no filter at all. Anything is on the table, right? You could have a conversation. Uh, I think treating the audience as if they're your friend, so you don't have any filter. You go, "I'll tell the joke that I would tell someone in the bar to you guys." And that act of friendship is rewarded, so people come back and they see you again. They don't remember the jokes. They remember how I made them feel. So it's, it's 10,000 people in a room, but it's, it's one-on-one. Every interaction is one-on-one. Uh, you're sitting there thinking, "I know this guy. He did my podcast, and I, I've been watching him for years." And someone else is there going, "I got dragged along by my boyfriend, and I've never seen him before. Oh, that's a fun joke. Cool." Right? And they're, they're caught up in the atmosphere of the thing. So everyone's having their own experience. You're not talking to 10,000 people. You're talking to one person multiple times. [laughs]

   4. DJDavid McIntosh Jr20:07

      There was a moment last night where I think it must have been a heckler in the front row saying that they had recently been going through cancer treatment.

   5. JCJimmy Carr20:13

      Oh, yeah.

   6. DJDavid McIntosh Jr20:14

      And y- for a moment, you were very sympathetic with them. And then instantly you said, "Do you wanna hear my best cancer joke?"

   7. JCJimmy Carr20:20

      My favorite cancer joke. Yeah.

   8. DJDavid McIntosh Jr20:21

      [laughs]

   9. JCJimmy Carr20:22

      The ... Yeah, it was, uh ... Well, I think you can do both. I think though, what's the point of having a dark sense of humor? There is like

10. 20:28 – 22:16

    Why Dark Humour Helps

    1. JCJimmy Carr20:28

       a ... The only time it pays off is when you're going through something. When you c- 'cause comedy gives you perspective on life. So there's quite a lot of stuff in the show about that perspective, about the idea of like what's, what's the functional reason to have a, a sense of humor at all? And really, I think a sense of humor is kind of like, um, peacock feathers. It's not, um ... You know, if you think about Darwinian evolution, some of it is about survival, and some of it is about reproduction, and I think a sense of humor is about reproduction. I think it's like the peacock feathers. People think peacock feathers are ridiculous. You know you've got ... Y- you're looking at the wrong end of the telescope, man. The peacock feathers, feathers were for display before flight. Of course they were.

    2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr21:12

       Mm.

    3. JCJimmy Carr21:13

       Nature didn't go, "Oh, okay, we're gonna build wings. This is gonna take a couple of million years, but let's stick at it, kids." No, it made things for display, for dancing, and the birds that had the best feathers were able to attract the best mates, and they did better and better and better. And eventually wings, eventually flight. I think language is a flex. I think language, linguistic ability is a fl- it's, it's a, it's a mating, mating strategy is what it is. And the sense of humor, so rewarding that with dopamine, with, and serotonin and laughter is, I think that's why we laugh.

    4. DJDavid McIntosh Jr21:47

       I didn't really have kind of rationale for this, but I used to always take first dates to the Stand Comedy Club in Glasgow. And-

    5. JCJimmy Carr21:52

       That's probably a great idea

    6. DJDavid McIntosh Jr21:53

       ... based on what they would laugh at, I'd find them either extremely or not very attractive. And I think it's because of that shared reality. Like, w- we can laugh about the same things. We think the same thing's funny. We, we can laugh about things in here together because the world's terrible out there, but in here, we're compatible.

    7. JCJimmy Carr22:10

       I think that's a really good ... It's a really smart thing to do. Or, you know, just because you go, the person

11. 22:16 – 24:48

    Dating: Safety, Competence, Chemistry

    1. JCJimmy Carr22:16

       you're gonna laugh with, like, what do people look for in a partner? And they often look for the wrong thing when they ... 'Cause they, 'cause they kind of go, you know, guys go for looks, which sounds shallow, but it isn't. What they're going for is, is, uh, health. They're thinking would, uh, somehow our minds trick us into thinking we need someone healthy 'cause if they're gonna give birth to a child, they need to be healthy, right? And girls go for what? Competence. Girls tend not to find boys attractive. They find men attractive. They, they find like competence, and it doesn't matter what the competence is. People talk about gold diggers. There aren't any gold diggers. It's just money happens to be a very good proxy for competence.

    2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr22:52

       Wow.

    3. JCJimmy Carr22:52

       Right? It's like height is really interesting on dating. Like the most swiped-

    4. DJDavid McIntosh Jr22:56

       We're fucked, mate. [laughs]

    5. JCJimmy Carr22:57

       The m- most sw- you're fucked. I'm all right.

    6. DJDavid McIntosh Jr23:00

       [laughs]

    7. JCJimmy Carr23:02

       I don't wanna talk down to you, but-

    8. DJDavid McIntosh Jr23:03

       [laughs]

    9. JCJimmy Carr23:03

       ... you're fucking tiny. What do you want? Um, but the swipe-

    10. DJDavid McIntosh Jr23:06

        Snack size

    11. JCJimmy Carr23:07

        ... the most, um, swipe left thing on any of the dating apps is height. Okay? Small men find it very difficult to find dates, people. So women want a tall guy. Well, why do women like tall guys? It isn't to reach the top shelf. It's because height is a proxy for safety.

    12. DJDavid McIntosh Jr23:22

        Mm.

    13. JCJimmy Carr23:22

        So if you're a small guy and you can make a woman feel safe, you've gamed the system. Make her feel safe. I mean, it sounds like the bar is very low, but the bar is very low. Make her feel absolutely safe, you'll be fine. Doesn't matter what height you are.

    14. DJDavid McIntosh Jr23:35

        I wanna share an insight from a previous podcast guest called Dr. Anna Mach. Have you come across her?

    15. JCJimmy Carr23:40

        Uh, no.

    16. DJDavid McIntosh Jr23:40

        She wrote a bit called Why We Love.

    17. JCJimmy Carr23:42

        Ooh.

    18. DJDavid McIntosh Jr23:42

        And she has this, um, this insight, and I can't remember the name of the complex, but it's basically this, um, genetic ability that women have that guys don't to be able to smell a genetic compatibility.

    19. JCJimmy Carr23:57

        Yeah. That, uh, that weird thing of like you find your, you don't find your partner's BO disgusting.

    20. DJDavid McIntosh Jr24:02

        Yeah, and it's-

    21. JCJimmy Carr24:02

        My other half thinks I smell like cucumbers for some reason.

    22. DJDavid McIntosh Jr24:04

        [laughs]

    23. JCJimmy Carr24:04

        I mean, I, I don't. I smell kind of cucumbers. Nice.

    24. DJDavid McIntosh Jr24:07

        We'll get into hobbies later, Jimmy.

    25. JCJimmy Carr24:08

        Not horrible. But that weird thing of like going, yeah, your, your partner's smell is ... Everything's like, it's happening at a different level, a pheromone level. It's happening in a different way. It's very difficult to sort of nail what it is. I think that's why the apps aren't, the apps are not working for people, I think. It's my sense of it when you chat to young people, they kinda wanna be... They wanna find a partner and someone that they can really commit to, and it's hard to commit when you've got all this optionality.

    26. DJDavid McIntosh Jr24:34

        What would your advice be to young men? I spoke to Rob Henderson, who I think you know.

    27. JCJimmy Carr24:39

        I, I don't know him, but I'm a big admirer-

    28. DJDavid McIntosh Jr24:41

        Yeah

    29. JCJimmy Carr24:41

        ... and he's m- remarkable. I think, um, uh, who's the other one? Um, uh, Scott Galloway's new book is

12. 24:48 – 27:09

    Advice to Young Men - Porn, Games, Asking Girls Out

    1. JCJimmy Carr24:48

       very good.

    2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr24:48

       Oh, I've not read it yet.

    3. JCJimmy Carr24:49

       Uh, it's really, really worth taking a look at. Uh, you know, the young men, um-

    4. DJDavid McIntosh Jr24:53

       So weird you hear this. He said that 45% of young men between the ages of 18 and 25 have yet to ask a woman out, and I think that's quite shocking. And I, I've been-

    5. JCJimmy Carr25:02

       Yeah

    6. DJDavid McIntosh Jr25:02

       ... trying to, like, kind of-

    7. JCJimmy Carr25:03

       Okay. All right

    8. DJDavid McIntosh Jr25:04

       ... pause that theory on it.

    9. JCJimmy Carr25:05

       Let's, let's give some advice then.

    10. DJDavid McIntosh Jr25:06

        Okay.

    11. JCJimmy Carr25:06

        All right. This is unsolicited advice for young men. Okay, so first off, um, pornography, uh, stop looking at it, and not because I'm being, um, a prude. I'm not prude in any way at all. But it's... Pornography is a proxy. Uh, it's a... It's not a bad proxy. You can knock one out to porn. You can have an orgasm, and it's kind of okay, but the good is the enemy of the best. And the idea that you would go to... You have to be a certain level of horny to walk across a bar to a girl you don't know and go, "You look lovely. Can I buy you a drink?" It's like, ah, it's much easier to kind of, uh, to not take that risk. And video games, I think, go the same way, right? Video games are a proxy for the career that you don't have. Think about a video game, right? It's layers, levels, and then there's a big boss at the top.

    12. DJDavid McIntosh Jr25:57

        Especially these role-playing games as well.

    13. JCJimmy Carr25:58

        It couldn't be more obvious, right? Uh, so it's a proxy for the career. My theory is that it's... George Orwell wasn't right. We will not be, um, taken over by an authoritarian regime. Aldous Huxley was right in Brave New World, and he posited that we will give away our freedom for cheap dopamine, right? Uh, I think that's what young men are doing, right? So it's that thing. Weirdly, I would say, "So give up porn, but get your dick wet, son. Go out and find someone. Go out and find a girl." And where are the nice gir- Like, it doesn't need to be a bar. You know, j- join a gym. Wherever the nice girls are, go and be, be in that space. And you're not... Uh, it's not toxic masculinity to ask someone out. We all know the difference between pestering someone and just saying, "I, I like you. Would you... Can I take you for coffee?" Don't ask someone out on a date. Maybe ask them out for a cup of coffee in the day. "Let's have a cup of coffee and see if we get, get along," rather than a big romantic, "I've bought you flowers," and other things. It's too much pressure. Take it, take it down. And then, you know, that thing of... I think young people should be drinking. This is Scott Galloway's point, but it's a brilliant point. The damage to your liver, the risk to your liver, is as nothing compared

13. 27:09 – 29:28

    Drinking vs Isolation

    1. JCJimmy Carr27:09

       to the risk of social isolation. So you have to find things. I, I, I would argue that most disagreements between couples are the same argument, and it's one person saying to another po- person, "You're not enough people." Because we wanna take everything from... We want our partner to be our everything in life.

    2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr27:29

       Mm.

    3. JCJimmy Carr27:29

       Okay? So we want her to be our lover, and our best friend, and our confidant, and our business partner, and a da, da, da, da, da, a million different things, and you're not enough is the argument. And actually, you need great friends, and you need hobbies, and you need interests, and you need... You, you need a life outside of each other, and you come together. It's, it's... It works better if there's a... You know, it takes a village, not just to bring up the kid, but for the relationship to work.

    4. DJDavid McIntosh Jr27:56

       A kind of, uh, deciding principle that I had in relationships was my partner has to be happier alone so we can be happy together, and what I mean by that is that, um, she or they are not at minus one before I enter their life.

    5. JCJimmy Carr28:12

       Mm.

    6. DJDavid McIntosh Jr28:12

       They have a wide array of ambition and extracurricular activities, hobbies, and interests-

    7. JCJimmy Carr28:17

       Yeah

    8. DJDavid McIntosh Jr28:17

       ... so that I'm a plus one to their life, not filling that hole.

    9. JCJimmy Carr28:20

       Yeah. I think Esther Perel's probably the best on this.

    10. DJDavid McIntosh Jr28:22

        Oh, she's great.

    11. JCJimmy Carr28:23

        She's unbelievable. But that thing of, like, her... The percentage thing she talks about.

    12. DJDavid McIntosh Jr28:27

        So-

    13. JCJimmy Carr28:27

        Like, uh, the... it... There's an illusion, right? So you go and you get together with a partner and you say, "Well, it's 50/50 in this relationship." It's never 50/50 because sometimes you come in and you're broken. You've been at work, and it hasn't gone well, and you're under stress 'cause there's a financial thing, and the kids are playing up, and the car broke down, da, da, da. You're at 10, and then they need to be at 90. They need to make dinner, and order in, and make sure that... And actually, they need to do the laundry, and they need to take care of everything 'cause you're broken that day. And then the next day, she's at 40 and you're at 60, so you do a little bit more. I, I really like that idea of, like, an aggregated over a year, it's 50/50, but it's not like that every day. You can't win an argument with your other half. You can't win a fight with your wife. It's your wife. What the fuck are you talking about? If, if they lose, you lose.

    14. DJDavid McIntosh Jr29:16

        Yeah.

    15. JCJimmy Carr29:17

        So-

    16. DJDavid McIntosh Jr29:17

        Conflicts live and die in the con- Sorry, relationships live and die in the conflict resolution.

    17. JCJimmy Carr29:22

        Yeah. I mean, I think that thing about, you know, advice to young men, young people, I feel like our whole society is kind of...

14. 29:28 – 31:35

    Deal Young People In - Agency over Empathy

    1. JCJimmy Carr29:29

       It's geared to the wrong thing. I think I spoke about it last night on, on stage. But that idea of going, young people need to be... We need to deal them in. People in their 20s need to be dealt into society, and that isn't about benefits. It's about them taking, having a- giving them agency, not just empathy. I see this as a real, um... We, we tend to give people we like empathy and people we don't like agency. So we say, "Well, you should've known better." You know, if it's a march for something that we approve of and they riot, we go, "Well, that's, you know, riots are the, the, the s- the sound of the unheard, the language of the unheard." And if it's someone we don't like, we go, "Well, they knew what they were doing, and they should be locked up, and throw away the key." It's weird. So I think you've gotta give everyone, uh, the same amount of agency and empathy, and give them a chance. I think, you know, people in their 20s shouldn't be paying tax.

    2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr30:21

       I like this theory.

    3. JCJimmy Carr30:22

       It's not a bad... Well, but you think about that idea of going, "Well, how are we gonna... We're not gonna rig the housing market But we need to give people an opportunity to earn money, save money, and build a life and have a family, right? That's what societies are for. The idea of going... If you said to young people, "Anything you earn in your 20s, you keep," well, it's, it basically makes university less attractive, right? University needs to be elitist. It needs to be the top 10 or 20% of people at most because it's a luxury item. If luxury items are everywhere, they're no longer luxury items. It doesn't work. 50% of people going to university doesn't work. So the idea of going, "Well, we should... We, we could rig that system pretty easily." And also, and I think, you know, we're gonna- we've got a pensions crisis coming. I mean, there's a lot of fantasy politics going on, where people talk about what they're gonna do and how many things they're gonna give away. It's fantasy politics. We don't have that money. But maybe over 60 you should say to people, "No tax." Over 60, no tax. What about that? It's not a crazy idea. You go, "Well, look, if you wanna keep working when you're older, you get to keep it all." That's not a terrible idea, and old people can take better care of themselves. And if they can work, great.

    4. DJDavid McIntosh Jr31:28

       Jimmy, after the movie, after the fragrance, politics is next for you.

    5. JCJimmy Carr31:30

       Oh, yeah. Sure, sure, sure.

    6. DJDavid McIntosh Jr31:31

       [laughs]

    7. JCJimmy Carr31:32

       I don't know. I mean, it strikes me that, that... It strikes me

15. 31:35 – 32:28

    Trump + Debate vs Deliberation

    1. JCJimmy Carr31:35

       that the wrong people go into politics.

    2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr31:37

       What do you think of Trump?

    3. JCJimmy Carr31:38

       Very interesting. I mean, it's-

    4. DJDavid McIntosh Jr31:40

       Do you know him? Are you friends?

    5. JCJimmy Carr31:41

       No, no, no. I've never met him. Um, never met him. I mean, he's very... It's a weird thing where I just... I think too many people do this thing, um, where... So again, I, I'm sort of, kind of repeating myself. I think this came up last night. There's too much debate and not enough deliberation, and debate is about winning against the other person, and a lot of that is, um, you just call someone names. You just call everyone alt-right or terrible, and you say, "They're the worst," and, you know, the people on the far, uh, far right and far left. The, the, the Overton window is certainly bigger. You know, what you can and can't talk about in politics is wider than it's ever been. And I think the idea of going, "You have to sit down. You have to talk to people." There's... I think the thing about Trump, for me, is, is he, the interesting question, contingent or

16. 32:28 – 34:31

    Fourth Turning + Class Politics Flip

    1. JCJimmy Carr32:28

       convergent? Okay. Is the world changing because of him, or is the world changing because we're in a very interesting point in history? And I would put it to you that the world is changing because we're in a very interesting point in history. Um, so there's a, there's a writer that I very much like called Neil Howe. He's a demographer. He wrote this thing called The Fourth Turning, which is about the era that we live in, and his theory is that history doesn't repeat, but it rhymes. There are certain things that... motifs that you can see. So 1929 is 2008. Two huge financial crises. We're still living with the financial crisis of 2008. 1929 led to World War II. We're in that now. We're in the crisis phase. You can see that there's a revolution going on. When you think about what a revolution is, it's the replacement of elites, right? So the, the... Who are the elites here? It's the po- in politics, it's the conservatives and labor. I can't see either of those parties winning another election. That's a, that's a political revolution. In America, it's the Democrats and the Republicans. Well, the Republicans are unrecognizable now. They're, they're sort of a cult of personality. They've become Trump's party, and the Democrats have not learnt the lesson of the last election, I think. I don't think they're gonna put up a winning candidate. I, I don't think. So that's a huge change. That... Something shifted in our politics, which is very interesting. It's unprecedented in our lifetimes, in my lifetime, certainly. The idea that you go the, the party of the left was always the party of the working classes, and Hillary's deplorable speech and what's happened over here, the Labor Party is no longer the party of the working man. They don't wanna talk to those people. They, uh, become the party of the urban elite, and the working class have gone to the right. It's, it's a, it's a very uncertain situation. We... Politics was very boring

17. 34:31 – 36:52

    Podcasts Replaced Mainstream Media

    1. JCJimmy Carr34:31

       for many, many years, and I think it's gonna get very interesting. I hope it's... I hope it is, um... I hope there's more deliberation and less debate, and I hope it doesn't fracture totally. But you even look at something like mainstream media, right? That's another revolutionary thing, where you go, "That was mainstream media, was mainstream media for a very long time," and now it's podcasts, and it's people, independent media, and people get their news where they get their news.

    2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr34:54

       Institutional trust is changing forever.

    3. JCJimmy Carr34:56

       Hmm? The what, sorry? The?

    4. DJDavid McIntosh Jr34:57

       Institutional trust.

    5. JCJimmy Carr34:59

       I, I don't think it's changing forever. I don't think institutions will no longer be trusted. I think we will build new institutions.

    6. DJDavid McIntosh Jr35:05

       Hmm.

    7. JCJimmy Carr35:06

       That we can't live without institutions, and if you think about our culture, it doesn't seem this way, but I think culture is downstream of institutions. So the, uh, the best example I could give you is really North and South Korea and East and West Germany. You take exactly the same people, and you ha- put different rules, different institutions in place. Vastly different results, right? The, the, the technology of the, the system that you set up has, you know, second, third, fourth order effects. So I think we're... I mean, we're living in... We're cursed to live in very interesting times.

    8. DJDavid McIntosh Jr35:40

       Quick break. I wanna shout out a brand that's been woven into my own origin story, Slaters Made To Order. I told them that I was interviewing an amazing guest this week, and they sorted me out. They helped me choose every detail. They fitted me properly. They made me a suit for a moment that mattered, my episode today with the amazing Jimmy Carr. Whether you have a birthday coming up, a celebration, a promotion, or a first real job, dress to impress. Slaters, their family history goes back into the 1900s, whereby they started an independent family menswear store, and it's fastly grown into the UK's biggest menswear store. They have an origin story themselves. You should check it out. Um, but I just wanna thank them and their s- amazing staff for their service with a smile. They greeted me promptly. I got to pick up the suit within the same week, and look, I'm wearing it today, so Big shout-out to Slaters. Head along, tell them I sent you. Now back to the episode with Jimmy. When I speak to a lot of my working-class peers, they have a sense of systemic failure, or they blame politics or the educational system, and they seem to have lost a lot of agency

    9. JCJimmy Carr36:51

       Yeah, I think

18. 36:52 – 37:46

    “Be Of Service” - Working-Class Agency

    1. JCJimmy Carr36:52

       it's been taken from them.

    2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr36:53

       You think so?

    3. JCJimmy Carr36:53

       Yeah, um-

    4. DJDavid McIntosh Jr36:55

       What advice would you have to a, a young working-class man or woman-

    5. JCJimmy Carr37:00

       Um

    6. DJDavid McIntosh Jr37:00

       ... who feels like their agency is stripped from them?

    7. JCJimmy Carr37:02

       No one else cares. Okay? It, it's, uh, I would say no one else cares enough. No one, no one cares about you more than you do, and agency. What if you're in charge? What if you're in charge of everything, your own destiny? And if you can take control of that and take care of yourself, then maybe find someone else you could take care of, and then maybe start a family and take care of them, and then maybe try and do something for your local community, and try and do more. Be of service. Be of service. Be, be... Have agency and do something. You know, you... I think that idea of, like, going, "Oh, well, it's all stacked against you," is like... It's empathy, and it doesn't... Does it work? I don't think it works. So that idea of going, "You can do... You, you're as good as anyone,"

19. 37:46 – 39:19

    “Woke”, Status & Suicidal Empathy

    1. JCJimmy Carr37:46

       you know, the, uh... But it's, it's having that, I suppose, feeling empowered would be the way to kind of say it. Sounds a bit kind of wishy-washy. Um, but the failing system, I mean, the, the system has failed, hasn't it? It's not delivering. I mean, what, what is... If you think about what woke is. What, what's woke, right? What caused it? Um, it's... A woke i- woke is better thought of, I think, as, um, American Marxism. Okay? So the original Marxism was about the redistribution of wealth, which I think is very valid, right? Uh, American Marxism or woke is about the redistribution of status and saying there are different status hierarchies, and at the very bottom of that pile are young white men, right? So it, they're being told they're, they're not valid anymore. So the most interesting thing about you has become the, the color of your skin. It used... It should be that that is the irrelevance, and the c- the quality of your character is what matters. That should be the thing. The, um... I know, it's a, it's a, it's very complicated. You know, it's all very airy-fairy and academic, but I think if you produce lots of... You know, the reason woke arose is because we sent loads and loads of people to university, and they did Mickey Mouse degrees in cultural studies, and they came out, and, "Where's the life I was promised?"

    2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr39:10

       Hmm.

    3. JCJimmy Carr39:12

       "Where's my, where's my interesting life? Where, where's, where's, where's the money? Where's the house? Where's, where's my family? Where's... Where is it? Where is everything?" So the overproduction

20. 39:19 – 42:29

    Jimmy’s Come-Up + Luck + Work Ethic

    1. JCJimmy Carr39:19

       of elites leads to this kind of, um, I mean, what Gad Saad calls, uh, suicidal empathy

    2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr39:27

       Suicidal empathy, I like that

    3. JCJimmy Carr39:28

       ... where a society is so empathetic that it no longer, um, acknowledges what it is. It hates itself.

    4. DJDavid McIntosh Jr39:35

       I want to go back to your story, Jimmy. I mentioned earlier that my first kind of introduction to you was these DVDs-

    5. JCJimmy Carr39:42

       Hmm

    6. DJDavid McIntosh Jr39:42

       ... your special at the SEC, Armadillo, and people might, like, blink and think that you came out fully formed. You were selling DVDs from the beginning. What was the, the life of Jimmy Carr doing the open mics, doing the middle spots? What was the journey that you took to traverse to, I guess, the Hydro last night and the 02?

    7. JCJimmy Carr40:02

       I, I don't know. I mean, I suppose life is, life is understood through, in the rear-view mirror, isn't it? You kind of, you, you are a story you tell yourself, and y- there's lots of different ways to cut it. I think I, I think I was very lucky, very lucky at every stage. I mean, it's weird. We, we talk about, um... I do a lot of kind of... I don't pray. I'm not a religious man. But I do a gratitude practice, and I think when you do that, you kind of acknowledge not just the, the basic luck. Like, there's fame and fortune. I'm very lucky. Amazing, right? But there's also the luck of being born in this era when comedy was a thing. I didn't do this on my own. You... There's other people around, okay? There's, there's a, there's an industry that's grown up. Uh, I, I rode a wave, I suppose. And then there's the idea that you go, "We're pretty free in this society." The bit that I live in, eh, pretty free. You can say what you want. That's unusual in human history, uh, that we have this kind of, this culture that, you know, rewards that. So I suppose that thing of, like, going, where did that happen? I just, I got very lucky in the years that I came up, and it, it never feels like a... I mean, there's m- there's moments along the way where you feel like, "Wow, this is, this, this feels big. This feels like a bigger thing." But because it's gradual, and you're doing it all the time, and success is a lagging indicator of the work you did 18 months ago. So you know that thing last night when I got jokes out on my-

    8. DJDavid McIntosh Jr41:24

       Yeah

    9. JCJimmy Carr41:24

       ... thing and went through new jokes at the end of the show?

    10. DJDavid McIntosh Jr41:26

        Which is well done arena, by the way. I just could not believe it.

    11. JCJimmy Carr41:29

        I do that every, every gig because the discipline is you do that every single time you get up. You try new jokes. So I tried some new jokes. Couple of things worked. Couple of things didn't work that well. But tried new jokes at the end of the show, and you go, "Well, that work that I did 18 months ago allowed me to do the show last night in the big room." So success is kind of y- That imposter syndrome, I guess, comes from, it's the lagging indicator because I did that work ages ago. I've kind of forgotten I did that work. That's already priced in. And then you have a big crowd turn up, and they all laugh for two hours, and you go, "Oh. Oh, yeah, because if I..." And then I realize if I don't do the work now, then in two years' time, they won't be showing up. I mean, last night's show, really, the way that I think about it, the way that I make sense of it, is that was a, a, a two-hour advert for my next show. I've already got the money from last night. That was just m- The reason to make you laugh for two hours was just to go, "You're gonna come back though, right? This is not a..." My, my, my retirement tour would just be me just staring out at the audience.

    12. DJDavid McIntosh Jr42:25

        [laughs]

    13. JCJimmy Carr42:26

        Going, "I'm not doing this again."

    14. DJDavid McIntosh Jr42:27

        [laughs]

    15. JCJimmy Carr42:27

        "So what's the point?"

21. 42:29 – 44:32

    Pre-Show Mindset

    1. DJDavid McIntosh Jr42:29

       I love that, Jimmy.

    2. JCJimmy Carr42:30

       Be fun.

    3. DJDavid McIntosh Jr42:31

       Last night at The Hydro or any of these arena gigs, moments before the show, what are you thinking? What are you feeling? What's, what's the, the man behind the magic? What, what were you doing before that? I'm really interested-

    4. JCJimmy Carr42:41

       The man behind the magic.

    5. DJDavid McIntosh Jr42:42

       [laughs]

    6. JCJimmy Carr42:42

       Sounds like Barry Manilow.

    7. DJDavid McIntosh Jr42:43

       [laughs]

    8. JCJimmy Carr42:43

       Sounds like a really good Barry Manilow song. Um-

    9. DJDavid McIntosh Jr42:45

       We'll end on that mate. We'll sing on that

    10. JCJimmy Carr42:46

        ... I, um, I, I try and be as, uh, calm as possible. Uh, try and be relaxed. Um, because you, you, you're sort of... You're holding a space for people, and that... And then it's again, it's boring, whatever, and it sounds very hippie-ish, but you think about what people had to give up to be there. Think about, uh, who's got the lowest paid job in the room, and if they brought themselves and their boyfriend or themselves and their girlfriend to the show, and it's a big night for them. And you think about serving them. Like, there's a guy down the front last night that's just got over brain cancer, and he's got the all clear. Big night for him, and he says a very nice thing. Lovely. But you go, "Well, how many more of those are there in the room?" How many people go... How many people are going through something now, got bad news today, and they need you? So it's being of service, I suppose, is the thing.

    11. DJDavid McIntosh Jr43:36

        Yeah.

    12. JCJimmy Carr43:36

        So do you sort of think, give that a bit of thought as you go out. People have made a decision to come out and see you, and everything that happens, they're trying to add value to the evening. So when you get a heckler that doesn't make any fucking sense and it's crazy, you go, "Well, he- he's trying. He's joined in. He cared enough to turn up and buy a ticket to me. Good."

    13. DJDavid McIntosh Jr43:55

        But even last night I was like, "Oh, I'm interviewing this fella tomorrow. I'm nervous." And then you told a joke, and I could completely forget that I was nervous-

    14. JCJimmy Carr44:01

        Yeah

    15. DJDavid McIntosh Jr44:01

        ... at all. Like, I was escaping my ordinary life, you know?

    16. JCJimmy Carr44:04

        Well, it is that thing of, um, I suppose that laughter is a, it's a great... You can't sort of be frightened and laugh at the same time.

    17. DJDavid McIntosh Jr44:11

        Have you ever tr- Have you ever been at the gym doing, like, bicep curls or bench press-

    18. JCJimmy Carr44:14

        No

    19. DJDavid McIntosh Jr44:14

        ... and someone makes you laugh? You go feeble. You cannot hold that weight.

    20. JCJimmy Carr44:17

        Yeah.

    21. DJDavid McIntosh Jr44:17

        And I think it's kind of metaphorical. You can't hold the weight if you're laughing.

    22. JCJimmy Carr44:20

        Yeah, it's interesting. It's the, um, it's the, uh... Is it called the vagus nerve? Yeah.

    23. DJDavid McIntosh Jr44:25

        What-

    24. JCJimmy Carr44:25

        That's what, that's what does-

    25. DJDavid McIntosh Jr44:26

        ... gut brain

    26. JCJimmy Carr44:27

        ... yeah, that thing of, like, you, if you're laughing, you kind of lose that, lose that, and it's, uh,

22. 44:32 – 47:48

    Jimmy’s Laugh + His Mum

    1. JCJimmy Carr44:32

       yeah. It's, uh, it's like a reset.

    2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr44:35

       One thing that I really wanted to ask you last time that I completely forgot to. Your laugh, is it real?

    3. JCJimmy Carr44:41

       Yeah.

    4. DJDavid McIntosh Jr44:41

       [laughs]

    5. JCJimmy Carr44:41

       Who would put that laugh on? To what end? Don't worry, I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what ladies love, a guy that sounds like a haunted seagull.

    6. DJDavid McIntosh Jr44:49

       [laughs] Like a horse having an orgasm.

    7. JCJimmy Carr44:52

       The, it's, it's, it's a, "Ha, ha, ha."

    8. DJDavid McIntosh Jr44:54

       [laughs]

    9. JCJimmy Carr44:54

       There's a guy that's wanked off a horse.

    10. DJDavid McIntosh Jr44:56

        [laughs]

    11. JCJimmy Carr44:56

        Um-

    12. DJDavid McIntosh Jr44:57

        The original horse meat scandal.

    13. JCJimmy Carr44:58

        Yeah. It's a, uh, it's a, it's an odd one. It really is. But I mean, it's just... And it's very relaxed. It's just, that's kind of... If I'm slightly... People often... I remember Rob Brydon pointing it out on the BIG FAT Quiz of the Year, and it was, I don't know, not the first year we'd done it. I was many years into TV. Like, when I look back at the early stuff now, I'm k- quite uptight on stage. I'm more relaxed now than I was, 'cause I think you're better when you're relaxed. And I kind of force myself into that state, but it's, it's when it, when it really comes out, when something tickles me. Yeah. Funny.

    14. DJDavid McIntosh Jr45:27

        Does your mother know, or does she have that laugh as well?

    15. JCJimmy Carr45:29

        No, she had a narcoleptic laugh. So, uh, narcolepsy is a sleep disorder, and she had a, a, a weird kind of, sort of connected thing where when she laughed, she would make no noise when she laughed. She would just melt, like a witch in The Wizard of Oz. She would just like, like collapse when she laughed. No noise, just... And you could tell that she was laughing, but it was like-

    16. DJDavid McIntosh Jr45:51

        [laughs]

    17. JCJimmy Carr45:53

        ... like stroking out is what it looked like. So my whole childhood, well, it's probably why I do this for a living, is if you could make her laugh... If she was driving, she shouldn't have been driving.

    18. DJDavid McIntosh Jr46:01

        [laughs]

    19. JCJimmy Carr46:01

        If she was driving and you could make her laugh, you would have to then grab the wheel-

    20. DJDavid McIntosh Jr46:05

        [laughs]

    21. JCJimmy Carr46:06

        ... and kind of steer as she fucking got herself together. You know, so that's, obviously, as a kid, that's the funniest thing in the world. Why not?

    22. DJDavid McIntosh Jr46:14

        Oh, man.

    23. JCJimmy Carr46:15

        Why not? I'm lucky to be here. [laughs]

    24. DJDavid McIntosh Jr46:17

        [laughs] Jimmy Carr, man. Did she have a dark sense of humor?

    25. JCJimmy Carr46:21

        Uh, I don't... No. I mean, eh, I don't think so. She swore a lot. Very, very sweary.

    26. DJDavid McIntosh Jr46:29

        She was Irish, right?

    27. JCJimmy Carr46:30

        Yeah, from Limerick. Um, swore a lot. Was, was... So I never really saw swearing as a thing. I kind of, I'm... I have to be careful with it now 'cause I think it's nice to... I know I remember saying this thing the other day, I think it's a very old phrase, but, you know, a, a fuck is nice as a full stop, not as a comma.

    28. DJDavid McIntosh Jr46:46

        Put that into practice for me.

    29. JCJimmy Carr46:47

        Huh? Well, you've got to make sure that you're, if you're peppering everything with cursing-

    30. DJDavid McIntosh Jr46:52

        Mm
23. 47:48 – 53:54

    Sean Lock: First Meeting + Legacy

    1. DJDavid McIntosh Jr47:48

       fanny like a cleft palate.

    2. JCJimmy Carr47:49

       Mm.

    3. DJDavid McIntosh Jr47:50

       [laughs]

    4. JCJimmy Carr47:52

       That's kind of nice. Something in that.

    5. DJDavid McIntosh Jr47:54

       [laughs] A mustache-

    6. JCJimmy Carr47:54

       Offends all kinds of people

    7. DJDavid McIntosh Jr47:55

       ... a mustache on a cleft palate. I think I'm gonna go with that one.

    8. JCJimmy Carr47:58

       Nice. Nice. Why not?

    9. DJDavid McIntosh Jr48:01

       You said it.

    10. JCJimmy Carr48:01

        What else are we, uh, what else are we talking about?

    11. DJDavid McIntosh Jr48:03

        I want to talk about Sean Lock.

    12. JCJimmy Carr48:05

        Oh, yeah. Okay.

    13. DJDavid McIntosh Jr48:05

        Uh, the reason I want to sp- speak about Sean Lock is, I guess, going back to kind of the mother comment. Last time you, you were on, you said something really beautiful to me, and we had this beautiful moment. I don't know if you remember it, but it went viral on the internet, and the comment segment was just s- so fucking lovely. And what you said to me was, "People die twice. They die when they die, and the second time is when people stop saying their name."

    14. JCJimmy Carr48:27

        Yeah.

    15. DJDavid McIntosh Jr48:27

        And you stopped me and you said, "What was your mother's name?" I don't know if you remember that. And it was a beautiful, beautiful moment, and I've been watching a lot of Sean Lock recently and some of the camaraderie that you guys have had on stage. And I just wanna kind of maybe reminisce with you or kind of bring up the idea that given that every single day that we live this earth is another day passed since he passed away. But then you watch social media or you watch YouTube, and these videos resurface of your friendship with him. And I just wanna know, like, how do you feel when those resurface and you get to see them?

    16. JCJimmy Carr48:59

        I really, I really love it. I mean, he gets mentioned a lot. Gigs often comes up at shows, always gets kind of a round of applause, and it feels like a really... I don't know. I feel like he didn't really get his flowers. You know, I feel like when he was alive, I don't think people... I don't think he realized how big he was and how respected he was in the industry and, uh, how loved he was by the public. I think he was, um, a very unique talent. It's because he had that thing where, look, the, the Harry Hill or Vic and Bob, right, they've got surreal comedic minds. They kinda look like they would have surreal comedic minds, right? It's, it's kind of slightly wacky. It's great. I mean, I'm a huge fan of those guys. Sean had- has got that flight of fancy, these kind of incredible wacky, crazy, kooky ideas, but he looks like he's come to fit the gas boiler.

    17. DJDavid McIntosh Jr49:50

        [laughs]

    18. JCJimmy Carr49:50

        So there's an inbuilt bathos in everything he says. It's the sacred and the profane in one, 'cause he's saying this highfalutin kind of great thing, and he's doing it from the perspective. I think Bill Bailey's got a little bit of it too-

    19. DJDavid McIntosh Jr50:03

        Mm

    20. JCJimmy Carr50:03

        ... 'cause he's kind of, "Oh."

    21. DJDavid McIntosh Jr50:05

        Do you remember the first time you met Sean?

    22. JCJimmy Carr50:07

        Uh, yeah, first time I met him was in Kilkenny.

    23. DJDavid McIntosh Jr50:09

        What was your first impressions?

    24. JCJimmy Carr50:11

        Uh, so Kilkenny Cat Laughs Festival, and I'd finished my show. I rushed over to see his. I like... I knew him by reputation. I'd probably sort of seen him say like a backstage at club somewhere, but we hadn't met and never spoken. And rushed over to see his show, sort of snuck in the back of the room, and I'd never, I'd never s- seen him live before, and he'd al- he was already on stage. And the first thing I heard him say was, "How do you stop a dog from humping your leg? Pick it up, suck its cock."

    25. DJDavid McIntosh Jr50:40

        [laughs]

    26. JCJimmy Carr50:41

        And I remember thinking, "Yeah, we're probably gonna be friends."

    27. DJDavid McIntosh Jr50:45

        Oh, man. [laughs]

    28. JCJimmy Carr50:48

        He was great. He's a really funny, really funny guy, and very much kind of a sort of a father figure. I sort of looked for father figures in life. I don't have a relationship with my father. So that thing of, like, you look for people, and they don't necessarily need to be much older than you or even older than you, but you... but guys that you go, "I don't wanna let him down. I w- I want him to think that's good." Remember, like, getting a laugh from Sean was... And we used to sort of talk about it at my producers, uh, Ruth Phillips and Rich Cohen. We'd sort of talk about it like, "Oh, Sean laughed at that." If Sean lost it on something that I said, I was like, "Yeah." It's like, it really meant something to me. It really felt like, uh, an affirmation 'cause he didn't laugh easily. It's like he was, he was, uh... He sort of sat there and, yeah, hold court. I thought it was amazing. I'm very privileged to have worked with him, I think. Uh, and looking back, see, I was in bits when he died, but looking back you go, "I was kind of in a double act." We made so much TV together. Um, I found it kind of, kind of, you know... It's kind of bittersweet to watch now, but someone put together a reel of me, like, lo- like crying, like when I actually had to get makeup to come on and, you know, remake me because I laughed so much, and someone's put together, like, sort of those moments, and it's very, very... a lovely thing to have.

    29. DJDavid McIntosh Jr52:08

        What do you think he would say about you and the trajectory that you've been on since you've - since he sadly passed? Do you think he'd be proud of you, given-

    30. JCJimmy Carr52:14

        Uh
24. 53:54 – 55:18

    Grief, Mortality & Talking To The Dead

    1. JCJimmy Carr53:54

       that happened about maybe 10, 15 years after my mother died. I was chatting to someone about grief. It came up and, uh, and they said, "Do you still talk to your mum?" And I went, "No, no, sorry. Did I not explain? She died years ago." And they went, "Do you still talk to her?" And I went, "Oh, okay. Oh, I kinda, I kinda get it." And I think there is a sense in which, you know, people live on, and you, you know, you kind of know what they would say in any given situation. You don't have to end that conversation there. I mean, grief is... Grief, I find it very interesting because we kind of shy away from it, but it's, it's cumulative in life. So it builds over the years, and it turns into grief is also about your own mortality and, you know, sometimes it could be, you know... However you're feeling about something, it - just feel your feelings If it's real, it's real, right? So if you're... Sometimes the cat dies and you're in a fucking puddle.

    2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr54:47

       [laughs] Yeah.

    3. JCJimmy Carr54:48

       I lost a cat a few years ago. Oh my God, I was, like, im- properly in bits, like properly in a puddle. And it was appropriate because it was kind of about death. The, uh, the Muslims have got a great term for death, call it the, uh, the certainty. Love that. Just think there's such a poetry to it, the certainty.

    4. DJDavid McIntosh Jr55:09

       Yeah.

    5. JCJimmy Carr55:10

       Yet it's coming for all of us, and we spend our lives trying to avoid thinking about it. And actually, in the people that we've lost, we, we kind of... You re-find that. You kind of go, "Okay,

25. 55:18 – 1:01:31

    Funerals + Eulogy vs Resume

    1. JCJimmy Carr55:18

       right, there's... This is, this is it."

    2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr55:20

       I was chatting to young Hughie, who's behind the scenes today, a couple weeks ago. I was at a funeral for my uncle. I, I've suffered great loss over the last few years. I've had cousins, uncles, and my, my mother passed away. And I said to him, "I recommend going to a funeral." And he kind of looked at me like, as if I was-

    3. JCJimmy Carr55:33

       Mm

    4. DJDavid McIntosh Jr55:34

       ... this alien or this, like sadist.

    5. JCJimmy Carr55:36

       Mm.

    6. DJDavid McIntosh Jr55:36

       And I said, "No, really, go to a funeral if you can. Maybe even a public funeral. Just go and, and watch it," because it's like secondhand mortality almost. Like, you, you realize the kind of phrase that you said last time, there's, um, two eternities of darkness and this glimmer of light in the middle. But going to a funeral, you really feel that. And I, I love hearing eulogies. I absolutely love it. It's a weird fascination because they never speak-

    7. JCJimmy Carr55:58

       Ah

    8. DJDavid McIntosh Jr55:58

       ... about their corporate profession. They never speak about-

    9. JCJimmy Carr56:00

       No

    10. DJDavid McIntosh Jr56:00

        ... those two or three pr- It's the time they walked a mountain for charity, or they bumped into a random celebrity, or they had a car crash first date. That's what comes up in a eulogy, and people laugh and bond over it. It's not, it's not the mundane. It's the extreme.

    11. JCJimmy Carr56:14

        Well, I think that thing about the... Chris Williamson's very good on this. Talks a lot about you've got your resume, uh, attributes, and then you've got your eulogy attributes. And-

    12. DJDavid McIntosh Jr56:27

        Oh, I like this.

    13. JCJimmy Carr56:28

        Okay. But you, you, we, we, we trade one for the other, right? We spend our lives, you know, making money and building a career and, you know, all of that stuff, and then you go, "But who's actually gonna speak for you around the grave? Who's gonna be there when it really matters? What do you want people to say in your eulogy?" It's a great, terrifying thing to think about. What do you want people to say when they're lowering you down, as opposed to... And it's, it's difficult because it's measurable versus immeasurable metrics. Like, there's metrics that are very easy to look at. Money's the most obvious one, right? Everyone believes in money. It's the most successful story ever told, okay? So everyone believes in money, so how much money do I have is a great metric, and you can compare with other people and see who's doing well and who's doing badly. But ultimately, it, it, it's very difficult to measure the love you have for your children and the love they have for you. You can't really sort of... It's difficult to measure. And it's... I think what we measure is, tends to be the thing that we pay attention to. So it's, like, that's kind of about getting life right, is finding a balance between those things and making sure that you're doing what's important, not just what's urgent.

    14. DJDavid McIntosh Jr57:38

        Love that. I- It makes me reflect on my father, who's this kind of working class, tough nose guy, right? He doesn't really come with much philosophical insight. But I was speaking to him the other day, and he reminded me of this kind of tongue or phrase that he had that I really remember growing up, and I don't know if it's an original. He, he lies quite a lot. He told me he in- invented cheese on toast, so I don't trust the fella. Um-

    15. JCJimmy Carr58:01

        Did he?

    16. DJDavid McIntosh Jr58:02

        Did he fu-

    17. JCJimmy Carr58:02

        Wow.

    18. DJDavid McIntosh Jr58:02

        Did he fuck.

    19. JCJimmy Carr58:03

        Wow.

    20. DJDavid McIntosh Jr58:04

        [laughs]

    21. JCJimmy Carr58:04

        Well, he should have copyrighted that.

    22. DJDavid McIntosh Jr58:06

        [laughs]

    23. JCJimmy Carr58:06

        Fucking, fucking idiot.

    24. DJDavid McIntosh Jr58:08

        He'd have royalties from me this morning. Um, but-

    25. JCJimmy Carr58:11

        Cheese on toast is, is great because the, uh, the des- the name of it is also the recipe.

    26. DJDavid McIntosh Jr58:16

        [laughs] There's actually a term for that in product design called affordance. Rory Sutherland taught me this.

    27. JCJimmy Carr58:21

        Right.

    28. DJDavid McIntosh Jr58:21

        And it was, uh, I think it was the chief design officer or the CTO of, um, Sony. He was developing the Walkman, right?

    29. JCJimmy Carr58:28

        Right.

    30. DJDavid McIntosh Jr58:28

        And one of his disciples said to him, "You know, for a fraction of the cost, we can put a microphone on the Walkman so it can play music, but you can also record voice." He said, "Well, then what the fuck is it then?" You know, like, having multiple features diminishes its value, even though it could be more accessible to the masses, and I love that.
26. 1:01:31 – 1:04:26

    AI, God & The Future

    1. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:01:31

       I like that.

    2. JCJimmy Carr1:01:31

       You have to keep on... Like, you... We'll, we'll have to fight again as, as, as the world turns, as this revolution happens, and the elites disappear and are replaced by something new. We have to re-litigate everything.

    3. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:01:42

       Did I hear you say, I may be bastardizing you here, Jimmy, but fame has replaced religion?

    4. JCJimmy Carr1:01:48

       Yeah, that was, uh... I think the fame and fortune has replaced heaven in-

    5. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:01:52

       Mm-hmm

    6. JCJimmy Carr1:01:52

       ... a secular world. It's the land of milk and honey. It's the, the thing that people kind of want to aspire to. I don't know what I think about... I mean, I'm, I'm an atheist, but I like the... Hegel I think had the idea, in my reading of Hegel anyway, which is probably pretty amateurish, but is the idea that God wasn't there at the beginning of the universe. He's there at the end. The universe creates God. So if you think about what people are talking about with AI at the moment, people talk about AI. I don't believe we were made in God's image, but I think we so wanted there to be a God that we created one in our image. So all-knowing, all-powerful, lives in a cloud. [laughs] What am I talking about? Is it, is it AI? Is it God? I don't know. I mean, this is... It's very interesting. I mean, we're in a really interesting, um, point because we have Paleolithic emotions. We're basically cavemen. We have, um, medieval institutions, you know, where we're all, uh, creatures of the Enlightenment, and we have godlike technology. Well, let's see how that works out. Hope we're fine.

    7. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:03:01

       18 months ago, I remember you saying that you weren't scared of AI. It was a covers band. Do you still hold the same school of thought?

    8. JCJimmy Carr1:03:07

       Yeah, I think that it's naturally gonna look backwards. There's gonna be a massive premium on books that were written before 2022 because they were written without it.

    9. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:03:17

       Mm.

    10. JCJimmy Carr1:03:18

        It's, it's... It can only look... It can... It drags everything, right? So it just... It goes through what's already out there, and it learns from that. But it can't create anything new. And, um... But, but again, it's like this is precedented in our history, right? So the Industrial Revolution, think about what that did, right? We had an industrial revolution, and it meant that our bodies were no longer useful, right? We didn't need to go and plow the field because a machine did it. 98% of people used to work in farming, right? Cities were very small. Now everyone's moved to the city. No one's a farmer anymore, right? You don't know any farmers. And I think AI could replace white-collar jobs, right? So you won't need to, you won't need to think anymore. Now, if productivity increases by 50-fold, maybe we'll look back on people working like we look back on slavery now as an aberration. People used to go to work seven days a week. People used to work five days a week. It was, it was terrible. You didn't have time to do anything. There was no hobbies and interests, no poems. Maybe there's a land of Star Trek plenty in the future. Maybe, you know, it's a very, um... It's one view.

27. 1:04:26 – 1:07:24

    Secret Struggles - Dyslexia, Body Image, Work

    1. JCJimmy Carr1:04:26

       Um, so if your body's replaced, your mind's replaced... My advice to young people, become a preacher.

    2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:04:32

       [laughs]

    3. JCJimmy Carr1:04:33

       Spirit's the only thing left.

    4. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:04:34

       [laughs] I love that, Jimmy. Do you have any regrets, Jimmy?

    5. JCJimmy Carr1:04:41

       Uh, I don't think so. I very much try to, um, think about sort of amor fati, uh, the idea, the, the lover of fate, and whatever's happened in the past has brought me to here, and I like it here. Uh, I like, I like who I am. I like my life. I like everything. And you go, "What if any little thing changed in the past, then what effect would it have on the future?"

    6. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:05:10

       What is something that you secretly struggle with, that people either in your immediate circle or outside of it don't know about?

    7. JCJimmy Carr1:05:17

       Uh, well, there's, there's a couple of things. I mean, I, I, I think I spoke here before, uh, about I'm not great at reading. I read a lot, but it takes a lot of effort. Quite dyslexic. Can't write very well. Um, people don't seem to, you know... 'Cause I read Autocue or whatever. I think it's... It's not easy. It's like, it's kind of hard for me. Um, I, I'm slightly, uh... Got a low-level body dysmorphia. Uh-

    8. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:05:44

       You look great.

    9. JCJimmy Carr1:05:45

       Thank you very much. Uh, but I spend a lot of time, you know... I think about what I probably... It's not quite an eating disorder, but I probably spend a, too much time thinking about it, um, in my perception. Um-

    10. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:05:58

        What does that look like when you're on the road? I'm kind of curious.

    11. JCJimmy Carr1:06:00

        Well, on the road, it's kind of... It's hard to eat healthily on the road, so you tend not to... You know, I tend to be quite, um... I'm very particular. Uh, I don't know. It's, uh... There's, there's all k- There's lots of things you kind of... You know, I, I never think I work hard enough. [laughs] I mean-

    12. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:06:16

        300 gigs a year almost. [laughs]

    13. JCJimmy Carr1:06:17

        Yeah, but the gig, the gigs are quite... They're very easy for me. It's like, it's what could you do? What could you do? What, what else are you aiming at? What else could you be doing? You know, I've got a movie out, and that's great, but, uh, should I be doing a... Should I be halfway through writing the next one? Should I be, you know, do something else?

    14. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:06:34

        That's crazy, man.

    15. JCJimmy Carr1:06:35

        I don't know if it is. I think it's like, it's, it's the what are you capable of? And, uh, I don't know. It's n- It's good. Maybe that's the fire that kind of-

    16. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:06:45

        It's-

    17. JCJimmy Carr1:06:45

        ... that keeps me going

    18. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:06:45

        ... productivity dysmorphia really.

    19. JCJimmy Carr1:06:48

        Well, I think... I mean, I've talked about this before. I think we all have life dysmorphia. I talked about this. I mean, I suppose it's maybe clearest in America, but it's objectively the best country in the world and subjectively the worst. You know, you sort of go, people think they're having a terrible time, and actually, um, you know, Steven Pinker's writing on, uh, enlightenment now. We've never lived in a better time. By any metric, it's better than it was 20 years ago, but it's very difficult to see that, especially as the world falls apart, and the world is falling apart. You know, Pax Americana is over. The, the second-order consequence, I

28. 1:07:24 – 1:10:29

    Pax Americana Ending + The World Shifting

    1. JCJimmy Carr1:07:24

       don't know how interested your viewers are in history, but we'll do it. Okay. So depending on where you draw the line, '89 or '91, there was a, there was a bipolar world, right? For the longest time, a bipolar world. It was, it was America versus Russia and the Soviet Union, and they were at loggerheads, and they had different spheres of influence, right? And Berlin Wall collapses, Soviets disappears, crumbles, and there's a unipolar world that we've enjoyed. And since 1945, really, we, we have enjoyed in the West Pax Americana, like Pax Romana or Pax Britannia, the idea that the Americans took care of everything. The Monroe Doctrine and the, the idea that you went... The whole world is trading. That wasn't to make America money. America's uniquely blessed. It's got enough money. They, they wanted their sphere of influence. They wanted their political system every- They wanted trade and commerce everywhere. And the second-order consequence of the Soviet Union collapsing and the Berlin Wall was the U.S. Navy got smaller and smaller and smaller, and things started to pop off, [snaps fingers] whether it's Somali pirates. That would never would have happened in, in the '80s. Couldn't have happened. Too many naval U.S. ships protecting trade. The, the, the idea that you can have all of this unrest around the world and America doesn't intervene. It used to intervene. The world's policeman. That's what it used to do. It doesn't... It's lost its... It's got smaller. It's got more inward-looking. You know, some would argue that that's a good thing, and now we have a multipolar world. Well, a multipo-polar world is much less secure. You know, if you think about the... I don't know. I think about this a lot, like, uh, the dropping of the bombs in Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Were they the last two explosions of World War II or the first two explosions of the Cold War? Have nuclear weapons been used twice, or have they been used every day since 1945 and they've prevented another all-out war?

    2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:09:22

       Oh, wow.

    3. JCJimmy Carr1:09:23

       Very interesting, like what happens when countries get nuclear weapons. America got the bomb, right? Ended World War II within months. Russia got the bomb. We had Vietnam within a year. No, sorry, we had Korea. Russia got the bomb, we had Korea. China got the bomb, we had Vietnam. So these proxy wars come up where they're fighting, but they're not really fighting. There's kind of a, th-there's kind of a... I don't know. It isn't all-out war, but it's horrific, and then there's so much of that going on at the moment. It's just-

    4. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:10:00

       Where does that interest stem from, Jimmy? You're clearly well-educated on it. You must do a lot of reading and research. Must be an avid historian.

    5. JCJimmy Carr1:10:06

       Uh, no, not re- I mean, I'm, I'm very interested in, in the world that we live in. And, uh, I don't know. I mean, I'm, I've always found it kind of fascinating when you sort of look around because, you know, what, what we, um... I, I sort of, I like, uh... There's a guy called, um, Derek Parfit. Uh, he's a philosopher. Um, and he sort of

29. 1:10:29 – 1:13:18

    Kids, Legacy & Meaning

    1. JCJimmy Carr1:10:29

       talks about temporally and spatially owing other people something. So owing future generations something. What are we gonna leave for them? What world are we gonna leave for them? And also people around the world. Everyone's of equal value, but we don't act as if they are.

    2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:10:48

       What do you think you're leaving for the world, Jimmy?

    3. JCJimmy Carr1:10:50

       Uh, hmm, hmm, some dick jokes.

    4. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:10:53

       [laughs]

    5. JCJimmy Carr1:10:54

       Um, I don't know. I mean, I think the, the, you know, the... I, I had, uh, a lunch with, uh, a friend of mine called Eric Weinstein, who's much brighter than me. He's a physicist.

    6. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:11:04

       Wow.

    7. JCJimmy Carr1:11:04

       Great guy. And we chat about how much I'm enjoying being a dad, and he kind of sort of went, you know... Well, of course, it's everything. And he went, "You will die, and you will be reborn as someone else, and you will love them." And it kind of explained everything. Why is having kids so great? Well, it's purpose. It's your whole purpose is this. And the idea that there is reincarnation. Well, there is reincarnation. There is a next life, but the next life is the kids, and the great thing is y- there's a crossover period. You get to meet them and have a relationship with them before you say goodbye, and they go on. Wonderful.

    8. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:11:43

       So being a father is your ultimate legacy almost?

    9. JCJimmy Carr1:11:46

       Yeah. I mean, I think anyone with kids would, would sort of say that. It's, uh, it's... Kids are... And it should be... I don't think it is at the moment, but it should be a incredible pleasure. You ask anyone. Go to any billionaire and go, "Look, you can keep the yacht or your two kids. What are you gonna go with?"

    10. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:12:02

        [laughs]

    11. JCJimmy Carr1:12:03

        100% they're gonna keep their kids. No one's going, "It's a nice yacht. Hmm." That... So that thing of, like that's available to everyone, should be available to everyone. I think there's a lot of people now, um, certainly speaking in the UK, that feel like they can't have kids and they can't get a house and they can't get the things. Well, politics is for solving collective action problems. That is a massive problem. People... I, I'm all for giving people agency. I'm all for, um, letting people do what they wanna do and being quite libertarian about, like is that really the government's business to get involved in that? Fine. But I'm also super conscious we have to deal in young people.

    12. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:12:42

        Well, on that note then, Jimmy, I wanna say thank you for-

    13. JCJimmy Carr1:12:45

        Oh, my pleasure, man

    14. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:12:47

        ... coming on a year ago. I really enjoyed that episode. I, I, I think when I messaged you again, I said it was my ... conversational apprenticeship. You were my conversational Mr. Miyagi. And I almost gave up the podcast just shortly before then, and we had our conversation, and it kind of gave me another gear, and I've had an amazing year because of you. And I always mention your name, whether it's to agents, to other guests, to people that listen to the show, or just strangers who ask you about it, and they all really have this mutual respect for it because of your name.

    15. JCJimmy Carr1:13:12

        Oh, that's-

    16. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:13:13

        And I have a lot of respect for you for enabling that, Jimmy

    17. JCJimmy Carr1:13:15

        ... that's, listen, it's my absolute pleasure. Uh, I wish you every success

30. 1:13:18 – 1:15:08

    Janey Godley Tribute

    1. JCJimmy Carr1:13:18

       with it.

    2. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:13:18

       I wanna end on a, a really touching story. Um, and you may have not expected this, but about a year ago, uh, I, I visited your show at the Fringe, um, at the Playhouse. I had a great time. Um, and the next day I was walking to get my coffee, just re- reminiscing about the show, and I bumped into an amazing lady called Janey Godley.

    3. JCJimmy Carr1:13:37

       Oh, yeah, I know Janey, yeah.

    4. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:13:38

       Yeah, yeah, yeah.

    5. JCJimmy Carr1:13:38

       Uh, wonderful.

    6. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:13:40

       Um-

    7. JCJimmy Carr1:13:40

       Wonderful girl

    8. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:13:41

       ... uh, so I walked past her and I saw her with her dog in the promenade. I said, "Janey, I'm a huge fan. I'm an open spot comedian and podcaster. I would love to have you on the show." And she said, "Sit down, son. Let's do it right now." And I went, "What?" She went, "Sit down and do it right now." And I was interviewing Steven Kotler about an hour later, a great author, a hero of mine. She went, "No, son, do it now." And I was like, "Oh, but the, the light and the..." And then she went, "Son, let's have a coffee." So I sat down. We had this beautiful 10, 15-minute, uh, podcast together on, on the phone, and we did the podcast, and she said, "Jimmy's a great friend of mine, who really looked after me. He would call." And, um, I just kinda wanna do this in a, kind of in memory of her. You know, that's a close friend of yours, and you impacted her life, and people don't see this kind of empathetic, generous side of you. They see the dick jokes, the harsh jokes. But she spoke to me about how much you cared for her, and, uh, I won't say on, on, on camera how you did look after her, but she... It meant a lot to her, it seemed.

    9. JCJimmy Carr1:14:27

       That's, that's very sweet.

    10. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:14:28

        And-

    11. JCJimmy Carr1:14:28

        Yeah, she was, uh, um... I'd say she was, like, the, I think the best thing you can be, right? And I often talk about this as, like, escape competition through authenticity, right? I'm not in the entertainment business. I'm not in the comedy business. I'm in the Jimmy Carr business, and business is booming. Uh, she was Janey Godley, and she was a non-fungible human. There's no one else like that, right? There's no one else like her. That's what I aspire to. That's magnificent. She was great, and she's still with us when we speak like this.

    12. DJDavid McIntosh Jr1:15:04

        Jimmy Carr, everyone.

    13. JCJimmy Carr1:15:05

        Hey, great to see you, man. Take care. Thanks, guys.

Episode duration: 1:15:09