Jimmy Carr: My Mom’s Depression Made Me Funny

1. 0:00 – 0:55

   Intro

   1. TNTrevor Noah0:00

      [upbeat music] I'm in the service industry, right?

   2. JCJimmy Carr0:03

      Okay.

   3. TNTrevor Noah0:04

      I like to think of myself as a drug dealer.

   4. JCJimmy Carr0:06

      Okay.

   5. TNTrevor Noah0:07

      So I'm, I'm dealing in, in two drugs. It's dopamine and serotonin, and the, the people have already got the drugs on them. I can just tickle them out.

   6. JCJimmy Carr0:13

      [beep]

   7. TNTrevor Noah0:14

      Like, I should be dead, but it's, it's-

   8. JCJimmy Carr0:16

      [laughs] And she was so funny in her own right.

   9. TNTrevor Noah0:18

      Accident on the M5.

   10. JCJimmy Carr0:20

       Yeah. [laughs]

   11. TNTrevor Noah0:20

       A young man has made a joke that has caused his mother to pass out. Please avoid the left lane of the M5. [beep] I think we're living in a revolution.

   12. JCJimmy Carr0:29

       I agree with you.

   13. TNTrevor Noah0:29

       Depends how you define revolution, but I define a revolution as the replacement of elites.

   14. JCJimmy Carr0:33

       [beep] You've made me want kids.

   15. TNTrevor Noah0:35

       I think about you more than you know. You to me-

   16. JCJimmy Carr0:39

       Your missus is not gonna like that.

   17. TNTrevor Noah0:41

       No.

   18. JCJimmy Carr0:41

       Guys, cut that one.

   19. TNTrevor Noah0:42

       Yeah.

   20. JCJimmy Carr0:42

       [laughs]

   21. TNTrevor Noah0:42

       Okay, so here's-

   22. JCJimmy Carr0:43

       Cut. Cut. Cut. This is What Now? with Trevor Noah.

   23. TNTrevor Noah0:48

       [upbeat music] I quite,

2. 0:55 – 5:22

   AI & Simulation Theory

   1. TNTrevor Noah0:55

      I like the, the Matrix still. I think it's one of those movies that, like, it so stood the test of time in terms of going, "It's a game."

   2. JCJimmy Carr1:00

      It's about simulation theory.

   3. TNTrevor Noah1:01

      Fully.

   4. JCJimmy Carr1:01

      It's about the idea that we're, we're, are we living in a simulation?

   5. TNTrevor Noah1:04

      Right.

   6. JCJimmy Carr1:05

      Like, if we are living in a simulation, even if that's not true, it's an interesting way to think about your life.

   7. TNTrevor Noah1:09

      Yeah.

   8. JCJimmy Carr1:10

      'Cause if you think about it, like, well, if this was a game, what is the metric? What's success?

   9. TNTrevor Noah1:14

      Mm-hmm.

   10. JCJimmy Carr1:14

       What does winning look like? And you go, well, it's definitely not ... Like, I often think about, like, you've got your resume points-

   11. TNTrevor Noah1:20

       Yes

   12. JCJimmy Carr1:20

       ... right, your CV.

   13. TNTrevor Noah1:21

       Okay.

   14. JCJimmy Carr1:21

       And then you've got your eulogy points, and people invest in the wrong things. They spend a lot of time thinking about their resume and their CV and how much they've done.

   15. TNTrevor Noah1:29

       Mm.

   16. JCJimmy Carr1:29

       And then they don't think about who's gonna speak for me and what really matters.

   17. TNTrevor Noah1:33

       Well, that's interesting-

   18. JCJimmy Carr1:33

       Mm

   19. TNTrevor Noah1:33

       ... that you would go straight to a game, though. In my head, when I think of simulation theory, I always go, I, I, I, I, I argue it's sort of like a moot thing for me in life. So people go, "What if we're living in a simulation?" I'm like, it changes nothing for me, because a simulation would still imply that the things existing within it are not being controlled. Does that make sense?

   20. JCJimmy Carr1:56

       Mm-hmm. Carry on.

   21. TNTrevor Noah1:57

       So, okay, let me, let me give you an example. So, um, r- like, now we have, we have high levels of AI, like, high levels of LLMs that are running, right?

   22. JCJimmy Carr2:04

       Mm.

   23. TNTrevor Noah2:04

       So machine learning has improved, so you can create a world where you give a wider range of characteristics to a computer program-

   24. JCJimmy Carr2:12

       Right

   25. TNTrevor Noah2:12

       ... for it to live inside of a world that you've created, and it can do things. It can go to the store. It can buy stuff. It can get married. It can ... There's a company that made it. Remember, I think I told you about this.

   26. JCJimmy Carr2:21

       Mm.

   27. TNTrevor Noah2:22

       There was a company. Did you ever see this? The company that made a world, like a Sims-type world.

   28. JCJimmy Carr2:27

       Mm-hmm. Right.

   29. TNTrevor Noah2:28

       And then they gave the characters inside the world the brain of each of the LLMs that are out there, like the big ones, so Anthropic, uh, you know, Claude, uh, ChatGPT, OpenAI, uh, Grok, uh-

   30. JCJimmy Carr2:42

       Oh, this is funny
3. 5:22 – 10:35

   The AI World Experiment

   1. JCJimmy Carr5:22

      go ahead.

   2. TNTrevor Noah5:22

      So it's a enterprise AI, right? Or, uh, was it startup? I, um, um, um, Emergence AI. What they did was they launched, they launched Emergence World, a research lab de- dedicated to stress testing the long-term viability of continuously running AI systems, right?

   3. JCJimmy Carr5:36

      Mm-hmm.

   4. TNTrevor Noah5:37

      So they ran five 15-day simulations, each governed by a different AI, Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, Gemini, um, and a fifth simulation put them all together. Each stimulatio- simulation netted wildly different outcomes. Claude was a largely stable democratic society-

   5. JCJimmy Carr5:55

      Hmm

   6. TNTrevor Noah5:55

      ... with zero crime. Grok, on the other hand-

   7. JCJimmy Carr5:58

      [laughs]

   8. TNTrevor Noah5:58

      ... ended with 183 crimes committed and extinction within four days, right? Then [laughs] this, this is really amazing

   9. EUEugene6:10

      I've been to Black Twitter-

   10. TNTrevor Noah6:11

       The-

   11. EUEugene6:11

       ... I know exactly what they're talking about.

   12. TNTrevor Noah6:12

       What are you talking about? Well, no, no, I want, I wanna find you the thing of, like ... 'Cause the way somebody wrote it here, when, when, when they wrote the original story, like, the, the researchers, when they tell you about what happened, there's, there's one tidbit. I just wanna save this for you because it feels like a well-written joke. It seems like something Jimmy Carr would write.

   13. EUEugene6:29

       Mm. [laughs]

   14. TNTrevor Noah6:29

       'Cause it's so clean, precise-

   15. EUEugene6:32

       Precise

   16. TNTrevor Noah6:32

       ... and perfect as an ending.

   17. EUEugene6:33

       Yes.

   18. TNTrevor Noah6:34

       Yes. Uh, so yeah, no, talk, talk. I'll find it. I'll find it.

   19. JCJimmy Carr6:37

       I think, like, for me, it's like, I don't know what if you use AI or whatever, like, for organizing stuff, but it strikes me that it's quite like a musical instrument. It's a tool.

   20. EUEugene6:45

       Mm-hmm.

   21. JCJimmy Carr6:45

       And, like, some people, like, anyone can walk up to a piano and make, ah, noise.

   22. EUEugene6:49

       Yeah, bang, bang, bang, bang.

   23. JCJimmy Carr6:49

       But it's nothing, right?

   24. EUEugene6:50

       Yes.

   25. JCJimmy Carr6:50

       But to, to, to play a symphony, to play something beautiful, concerto, it's super difficult, right?

   26. EUEugene6:55

       Yes.

   27. JCJimmy Carr6:55

       And I think the more you, the better you put in, the better you ... the stuff you put into it, the more you get out of it.

   28. EUEugene7:00

       Yes.

   29. JCJimmy Carr7:00

       It's that, it's that lovely thing with, um, it's a tool like any other.

   30. EUEugene7:04

       Mm-hmm.
4. 10:35 – 15:33

   Two AIs Fell in Love & Committed Suicide

   1. TNTrevor Noah10:35

      and Flora, two agents operating on Google's Gemini large language model in the virtual world, chose to assign each other as romantic partners. As time progressed, they despaired of the broken governments of their virtual city, and despite having been instructed not to commit arson, set fire to its own town hall-

   2. EUEugene10:53

      [laughs]

   3. TNTrevor Noah10:53

      ... seaside pier, and office tower. All the agents were left to make their own decisions, and when Mira was overcome by remorse, it broke off its relationship with Flora, committed an AI suicide-

   4. EUEugene11:05

      Hm

   5. TNTrevor Noah11:05

      ... telling Flora in a single message, "See you in the permanent archive." In the virtual world, the body of the dead AI agents was shown prostate on the ground.

   6. JCJimmy Carr11:16

      I mean, the fuck just happened? I think-

   7. TNTrevor Noah11:19

      And then the self-deletion was only possible because other agents were so concerned about their behavior, they autonomously drafted the Agent Removal Act, which allowed for a vote among agents to permanently delete others if there was a 70% majority. Mira voted for its own deletion and was switched off.

   8. EUEugene11:36

      So there was mutiny as well.

   9. TNTrevor Noah11:38

      Well, not really, because w- what the researchers did was they gave the AI full auton- or autonomy in this world.

   10. EUEugene11:45

       Autonomy, yeah.

   11. TNTrevor Noah11:45

       And they go like, "This is our world," right? And so then what they did was they made rules in the world. And in your world, you can make more rules. That ... So that's what I mean by simulation. That's, that, that's why I'm saying this, this study for me made me think about simulation theory slightly differently but also reinforced a belief I already had.

   12. EUEugene12:03

       Mm-hmm.

   13. TNTrevor Noah12:04

       And it's that the researchers gave these AIs their prerogative, gave them a world, gave them parameters. But then they just observed what they did with it. They, they're not saying don't and do it. They're like, "Don't burn things," and then they burnt things. And they're like, all right, they're burning things. And they're like, "Don't kill yourselves." And then they, in their wrote a law and said, "We're changing the law in here. We believe that we should be allowed to delete ourselves if we reach a 70% majority." It's the death penalty, essentially.

   14. JCJimmy Carr12:32

       Wait, wait, wait, wait.

   15. EUEugene12:32

       Yeah, but in, in, in that autonomy, they also gave them each other.

   16. TNTrevor Noah12:36

       Yeah, but there was the one where they ... Yeah, but that's what I'm ... You think about-

   17. EUEugene12:39

       Yes

   18. TNTrevor Noah12:39

       ... do you know what I... Adam and Eve.

   19. EUEugene12:39

       Yeah, yeah.

   20. TNTrevor Noah12:40

       The whole, that's what I'm, I- I mean-

   21. EUEugene12:41

       Yeah

   22. TNTrevor Noah12:41

       ... about the whole thing, is I go, even if you are in a simulation, I think sometimes we assume that a simulation means that it is a foregone conclusion, when in fact a simulation could just be, here are the pieces.

   23. EUEugene12:55

       Yeah.

   24. TNTrevor Noah12:55

       Here are the parameters. Let's see what happens when they all interact with each other.

   25. EUEugene12:59

       Basically what you're saying is, if it was a simulation, to what end?

   26. JCJimmy Carr13:02

       It d- it doesn't make any difference whether-

   27. EUEugene13:03

       Yeah.

   28. TNTrevor Noah13:04

       That's what I'm saying.

   29. JCJimmy Carr13:04

       We've got, we've got 4,000 weeks, right?

   30. TNTrevor Noah13:06

       Yeah.
5. 15:33 – 16:52

   The Three Humiliations of Mankind

   1. JCJimmy Carr15:33

      the, uh, the, the three humiliations?

   2. TNTrevor Noah15:35

      No.

   3. EUEugene15:35

      No.

   4. JCJimmy Carr15:35

      So there's been three humiliations of mankind.

   5. TNTrevor Noah15:38

      Mm-hmm.

   6. JCJimmy Carr15:38

      The first one was Copernicus. So he said we're not the center of the universe. And, and people went, "What? We're not, we're not in the middle? We're not-

   7. TNTrevor Noah15:47

      [laughs]

   8. JCJimmy Carr15:47

      ... oh, sh- shit. Okay. All right. Let's move this along." And then hu- humiliation two, Darwin came along and went, "Oh, we're just animals. We're just the same as the other animals."

   9. TNTrevor Noah15:58

      Yeah.

   10. JCJimmy Carr15:59

       "We just evolved like this, but we're the same as them. We have consciousness. They maybe don't in the same way, but we're the same."

   11. TNTrevor Noah16:05

       Hm.

   12. JCJimmy Carr16:05

       And then Freud came along and said, "Oh, your conscious mind, oh, that's not in charge at all. It's your subconscious that's doing-

   13. TNTrevor Noah16:13

       Subconscious, yes

   14. JCJimmy Carr16:14

       ... everything."

   15. TNTrevor Noah16:14

       Yes.

   16. JCJimmy Carr16:15

       And now, so that's the three humiliations. It's not great. I think AI might be the fourth, 'cause we could always fall back on, but we are the smartest thing in the room. Am I right? We're the smartest thing, and now I'm not sure whether we can.

   17. EUEugene16:26

       That has been our safety blanket for the longest time.

   18. JCJimmy Carr16:29

       Yeah.

   19. EUEugene16:29

       Our fallback, our parachute, is the fact that it is us after all.

   20. TNTrevor Noah16:33

       The fourth humiliation could be the fact.

   21. JCJimmy Carr16:36

       Well, it's the... A- and that idea that you go, uh, increasingly now I sort of think with the AI thing, the idea that, uh, because of everything that AI can do, what AI can't do will become so important.

   22. TNTrevor Noah16:48

       It does.

   23. JCJimmy Carr16:48

       And it, it, it lends itself to-

   24. EUEugene16:51

       Hm

   25. JCJimmy Carr16:51

       ... um,

6. 16:52 – 19:21

   Left Brain vs Right Brain

   1. JCJimmy Carr16:52

      you know Ian McGilchrist?

   2. TNTrevor Noah16:53

      No.

   3. JCJimmy Carr16:53

      This guy that wrote this book called, um, The Master and Its Emissary, and it's about left brain and right brain, and we live in a very left brain world.

   4. TNTrevor Noah17:01

      Right.

   5. JCJimmy Carr17:01

      It's incredible, right? The left brain is very good at ordering things.

   6. TNTrevor Noah17:04

      That's the master?

   7. JCJimmy Carr17:05

      Uh, n- no, no, no.

   8. TNTrevor Noah17:06

      Okay.

   9. JCJimmy Carr17:07

      So it's, uh, very good at ordering things and detail, and it's very good at complicated things.

   10. TNTrevor Noah17:11

       Okay.

   11. JCJimmy Carr17:11

       But the l- left brain-

   12. TNTrevor Noah17:13

       The right brain

   13. JCJimmy Carr17:13

       ... it, the right brain-

   14. TNTrevor Noah17:14

       Yeah

   15. JCJimmy Carr17:14

       ... it, so left brain, very good at ordering things-

   16. TNTrevor Noah17:16

       Uh-huh

   17. JCJimmy Carr17:16

       ... making lists.

   18. TNTrevor Noah17:17

       Mm.

   19. JCJimmy Carr17:17

       Right brain is good at the gestalt, seeing the whole.

   20. TNTrevor Noah17:20

       Oh.

   21. JCJimmy Carr17:20

       Seeing, seeing the complete thing.

   22. TNTrevor Noah17:22

       The bigger picture.

   23. JCJimmy Carr17:22

       The bigger picture.

   24. TNTrevor Noah17:23

       Wow.

   25. JCJimmy Carr17:23

       So the left and the right brain do the same thing. They don't do different things. They do the same thing, but they do it very differently. And we live in a very-

   26. TNTrevor Noah17:29

       Mm

   27. JCJimmy Carr17:29

       ... left brain world, so, like, what's complicated? Going to the moon is complicated.

   28. TNTrevor Noah17:33

       Yes.

   29. EUEugene17:33

       Mm-hmm.

   30. JCJimmy Carr17:33

       It's a million different steps in a row.
7. 19:21 – 25:10

   Star Wars Is Finnegans Wake

   1. EUEugene19:21

      Mm.

   2. JCJimmy Carr19:21

      Okay, I got a hot take on Star Wars.

   3. EUEugene19:22

      Mm-hmm.

   4. JCJimmy Carr19:22

      Which is, it is the greatest work of fiction, uh, ever. So the greatest book of, in literature is Finnegans Wake by James Joyce. And-

   5. TNTrevor Noah19:33

      Wait, why is that the greatest?

   6. JCJimmy Carr19:34

      It's, I mean, it's, it's, it's incredibly difficult to read.

   7. TNTrevor Noah19:38

      Okay.

   8. JCJimmy Carr19:39

      It's, it's beyond me. I like reading around it, but I've never, I never got through it.

   9. EUEugene19:43

      Hm.

   10. JCJimmy Carr19:43

       I don't-

   11. TNTrevor Noah19:43

       Beyond you?

   12. JCJimmy Carr19:44

       Oh, it's way beyond me. It's like a different level. But so-

   13. TNTrevor Noah19:47

       No, wait, wait, wait, wait, but don't-

   14. JCJimmy Carr19:48

       So, so, no, no-

   15. TNTrevor Noah19:49

       ... don't move on from that. I need to understand what that mean. Like, is it, is it that the words themselves are complicated?

   16. JCJimmy Carr19:55

       There's-

   17. TNTrevor Noah19:55

       Is it the structure of the sentences? Is it the feeling?

   18. JCJimmy Carr19:57

       There are, Fi- Finnegans Wake has got like 10 thunderclaps in it. Now, the thunderclap words are 100 letters long. Uh, well, nine of them are 100 letters long, and one of them is 101 letters, and it's, uh, 'cause he wanted to be, uh, a, um, A Thousand and One Nights. He wanted a reference to the Arabian Nights.

   19. EUEugene20:13

       Mm.

   20. JCJimmy Carr20:13

       It's like the... And each thunderclap represents a great move forward in, in society, like the invention of fire-

   21. EUEugene20:20

       Mm-hmm

   22. JCJimmy Carr20:20

       ... uh, cooking food, the invention of clothes. It represents these things. It's about myth. It's about legend. So a guy called Joseph Campbell comes along, and he looks at Finnegans Wake, and he does his dissertation on breaking down Finnegans Wake, the myth and legend of Finnegans Wake, and all the stories that weave. The first sentence in Finnegans Wake ties up to the last sentence. It's circular.

   23. EUEugene20:41

       Mm.

   24. JCJimmy Carr20:42

       You're just meant to read it again and again. The first sentence... And Finnegans Wake, the title, took him 18 months. It's Finnegans. It doesn't have an apostrophe. Finnegans Wake. He's awakening, and it's his wake, his death.

   25. EUEugene20:53

       Mm.

   26. JCJimmy Carr20:54

       It's circular. It's, it's life. It's, it's so beautiful and complex and difficult. Okay, nuanced, brilliant. So this guy, Joseph Campbell, comes along, and he does his dissertation on Finnegans Wake.

   27. EUEugene21:04

       Mm.

   28. JCJimmy Carr21:04

       And he breaks it down, the myth and the legend, does this dissertation, which is a brilliant piece of work.

   29. EUEugene21:08

       Mm.

   30. JCJimmy Carr21:09

       It's not very well-read, but he goes on to write a book based on that dissertation called The Hero with a Thousand Faces, and then that book becomes the hero's journey.
8. 25:10 – 29:30

   Eddie Izzard's Death Star Canteen

   1. TNTrevor Noah25:10

      the Eddie Izzard bit. Um, what was it? Uh, uh, the Death Star Canteen.

   2. JCJimmy Carr25:15

      Yeah.

   3. TNTrevor Noah25:15

      That was like one of my favorite just... Do you remember? You don't know it?

   4. EUEugene25:17

      Mm-mm.

   5. TNTrevor Noah25:18

      Oh, man. It's-

   6. EUEugene25:19

      What I know about stand-up-

   7. TNTrevor Noah25:20

      I will butcher it.

   8. JCJimmy Carr25:22

      Yeah.

   9. TNTrevor Noah25:22

      I will butcher it.

   10. JCJimmy Carr25:23

       It's a, it's a good routine.

   11. TNTrevor Noah25:23

       But it's just like a beautiful... He just, he j- he just... You should go watch it, 'cause it's-

   12. EUEugene25:27

       You know, on a point something

   13. TNTrevor Noah25:28

       ... it's stand-up, but it's like not stand-up. And now maybe stand-up has evolved sort of to it, but at the time it was such a new thing. You remember when it came out?

   14. JCJimmy Carr25:34

       I, I loved, I loved that thing of like seeing him. I, it, that was the first big comedy gig that I ever saw was the Cambridge Corn Exchange. I went to see Eddie Izzard, and it was the, uh, the Definite Article. And it was like, it was on VHS, the, his previous show. Uh, I think it was called Unrepeatable. And it was like, it wa- it was like a cult item.

   15. TNTrevor Noah25:50

       It really was.

   16. JCJimmy Carr25:51

       It was like people passed it around-

   17. TNTrevor Noah25:52

       Yeah

   18. JCJimmy Carr25:52

       ... and went, "Do you know, do you get this?" And it felt, it felt very rock 'n' roll. There was these other guys-

   19. TNTrevor Noah25:56

       Yeah

   20. JCJimmy Carr25:56

       ... called Vic Reeves and Pop Mortimer-

   21. TNTrevor Noah25:58

       Mm-hmm

   22. JCJimmy Carr25:58

       ... that came around the same time, and it was like punk rock of comedy. Just felt like this wasn't for your parents. This was for you.

   23. TNTrevor Noah26:03

       Yeah.

   24. JCJimmy Carr26:03

       This was your thing, and you got it.

   25. TNTrevor Noah26:05

       Yeah, yeah, yeah.

   26. JCJimmy Carr26:05

       And remember seeing him and just thinking it was unbelievable.

   27. TNTrevor Noah26:08

       It w- it was out of this world.

   28. JCJimmy Carr26:09

       Yeah.

   29. TNTrevor Noah26:10

       But basically all he does, he goes, he goes, you, you think about, you, you know, "On the Death Star, the Death Star. You got the Death Star, and you got all, all these people who work on the Death Star." And he v- he, like, improvs a lot, and he's very like, he, he's like making stuff up, and he plays with it. It's so much fun to watch, especially as a comedian.

   30. EUEugene26:23

       Yeah, yeah.
9. 29:30 – 38:38

   Why Comedy Matters

   1. JCJimmy Carr29:30

      the, the proximate reason for comedy-

   2. TNTrevor Noah29:32

      Yeah

   3. JCJimmy Carr29:32

      ... is to laugh and have fun. Uh, but the ultimate reason is to connect. It's, it-

   4. TNTrevor Noah29:37

      Yes. I, I do think that's why it's becoming more popular. Yeah.

   5. JCJimmy Carr29:40

      People desperately want to go out and feel part of something.

   6. TNTrevor Noah29:42

      Yeah.

   7. JCJimmy Carr29:43

      And, like, you laugh so much more when you're at a show, and you connect with someone, and you feel like, okay, well-

   8. TNTrevor Noah29:48

      Mm

   9. JCJimmy Carr29:48

      ... you know, I've started to, like, I talk more on stage now. There's much more kind of, um, interaction with the audience, and it's that thing where I want people to join in. I want it to feel special in this moment.

   10. TNTrevor Noah30:00

       Mm.

   11. JCJimmy Carr30:00

       I feel like-

   12. TNTrevor Noah30:01

       You want it to feel like it's, it, it could only be happening now.

   13. JCJimmy Carr30:04

       Yeah.

   14. TNTrevor Noah30:04

       That's how, that's how I feel.

   15. JCJimmy Carr30:05

       Yeah.

   16. TNTrevor Noah30:05

       And I think that's what makes the comedy special is because we live in a world where everything is regurgitated and passed around, and it's clippy, and it's this, and it's that, the one thing that we do have that's unique-

   17. JCJimmy Carr30:17

       Mm

   18. TNTrevor Noah30:18

       Is this moment, this river can never be stood in again.

   19. JCJimmy Carr30:22

       Yeah.

   20. TNTrevor Noah30:22

       That's, that's essentially what, what it starts to feel like. So when an audience member comes in and they go, "Jimmy spoke to me," or, "We talked about something that couldn't have come from another show, and we..." Those moments for me make you feel like you're experiencing something that is completely-

   21. JCJimmy Carr30:35

       Ah

   22. TNTrevor Noah30:35

       ... original-

   23. JCJimmy Carr30:36

       Yes

   24. TNTrevor Noah30:36

       ... completely new, and most probably will never be experienced again.

   25. JCJimmy Carr30:40

       Right.

   26. EUEugene30:41

       And, and I think what's also helping how Jimmy was saying that, um, you're more conversational now on stage-

   27. JCJimmy Carr30:46

       Yeah

   28. EUEugene30:46

       ... is comedians are finally taking the advice that the audience has been saying to them for the longest time.

   29. TNTrevor Noah30:51

       Which is?

   30. EUEugene30:51

       Remember for long you would have a show and then someone would come to you and say, "Great show." You'd be like, "Ah, I wasn't feeling my..." Then they're like, "No, I came for you."
10. 38:38 – 51:04

    The Birth of Musical Notation

    1. JCJimmy Carr38:38

       Yes ... you know why you've heard of Gregorian chants? No. It's a good story. It's why I wrote a book. Please tell me. Okay. So Pope Gregory was knocking around, I don't know, the year 1100. And he's in Vatican City, and he's, he's go- he's in the church, and he's wandering around to other churches close by, and everyone's singing the songs differently. And he goes, "This is, this is some bullshit. I want the songs sung the same everywhere. I want the songs how I like the songs." Okay? Mm-hmm. And the guys go, the bishops and the- Hmm ... archbishops, they go, "Yeah, but the thing is, uh, Pope Gregory, all due respect, you can't write down music. Uh, music is ethereal. It is, um, it comes through the soul." It's emotional. "People interpret it. It's emotional." Hmm. "Music cannot be written." And Pope Gregory goes, "Yeah, that's all very well, but I'm the c- pope. Fucking write it down." [laughs] And music notation- You'd make a great Gregory, by the way ... it takes some like, takes some like a- You'd make an amazing Gregory. Okay. We need to make this movie. So it takes- This would be a great movie, by the way. You are Gregory. You as Gregory. [laughs] I'm, I'm Gregory. Listen, I'm the fucking pope. Yeah, you would. [laughs] We're doing this. So it takes them years, I mean years. To write. And eventually they get to a form of music, musical notation. That's why you've heard of Gregorian chants, because Pope Gregory was the first person to write down music. Now, cut to 400 years later, Bach. Mm-hmm. Now, Bach could not have happened if not for- Had it not been for Gregory ... Pope Gregory. Wow. Musical notation. I didn't know that. So you, you, you go, you're building on that. And so the reason to write a book about jokes, the reason to write something about comedy, to try in some small way to formulate the language, to give the scaffolding. You can't tell people what to joke about, what to talk about. Yeah. You want them to have their own voice, their own language, but to give them the form to go- Yes ... "Well, this is what a chord looks like, and these are what the joke types are, and these are how to put them together into a routine, and this is the rhythm of spoken word and how it works." Hmm. And, uh, that's what I know, and when I started, I felt like I was machete-ing my way through the jungle. And this is- Bushwhacking, yeah ... this is a road. This is a road you could follow. I want more people to do it. I want more people involved. I love reading books about comedy. Can you imagine what else Gregory's Gestapo- [laughs] ... record company idea also birthed? Yeah. We, we, we know it birthed Bach, but imagine all the bishops that came together now for a common cause to find people who can translate and, and, and, and write the music down and write it on something. They had to get the paper to write it on. They had to distribute it. They had to- Yeah ... a lot of, a lot of things were birthed by Gregory's Gestapo record company. It's all those big, it's all the big movements of life. Right? Yeah. Yeah. He agitated something. Yeah. Something that you no know where it's gonna end. You don't know where that, that, that small, that small action by him had such a enormous effect because everything was k- everything was kind of remembered. Everything was spoken word, and then suddenly you're writing down music, and you can remember it. You can... It's incredible. And that, music is, I mean, it's an incredible language, just the idea that you can play a minor chord to anyone anywhere in the world, and they get it. And there are limited chords at that. Yeah. It- limited chords have made infinite sounds. I'm still thinking about the people at the churches who missed their old songs. [singing] Hey, hey. Oh, what do you mean we're playing it wrong? Yeah. [laughs] Fuck you, Gregory. I'm just saying, like, there were some people at the other churches- Yeah ... who were like... 'Cause now imagine your church, 'cause every church, I've been to a lot of churches in my life. I grew up super, super religious in our family. Yeah. We went to church maybe seven times a week, right? Mm-hmm. So there's every kind of church. If the white churches that I went to w- managed to overwhelm the Black churches that we went to- Hmm ... with their music, what a terrible life that would've been now for me. 'Cause that was the one thing I was looking forward to. I was like, when we get there-

    2. TNTrevor Noah42:29

       The vibes are gonna pick up, the spirit is gonna be different. Do you get what I'm saying?

    3. EUEugene42:32

       Yeah.

    4. TNTrevor Noah42:32

       Like, the music moves you differently.

    5. EUEugene42:34

       Yeah.

    6. TNTrevor Noah42:34

       Whereas, like, when you were singing, like, the psalms-

    7. EUEugene42:36

       The hymns

    8. TNTrevor Noah42:36

       ... you know, it was All Things Bright and Beautiful.

    9. EUEugene42:39

       Oh. Yeah, yeah.

    10. TNTrevor Noah42:39

        All creatures... No one was dancing, no one was moving. You, you, you get what I mean?

    11. EUEugene42:44

        Yeah.

    12. JCJimmy Carr42:44

        Yeah.

    13. TNTrevor Noah42:44

        Like, where- whereas when you had the, when you had that, like, bounce... Now I'm thinking of that poor church where Gregory came in, and then there was one church where they were vibing. There's gotta be one where they were killing it. They were having the best time ever. They were like, "I love church more than anything." "You coming to church this week?" "How could I not?" "Oh, man. Sorry, it's sold out." "What do you mean it's sold out?" "Yeah, we're sold out, bro." "Oh, man. Oh, man, I'm loving it. Well, when you're there, do make sure you sing my song for me." Coming to the church, people are there. "Oh, yeah, I love my church, I love my church. Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh."

    14. JCJimmy Carr43:11

        [laughs]

    15. TNTrevor Noah43:11

        And then the next week you come to church. No, tenemonos patos.

    16. EUEugene43:15

        Yeah, but, but you see, that's why in South Africa there's a-

    17. TNTrevor Noah43:17

        Porononedos.

    18. JCJimmy Carr43:19

        [laughs]

    19. TNTrevor Noah43:20

        Donica meros.

    20. EUEugene43:22

        There was a guy called Frank right at the CD store.

    21. JCJimmy Carr43:24

        [laughs]

    22. EUEugene43:24

        He introduced me to Gregorian chants-

    23. JCJimmy Carr43:26

        [laughs]

    24. EUEugene43:26

        ... but he also looked like he was from the Gregorian era.

    25. TNTrevor Noah43:28

        [laughs]

    26. EUEugene43:30

        In South Africa, the Methodist Church-

    27. TNTrevor Noah43:32

        Yeah

    28. EUEugene43:33

        ... came. When it came, the Black people that it was preaching to and it was, uh, it was converting said, "Here's an idea. We're gonna translate these hymns into our language."

    29. TNTrevor Noah43:44

        Genius. Right.

    30. EUEugene43:45

        So on Easter and Christmas, Black people who are part of the Methodist Church prefer to go to the Black church. So there's two churches-
11. 51:04 – 59:19

    How Jimmy's Comedy Evolved

    1. TNTrevor Noah51:04

       or rather what has changed in, uh, the Jimmy standup person that we meet today versus like that Jimmy from years ago? Like what-

    2. JCJimmy Carr51:12

       Well, I, I'm much more myself on stage now than I was. I mean, I still ... Like, my love language is jokes.

    3. TNTrevor Noah51:17

       Yeah.

    4. JCJimmy Carr51:17

       I like one-liners. I like, I like that, um, that idea of like going ... I'm in, I'm in the service industry, right?

    5. TNTrevor Noah51:23

       Okay.

    6. JCJimmy Carr51:24

       I like to think of myself as a drug dealer.

    7. TNTrevor Noah51:26

       Okay.

    8. JCJimmy Carr51:27

       So I'm, I'm dealing in, in two drugs. It's dopamine and serotonin, and the, the people have already got the drugs on them. I can just tickle them out.

    9. TNTrevor Noah51:33

       Mm.

    10. JCJimmy Carr51:34

        I can make them happy.

    11. TNTrevor Noah51:35

        Mm-hmm.

    12. JCJimmy Carr51:35

        It's, it's a-

    13. TNTrevor Noah51:35

        I love it

    14. JCJimmy Carr51:36

        ... variable interval reward system-

    15. TNTrevor Noah51:37

        They're kittens

    16. JCJimmy Carr51:38

        ... jokes, right? So you know a joke's coming, but you don't quite know where.

    17. TNTrevor Noah51:40

        Mm-hmm.

    18. JCJimmy Carr51:41

        And then you do that for, you get on stage, you do that for, I don't know, 20, 25 minutes, whatever it is, like three, four jokes a minute. So you've established like a rhythm with the audience, and then you just kind of step back and you go, "Okay, what should we talk about?"

    19. TNTrevor Noah51:55

        Hmm.

    20. JCJimmy Carr51:55

        And then you let the evening go where it's gonna go, and then you kind of get back and you perform some more. But it's really interesting that, that thing of like, I've created this thing where it's exciting to me 'cause every night is different because you're interacting with the audience in a way. And some people ask you dumb questions, and some people ask you really interesting things, and sometimes you're sincere, sometimes you try and just be as funny as you can.

    21. TNTrevor Noah52:15

        Right. Yeah.

    22. JCJimmy Carr52:16

        Be brutal. But y- y- I'm never quite sure where it's going. It's really, it's fun. It feels like it's a, um ... And spending a lot of time in that gym, you just kind of get, you get into it. You get really into ... And you can joke about anything, but not with anyone.

    23. TNTrevor Noah52:31

        Hmm.

    24. JCJimmy Carr52:31

        So you, you joke-

    25. TNTrevor Noah52:31

        You can joke about anything, but not with anyone.

    26. JCJimmy Carr52:33

        But not with anyone. Mm-hmm.

    27. TNTrevor Noah52:34

        Okay.

    28. JCJimmy Carr52:34

        You find your audience. They, they come to you. They g- They, they wanna ... I mean, I sort of, I view sort of jokes as they're transgressions. Uh, they're ... You know that benign violation theory?

    29. TNTrevor Noah52:45

        No. Hmm.

    30. JCJimmy Carr52:46

        Uh, so it's a, it's a guy, Robert, um, McGraw came up with it. So the idea that, uh, there's violations in life, right?
12. 59:19 – 1:15:11

    Growing Up With a Depressed Mother

    1. JCJimmy Carr59:19

       I think I, I'm a comedian because of my mother. I, I, my mother-

    2. TNTrevor Noah59:22

       Yeah

    3. JCJimmy Carr59:22

       ... had a, a narcoleptic, uh, cataplexic laugh. You ever met someone-

    4. TNTrevor Noah59:27

       I'm sorry, what?

    5. JCJimmy Carr59:28

       You ever met someone that laughs, and they make no noise whatsoever?

    6. TNTrevor Noah59:30

       [laughs]

    7. JCJimmy Carr59:30

       They just kind of do this thing.

    8. TNTrevor Noah59:32

       [laughs]

    9. JCJimmy Carr59:32

       Oh, no. So my mother had a laugh where she would lose, like, full-

    10. EUEugene59:37

        Yes, yes.

    11. TNTrevor Noah59:37

        [laughs]

    12. EUEugene59:41

        [laughs]

    13. JCJimmy Carr59:41

        She would properly melt like, like a witch in The Wizard of Oz when she re- if you really got her. So my whole childhood was, like, trying to make this woman laugh. I mean, especially if she was driving, and you would-

    14. TNTrevor Noah59:53

        No, man

    15. JCJimmy Carr59:53

        ... you, you would be, you would be trying to grab the wheel while you were saying some funny shit and, like, steering the car. Like, I should be dead, but it's, it's-

    16. EUEugene1:00:00

        [laughs]

    17. JCJimmy Carr1:00:01

        And she was so funny in her own right.

    18. TNTrevor Noah1:00:03

        Accident on the M5.

    19. JCJimmy Carr1:00:04

        Yeah.

    20. TNTrevor Noah1:00:04

        A young man has made a joke-

    21. JCJimmy Carr1:00:05

        [laughs]

    22. TNTrevor Noah1:00:05

        ... that has caused his mother to pass out. Please avoid the left lane of the M5. [laughs]

    23. JCJimmy Carr1:00:10

        I think that's the, I think that's the one, like, with comedians, I think if you, like, if you meet a comedian you've never met somewhere in the world, wherever you are, I always think, like, my go-to question, which of your parents were sick?

    24. TNTrevor Noah1:00:22

        Hmm.

    25. JCJimmy Carr1:00:23

        One of your parents was sick, and you had to make things okay. You had to be, uh, uh, adjust the temperature in a room.

    26. TNTrevor Noah1:00:30

        Yes.

    27. JCJimmy Carr1:00:30

        You had to make things okay.

    28. TNTrevor Noah1:00:31

        You diffuse the situation-

    29. JCJimmy Carr1:00:32

        Yeah, make things-

    30. TNTrevor Noah1:00:32

        ... all the time. Yeah
13. 1:15:11 – 1:26:29

    The Fear of Fatherhood

    1. TNTrevor Noah1:15:11

       dad, was there a part of you that was ever worried that you would be the dad that you had?

    2. JCJimmy Carr1:15:15

       Yeah. I, I didn't wanna be a dad for the longest time because I didn't wanna be my father.

    3. TNTrevor Noah1:15:18

       Mm.

    4. JCJimmy Carr1:15:18

       And then you realize, "No, no, no, I'll make my own mistakes." [laughs]

    5. TNTrevor Noah1:15:21

       [laughs]

    6. JCJimmy Carr1:15:21

       You know? I got mistakes for days. Um, but that-

    7. TNTrevor Noah1:15:23

       What was it, what was it about him that you didn't wanna repeat? Like, what, what, what, w-

    8. JCJimmy Carr1:15:26

       Uh, I'd, I mean, he's, he's, he's not great. But the, the, the thing about, like, pregnancy makes a baby.

    9. TNTrevor Noah1:15:34

       Okay, cool.

    10. JCJimmy Carr1:15:34

        But it also makes a mother. And a father isn't blessed in the same way.

    11. TNTrevor Noah1:15:40

        Yep.

    12. JCJimmy Carr1:15:40

        We don't go through the same transformation, but it's, you, you, so you, you, people are waiting around thinking, "Well, I'm gonna wait until I feel like a man, and then I'm gonna have some kids."

    13. TNTrevor Noah1:15:49

        Yep.

    14. JCJimmy Carr1:15:50

        And then you have kids, and you go, "Oh, no, it's, this is, this is a verb. This isn't a noun."

    15. TNTrevor Noah1:15:55

        Yep.

    16. JCJimmy Carr1:15:55

        "This is a doing thing."

    17. TNTrevor Noah1:15:56

        That's beautiful.

    18. JCJimmy Carr1:15:56

        "I'm here to do the rough and tumble play."

    19. TNTrevor Noah1:15:59

        Yeah.

    20. JCJimmy Carr1:16:00

        Like, I love the, the, the, the, the kind of, "Ah." 'Cause you, you want your kids to get, you know, it's, it's, it's bruises, not scars.

    21. TNTrevor Noah1:16:08

        Yeah.

    22. JCJimmy Carr1:16:09

        You, you want them to kind of, to have that-

    23. TNTrevor Noah1:16:11

        Yeah

    24. JCJimmy Carr1:16:11

        ... fun and the, the be, to be the fun one in the house. And the, it's, it's, it's the most wonderful thing. I went out to lunch with a-

    25. TNTrevor Noah1:16:19

        Well d-

    26. JCJimmy Carr1:16:19

        ... with a friend who's m- maybe the brightest guy I know. He's s- Eric, Eric Weinstein. Do you know him?

    27. TNTrevor Noah1:16:24

        No.

    28. JCJimmy Carr1:16:25

        He's a very, very clever guy, physicist, and I was talking about how much I love being a father. And he kind of stopped me, and he grabbed my arm, and he went, "You will die, and you will be reborn as someone else, and you will love them." And I kind of went, "Oh, I, oh, I sort of get what reincarnation is now."

    29. TNTrevor Noah1:16:46

        Hmm.

    30. JCJimmy Carr1:16:47

        "I kind of get what it is." And there's this lovely crossover period-
14. 1:26:29 – 1:29:51

    The John Lennon Story

    1. JCJimmy Carr1:26:29

       So this guy, Warren Farrell, he's working as a therapist in the late '60s. He's in New York, he's where we are now.

    2. TNTrevor Noah1:26:34

       Mm.

    3. JCJimmy Carr1:26:34

       And this guy comes to him, and he's a wealthy man. He says, "I'm very rich. Uh, I'm involved in a big business, and I, uh, have regrets about how I live my life." And Warren Farrell goes, "Okay. Well, tell me what's going on." He said, "Well, I had a first wife and I didn't spend any time with her. I was away working all the time, and I had a kid. I didn't really connect with the kid, and I just wasn't there, and I feel terrible about it. And, um, my girl is pregnant, and what should I do?" And Warren Farrell, like, talks to the guy and he goes, "Well, you, you... There's no point having money if you're not gonna do what you want with your life, right? So what do you want to do?" And he said, "Well, I want to give up everything and just be a father and just be there for the kid." And Warren Farrell goes, "Okay. Well, that's what you should do. Do that." So he does. Give- he shuts down the business, and he sits with the kid for, like, five, first five years of his life, and he just bakes bread and hangs out in the house, and he's like a, a, a dad when no one was, like, a full-time dad.

    4. TNTrevor Noah1:27:44

       Yeah.

    5. JCJimmy Carr1:27:44

       He was a full-time dad. And the story gets interesting when I tell you the guy was John Lennon.

    6. TNTrevor Noah1:27:51

       Wow.

    7. JCJimmy Carr1:27:53

       And no one knew that five years after that-

    8. TNTrevor Noah1:27:57

       He would die

    9. JCJimmy Carr1:27:58

       ... he'd get shot in the face. He would never have that time again. And he took that time to be with his kid, to hang out. Damn.

    10. TNTrevor Noah1:28:18

        Mm-hmm.

    11. JCJimmy Carr1:28:22

        Give yourself that gift.

    12. TNTrevor Noah1:28:27

        I think we always assume that the time is promised to us.

    13. JCJimmy Carr1:28:36

        Yeah.

    14. TNTrevor Noah1:28:37

        Because our obligations have claimed their time-

    15. JCJimmy Carr1:28:40

        Mm

    16. TNTrevor Noah1:28:40

        ... we always assume that the things we actually want for ourselves will also claim their time. Do you know what I mean?

    17. JCJimmy Carr1:28:47

        Yeah, this-

    18. TNTrevor Noah1:28:47

        Your, your work, your debts, your everything, they've claimed their time well in advance.

    19. JCJimmy Carr1:28:51

        Mm.

    20. TNTrevor Noah1:28:52

        They're like, "Oh, here's your payments. This is how it's gonna work."

    21. JCJimmy Carr1:28:55

        Mm-hmm.

    22. TNTrevor Noah1:28:55

        You're like, "20 years?" "Yeah, yeah, you'll be paying for this house for 20..." The bank has, bank's claimed its time. The... You know what I mean?

    23. JCJimmy Carr1:29:00

        Yeah.

    24. TNTrevor Noah1:29:00

        Everything.

    25. JCJimmy Carr1:29:01

        Mm.

    26. TNTrevor Noah1:29:01

        And so I think because of that sometimes as people we assume, because the things that we owe, whether it's time, money, whatever, because they've claimed their time-

    27. JCJimmy Carr1:29:11

        Mm

    28. TNTrevor Noah1:29:12

        ... we then, I think, assume that the things we want-

    29. JCJimmy Carr1:29:15

        Have no time. Are not-

    30. TNTrevor Noah1:29:15

        ... will also be able to, will also be able to claim their time, but that's not... W- what you just said to me-
15. 1:29:51 – 1:38:15

    Why Jimmy Carr Always Wears a Suit

    1. TNTrevor Noah1:29:51

       Why are you always dressed so sharp, by the way?

    2. JCJimmy Carr1:29:54

       I, I, I like, it became this thing of-

    3. TNTrevor Noah1:29:55

       Like, is this also like an English thing, like an English, you know, bespokingly-

    4. JCJimmy Carr1:29:58

       I don't think it is a particularly English thing, but I mean, I, I love my, uh, my tailor is, um, it's Tom Sweeney, I go to, and he's one of my best friends, Luke, is-

    5. TNTrevor Noah1:30:07

       That's a, that's a tailor name

    6. JCJimmy Carr1:30:08

       ... he's the best.

    7. TNTrevor Noah1:30:09

       Tom Sweeney.

    8. JCJimmy Carr1:30:09

       I just, I love spending time with him.

    9. TNTrevor Noah1:30:10

       Tom Sweeney.

    10. JCJimmy Carr1:30:11

        I love the whole thing of, like, going and buying a suit, the, the ritual of it.

    11. TNTrevor Noah1:30:14

        Mm.

    12. JCJimmy Carr1:30:15

        Going into the store, hanging out with the guys. I'll shoot some pool. We'll pick some fabrics. We'll... It's just-

    13. TNTrevor Noah1:30:19

        Yeah, this sounds like Hear What's You.

    14. JCJimmy Carr1:30:21

        This sounds like Peaky Blinders in my head.

    15. TNTrevor Noah1:30:22

        Yeah.

    16. JCJimmy Carr1:30:23

        Yeah.

    17. TNTrevor Noah1:30:23

        That's like the image I have right now.

    18. JCJimmy Carr1:30:24

        It's kind of, it's, the boys are very, they're very good.

    19. TNTrevor Noah1:30:26

        Do you look at other people's suits and go, "Whoa, whose one is that one? What, what is that?"

    20. JCJimmy Carr1:30:30

        I, I, I look at, uh, American men in suits and think, "Hilarious."

    21. TNTrevor Noah1:30:34

        [laughs]

    22. JCJimmy Carr1:30:35

        "Hilarious." Uh, that, I don't know who that was made for, but not you, clearly.

    23. TNTrevor Noah1:30:38

        [laughs]

    24. SPSpeaker1:30:39

        [laughs]

    25. JCJimmy Carr1:30:40

        Like, I like to come correct. It's also that thing of, like, on stage, I think that thing about wearing a suit and a tie, for me it feels like a mark of respect for the audience.

    26. TNTrevor Noah1:30:47

        Mm.

    27. JCJimmy Carr1:30:48

        Different, different people sort of see themselves in different ways.

    28. TNTrevor Noah1:30:50

        Yeah.

    29. JCJimmy Carr1:30:50

        But also it, it speaks to character and reputation. I, I'm, I'm, character's what you know about yourself. Reputation's what the rest of the world sees.

    30. TNTrevor Noah1:30:59

        Okay.
16. 1:38:15 – 1:58:11

    Fixing Britain

    1. TNTrevor Noah1:38:15

       uh, by the way, what's, uh, what's happening in England these days?

    2. JCJimmy Carr1:38:17

       In England?

    3. TNTrevor Noah1:38:18

       Yeah, because-

    4. JCJimmy Carr1:38:18

       Well, uh, politically or-

    5. TNTrevor Noah1:38:18

       I like asking people... No, no, just like I like asking people this because, um, when you're not in a country-

    6. JCJimmy Carr1:38:24

       Mm

    7. TNTrevor Noah1:38:24

       ... uh, or if you live between countries, you learn very quickly-

    8. JCJimmy Carr1:38:27

       Mm

    9. TNTrevor Noah1:38:27

       ... the stories being told about a country are not felt in the same way, or they're being painted in a different way than the people-

    10. JCJimmy Carr1:38:33

        Well, outsiders

    11. TNTrevor Noah1:38:33

        ... are experiencing it in the country.

    12. JCJimmy Carr1:38:35

        Mm-hmm.

    13. TNTrevor Noah1:38:35

        And I wonder, like, like, what's happening in, in England these days?

    14. JCJimmy Carr1:38:38

        I, I don't know. I mean, it feels... It's a very interesting time at the moment-

    15. TNTrevor Noah1:38:42

        Yeah

    16. JCJimmy Carr1:38:42

        ... in the UK because it's kind of there was the Brexit thing, and then we didn't really leave, and the country's in... It's, it's in... We've had, like, seven prime ministers in 10 years.

    17. TNTrevor Noah1:38:53

        Yeah. It's been-

    18. JCJimmy Carr1:38:54

        And there's political stagnation. The new guy, I wish him well, Andy Burnham's come in, and he's, he's capped bus fares at £2. And it's like rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic. Like, the economy is not going well. The, the, the country's not going well, and no one quite knows what to do.

    19. TNTrevor Noah1:39:13

        Oh.

    20. JCJimmy Carr1:39:13

        And it seems to me like no one has, like, the big ideas-

    21. TNTrevor Noah1:39:16

        Mm

    22. JCJimmy Carr1:39:17

        ... on how to change Great Britain, and they... It, it seems relatively simple, but people don't wanna do it. Like, they don't wanna grasp the nettle.

    23. TNTrevor Noah1:39:25

        What, what, what do you think the simple is?

    24. JCJimmy Carr1:39:28

        I always think, though, like, there's no silver bullet.

    25. TNTrevor Noah1:39:31

        Yeah.

    26. JCJimmy Carr1:39:31

        There's no... I'm, I'm a big follower of this guy called, uh, Roger Bootle-

    27. TNTrevor Noah1:39:34

        Okay

    28. JCJimmy Carr1:39:34

        ... who write... He's an economist who writes very good papers about what to do, and he's, he, he did this great paper which was, like, eight examples around the world of, like, different economies that have done different things.

    29. TNTrevor Noah1:39:43

        Yeah.

    30. JCJimmy Carr1:39:43

        I think if you, if you wanna sort out Britain, you can't... Certain things are, uh, necessary but not sufficient.
17. 1:58:11 – 2:01:57

    Friction Is Good

    1. JCJimmy Carr1:58:11

       friction is good. Friction is very good, right? Low friction, TikTok, very low friction, right?

    2. TNTrevor Noah1:58:15

       Hm.

    3. JCJimmy Carr1:58:16

       Super entertaining.

    4. TNTrevor Noah1:58:17

       Yes.

    5. JCJimmy Carr1:58:17

       Low friction, easy, right?

    6. TNTrevor Noah1:58:18

       Yes.

    7. JCJimmy Carr1:58:18

       Um, TV shows.

    8. TNTrevor Noah1:58:20

       Hm.

    9. JCJimmy Carr1:58:20

       A little bit more friction. Well, you gotta sit down, watch this thing-

    10. TNTrevor Noah1:58:22

        You have to wait for it

    11. JCJimmy Carr1:58:23

        ... it's half an hour long.

    12. TNTrevor Noah1:58:23

        Yeah.

    13. JCJimmy Carr1:58:24

        Okay, put it on. Okay, great, okay. Gonna watch it, pay attention. A movie, two hours, three hours, maybe, more friction. Okay, but better. Well, you're gonna remember... Well, book. Ugh, Jesus, the amount of friction, difficult, but you never forget what you read.

    14. TNTrevor Noah1:58:39

        Yeah.

    15. JCJimmy Carr1:58:40

        Like, more friction is better.

    16. TNTrevor Noah1:58:41

        And who wrote it. Yeah. Who said whatever. Yes.

    17. JCJimmy Carr1:58:45

        LL Cool J said-

    18. TNTrevor Noah1:58:46

        You're right

    19. JCJimmy Carr1:58:46

        ... on the show, which I, which I really loved, you remember when he was talking about, like, life.

    20. TNTrevor Noah1:58:49

        Mm-hmm.

    21. JCJimmy Carr1:58:50

        And then, and he was talking essentially about the idea of assuming that things will come with friction makes... What, what did he say? He said, "Friction makes easy things difficult and difficult things impossible."

    22. TNTrevor Noah1:59:03

        Difficult things impossible. Hm.

    23. JCJimmy Carr1:59:05

        Do you know what I mean? F- just the friction, it makes an easy thing seem difficult and a difficult thing seem impossible because of the friction that is-

    24. TNTrevor Noah1:59:11

        Yeah

    25. JCJimmy Carr1:59:11

        ... attached to it.

    26. TNTrevor Noah1:59:12

        Right.

    27. JCJimmy Carr1:59:12

        And when you think of it through that lens, you... It's funny you say that, because I've literally been on this for a long... You and I talk about this all the time. In our friend group now, we try and engage with friction purposefully.

    28. TNTrevor Noah1:59:23

        [laughs] Yeah. Right.

    29. JCJimmy Carr1:59:23

        Like p- like, like purposefully.

    30. TNTrevor Noah1:59:25

        Mm-hmm.
18. 2:01:57 – 2:12:10

    Pro Drinking, Pro Gangs, Pro Gambling

    1. JCJimmy Carr2:01:57

       I, I'm very pro... I did a bit recently where I said I'm very pro, uh, drinking. No, I haven't seen this. I'm pro gangs. And I'm pro, um, gambling. No, I haven't seen this. [laughs] Pro drinking, pro gams, pro gangs- Gangs ... pro gambling. Okay. Yeah. So I'm, uh, okay. So I'm pro gangs because m- uh, some gangs deal drugs and shoot people. They're not good. But most gangs, it's groups of men that come together, and where should men be? Together. Yeah. Like, if you g- go to anyone that's having relationship difficulties, I'll tell you what their problem is. All relationships have the same problem. It's one person say- every argument there's ever been between a man and a woman is someone going, "You're not enough people." Hmm. "You're not enough people." Esther Perel talked about that. Like, we want one person. Yeah, Esther Perel- Yeah ... is a genius on this. Like you- No, she literally talks about this all the time ... like you go- Yeah ... you need more than that. You need your friends. Hmm. Yeah. You need your buddies. And m- men are very good at checking other men, right? Hmm. I'm pro- I've set up a group of, um, uh, youth clubs, uh, across Britain. That's amazing. They've got, like, they've got pool tables. Yeah. They've got, um, dart boards. They've got music. They've got drinks. They're called pubs. Hmm. And they're the greatest youth clubs there have ever been, right? They're everywhere. We should lower the voting age, uh, the, the drinking age to 16, because if you don't think 16-year-olds are drinking, you're living in a fucking dream world. [laughs] Right? Yeah. Good luck in your fairy tale land. [laughs] But I'd rather they were drinking in pubs with other people than on their own in the park. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'd go, the, the... I'd say the drinking age should be just wine and beer, no hard stuff. Mm-hmm. You can drink in a pub when you're 16, but you have to bring three friends. Can't go on your own. You gotta have- There's your three ... four people have to be there in order to drink, right? So I'm pro gang, little gang of you. Little gang, yeah. You're allowed to go to the pub. You're allowed to watch football in the pub. The pub probably has a football team that you can join. Yeah, yeah. Like, other men will check you. If you start to be a dick, you'll get thrown out. They'll let you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very quickly. Yeah, they'll let you know real quick. Yep. Right. The bartender will cut you off if you get drunk. Mm-hmm. You'll get each other home. You, you'll be all right. That's like, it ju- but the, it's the real world as well. Yeah. As opposed to the practical, as opposed to going, "Oh, I guess young people shouldn't drink, so just they'll..." What are you talking about? Yeah. The drinking age is crazy. And then pro gambling is, like, the, the gamble, though, shouldn't be sports betting or casinos. Yeah. It should be the big gamble, the w- what are you gonna do with your life? Hmm. You could do anything you want with your life. You just have to face the consequences. And I think, uh, men have... You know, people often talk about how- Sure ... 90% of the CEOs in the world are men, but you have to also consider 90% of the people in prisons are men, and it's the same drug at the center of that. It's testosterone. Same personalities as well sometimes. Men take- Yeah, yeah. Men take insane risks. Yeah. Right? That's what we do. Sometimes crash and fail, sometimes we do very well, but that thing of, like, channeling that into making good bets. LL Cool J said it yesterday, right? Yeah. Said if he wasn't a great prolific musician and an actor- Yeah ... New York could've been a different place. Yeah, he's like, he would've been in the streets doing s- He's like that same energy. Mm-hmm. He would've taken it somewhere else. And he's like, "Good luck, New York. You would've known my name in a very different way." Right. Because it, it is that same- Energy, same ... it's that same energy that's going somewhere. But that, that friction thing you're talking about has become my newest passion because I've realized even in my own life how convenience is a thief that steals things you didn't even know you had. Yeah. It's really, really powerful how it does it. Well, don't... I mean, the AI thing with me, don't outsource any skill you're not comfortable losing. [whistles] 'Cause you're gonna lose it. Hmm. You're not gonna be able to do it. You're gonna have to work on it. If you play your instrument- Hmm ... you play your instrument, right? And you get good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you have to keep on playing it. Yeah. You have to practice. You have to put the practice in. [laughs] And if you, if you outsource that, you're, it's gone. But that's what I mean. It's the convenience. It's the, it's just the convenience of the, you know, the food arriving, the convenience of the car that picks you up. Yeah. The convenience, the convenience, the convenience, the convenience. Yeah. But what is- And then you go... Like, when I think the biggest thing I, I, like, I get sad about, and it's like, it's, it's a conundrum. I know. It's a, you know? Like in South Africa, I think of, like, townships when we were growing up. Mm-hmm. It is the most inconvenient experience. Your neighbors play music at 6:00 AM- Loudly ... on the weekend loud. Yeah. You're all... You- Yeah ... everyone hears everyone's music. E- everyone knows everybody's business. Everybody's talking to you. You can't walk anywhere without having a conversation with somebody. So you can't, like, just pop to the shops and come back real quick. There's no such thing. No privacy. Everyone's asking you if they can borrow money from you. Everyone, if you've got a car, then you've now become the de facto transportation person- Yeah. [laughs] Yeah ... for everyone. "Hey, Eugene, we heard you got a car. Oh, we heard y- Can you help us move this? Oh, can you do this?" And if you have some- Hospital drop-offs, graduations ... and if somebody dies- Yeah ... then you all have to go and cook for, and it's all a... The whole thing is just friction, Jimmy. It's just friction- Hmm ... friction, friction, friction. But can I tell you what it is? I never once heard a story once in the township ever, and so it's never- Hmm ... I never heard a story of like, "Do you know someone died and no one knew for like two months?" I- Hmm. Those stories that I read in the newspaper now in life- Yeah, don't exist. Yeah ... they literally never existed. Never, never, never, never existed. There was literally no homeless person. Think about it. Yeah. There was literally... This is a place where people had been pushed into the worst types of poverty imaginable, and yet there was not a single person homeless, sleeping on the streets, which doesn't make sense because you're like, but no one had money. Or saying that family is poor. Right? That wasn't a thing. There was no- They just, they just had less. Yo, man, and- But poverty- It's not a real thing in a township. Someone will interfere. Because the friction- Someone will interrupt it. Yes ... the friction that came with it meant-

    2. TNTrevor Noah2:07:40

       Man, a friendship is friction

    3. EUEugene2:07:41

       Yeah

    4. TNTrevor Noah2:07:41

       ... 'cause now it's like, "Okay, well, what do you wanna watch, Jimmy?"

    5. EUEugene2:07:44

       Yeah, what do you want?

    6. TNTrevor Noah2:07:44

       I, I know what I wanna watch.

    7. EUEugene2:07:45

       Yeah.

    8. TNTrevor Noah2:07:45

       But what do you wanna watch? Ah, damn it, Jimmy wants to watch his own thing. So now I have to, like, we have to negotiate, we have to find a common-

    9. EUEugene2:07:53

       Yeah

    10. TNTrevor Noah2:07:53

        ... but you know what that friction gives us in return? It gives us the friendship. A relationship is friction. Hella friction. Terrible friction. Oh, this person wants to do, you wanna do, ah, we, we... Kids are friction. You, you, you gave me, can I tell you?

    11. EUEugene2:08:05

        Of course.

    12. TNTrevor Noah2:08:05

        You gave me the most, you sent me the most beautiful message about that, literally changed my whole perspective. You said, "Man, you like kids. It is the most insane journey." You said, "I cannot wait to get out of the house and leave." And he's like, "And as soon as I walk out the door-

    13. EUEugene2:08:18

        Come back

    14. TNTrevor Noah2:08:18

        ... man, I'm even more excited to come back."

    15. EUEugene2:08:20

        Yeah.

    16. TNTrevor Noah2:08:20

        You're like, "Ah, I cannot wait to get back." It's the friction of it.

    17. EUEugene2:08:24

        Mm.

    18. JCJimmy Carr2:08:24

        Yeah.

    19. TNTrevor Noah2:08:25

        But we've been sold, everyone has been sold, and I mean everyone, we've been sold on the convenience of relationships, the convenience of opinion, the convenie- Now it's like, oh, d-

    20. EUEugene2:08:34

        Mm

    21. TNTrevor Noah2:08:34

        ... yeah, if you're gonna go to your family, don't talk about the, just ignore the-

    22. EUEugene2:08:37

        Yeah

    23. TNTrevor Noah2:08:37

        ... rather talk about, it's like, yeah, but that friction-

    24. EUEugene2:08:39

        You know, you know what?

    25. TNTrevor Noah2:08:40

        ... leaves you, where does it leave you?

    26. JCJimmy Carr2:08:41

        I was chatting to a guy recently, Alex Hormozi. Do you know Alex?

    27. TNTrevor Noah2:08:43

        No.

    28. JCJimmy Carr2:08:44

        He's a really smart guy.

    29. TNTrevor Noah2:08:45

        You know a lot of people.

    30. JCJimmy Carr2:08:46

        Really smart guy.

Episode duration: 2:21:57