Review by Steve Bennett

Well, THAT wounded soldiers gag isn’t on this DVD, but there’s plenty else to cause offence in Jimmy Carr’s annual outpouring of callously blunt one-liners. Let’s just say that if gags about being ‘raped by a mong’ aren’t your thing, you should probably look elsewhere.

But if you take the gags in the spirit they’re intended, this is probably Carr’s most playful show to date. Both he and the audience at London’s Bloomsbury Theatre are well aware of his reputation, so have some teasing fun with it – and never more so than in the closing section in which Carr keeps pushing the envelope to find the point at which the crowd turn. They never really do.

It’s mostly more juvenile than offensive, with Carr showing off how clever he’s been with his wordplay; at one point even dancing around childishly in celebration of his own ridiculous smugness. In truth, most his jokes have the offensiveness of the average ‘yo mamma’ taunt, while sharing their silly intent. Indeed, he even does a couple of these street gags, though dressed up as his own.

For the most part, this is more the same, the latest product of the hardest working man in comedy’s cycle of writing and performing a new show every year, then releasing it on DVD. You can only tell by his waistline (this year, remarkably thin) the vintage of the performance.

The gags are as ruthlessly efficient as ever – with emphasis often on the ruthless – and frequently very funny. The relentless pace means that even if some don’t work for you – and some won’t – it probably won’t be too long before you hear one you do like.

For variety’s sake, some of the one-liners are illustrated with visual aids (and you can easily see the joke he makes about that phrase); while there’s some fluid audience Q&A to jolly things along.

And extras include a 21-minute 2005 Comedy Central special, just to give the already impressive punchlines-per-pound rating an extra boost.

Main feature: 89mins
Extras: 11 mins of bonus stand-up – little more than outtakes where the cameras stopped for technical reasons; 14mins of Twitter jokes – ie the thoughts that never made it into jokes, and usually for good reason;21min Comedy Central special
Released by: 4DVD on November 2
Price: £19.99. Click here to buy from Amazon at £11.98

Published: 6 Nov 2009