2021 and Jimmy spent the evenings of July 31^st and August 1^st performing at Southend Cliffs Pavilion, in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, UK.

He was on his Terribly Funny tour (the original version, before he re-wrote it as Terribly Funny 2.0) and these 2 evenings were being recorded by Netflix. I’ll refer to it as TF, below.

These 2 shows would be use to create the Netflix Special – His Dark Material (now referred to as HDM). Released on Christmas Day 2021.

This is going to be a long one – strap in.

First of all – a few facts:

• TF stated, with WIP gigs (work in progress), way back in February 2019
• During 2020 TF gigs were booked and then repeatedly cancelled, due to lockdowns and changing venue rules. Lockdown 2020 08 was the start of my documenting what went on in 2020, more on that to follow
• Up to the end of June 2025 HDM had been viewed 3.2m times (see stats here)
• HDM was the most streamed stand up special, in the UK, for 2021, with 1.7m views (see stats here)
• Two jokes, from the HDM special, went viral for all the wrong reasons – more on that later (or this post will never end)
• TF and HDM – written and performed by Jimmy Carr
• Executive Producer – Jimmy Carr
• All of Jimmy’s Netflix output is listed here.

Trigger Warning

Jimmy is a bright guy and he would have been aware in the changing sensitivities of society, when he first wrote the show. The promotional material for TF had variations of these trigger warnings:

• Terribly Funny will see Jimmy Carr make jokes about all kinds of terrible things, but they’re just jokes, they are not the terrible things… Now you’ve been warned – book your tickets.
• This show contains jokes about terrible things. Terrible things that may have affected you and the people that you love. But these are just jokes. They’re not the terrible things.

There are many (online) who prattle on about comedians that they think are “always saying they are going to be cancelled” or “announcing how offensive something will be” before they tell a joke.

If we can switch off emotion and engage brain for a second – is this not just a legal protective measure? Rather than, as Reddit groups seem to think, a statement of “look at me – I’m going to say something naughty”?

If you put a warning on something and someone watches it anyway – then they cannot complain. It’s the comedy equivalent of a “Beware of the Dog” sign or “Danger – High Voltage Cables”. It’s spelling out, in advance, the entertainment equivalent of an “Enter at Your Own Risk” kind of notice.

There’s a lot at stake, careers wise, when you publish something with a huge company like Netflix and I would think that you would want to reduce the blowback as much as possible.

People in the UK may have been watching Jimmy for 25 years – but Netflix is available in over 190 countries / territories and many of them have censorship laws or religious sensibilities that may make this kind of warning a necessity. I would imagine that their lawyers don’t come cheap!

It’s a few seconds in a show…just ignore it and move on to the comedy.

The 2 Southend Shows…

One “problem” with the more recent Netflix Comedy Specials (for the bigger comic stars) is that they are expensive, stylised and therefore look amazing. Because of the costs associated with rigging the theatre up HDM was filmed across 2 nights, to make sure that they had enough footage to edit together a decent show.

With Jimmy’s DVDs (and his Funny Business special) the recording had been from ONE show and you got to see faces during audience interaction.

The problem with this increase in Production values is that a lot of “haters” (on social media platforms) like to state (with the utmost, totally misplaced, confidence) that there was no audience and that the laughter was canned. Err…not true.

Having 2 different audiences, meant that they couldn’t show details of the audience because, although the routine was the same for both nights, if (during the edit) it was felt that the delivery was better on one recording, then a single joke may have been cut in from the other show. It’s not rocket science.

You do get glimpses of the audience at times – but the “conspiracy theorists” out there still think this is faked. That’s what you get for trying to produce something that looks good!!

Controversy?

The controversy (over the 2 jokes) started within hours of the release – fuelled by illegal (copyright infringing) cropped copies being circulated on social platforms. More on those to follow.

How Was It?

Well, comedy is subjective – so only you can decide whether you like it or not. If you don’t have Netflix, never fear. Jimmy’s YouTube channel has published a load of clips, below.

On Boxing Day LadBible gave it a good review and, apart from the people screeching over jokes that they didn’t like (and these were mostly people that had NOT seen HDM, they had been triggered by the social media furore) it was a huge success. See the viewing figure links further up.

I’ve watched it several times and HDM shows growth – both as a performer and a human being.

The “sticky sample” clip, for example, is a longer format piece about fertility sperm testing and the masterbatorium. From someone who said (in Backstage with Katherine Ryan – here) that him and Karoline had been described as “geriatric parents”. He’s a new father and his life is changed forever…will it affect his comedy, he wondered?.

For a few years he’s said in interviews that he’s trying to get better, as a “one liner” comedian, and write some more long form pieces, which we start to see in this show.

His delivery is more confident in TF / HDM. When you look back to earlier DVD specials (when he’s said he “looks like he’s got a stick up his ass”) this is more of a performance. There are fewer nervous ticks and twitches and he looks completely relaxed. I sat front row, on this tour, and was in awe of how he conducts a crowd (almost forgot to listen to the jokes at time).

It’s a great special – from a performer that is ageing like a fine wine.

I’ll shut up now.

800lb Gorilla have the rights to sell audio download versions of Jimmy’s DVDs and specials. See posts here.

HDM promos (they are different)

The Ugly Heckle

Jimmy’s New Look Gets Roasted

Bill Cosby Taught Me That

Jimmy Gives a Sticky Sample

Cute Names for Your Girlfriend of Boyfriend