Is Jimmy’s laugh real?

Yes. IMHO. Yes, it is.

This myth buster is one for the forum threads (usually Reddit) that regularly have long rants about Jimmy allegedly faking his laugh.

I’ve given it some thought and gathered a few facts and videos, so that you can make up your own mind.

Firstly, for anyone new to Jimmy’s comedy, he has a distinctive honk of a laugh that this person said (in 2024) was like an “asthmatic seal f**king a donkey”.

Below is 54 seconds of it…the first one in this compilation actually WAS put on as he was talking about his laugh in a routine from Laughing and Joking (see the slightly longer version of that first laugh here, where he describes it as a goose being interfered with).

See – I can spot a fake amongst the real!!

Different Types of Laughter

First of all, humans do not only have ONE laugh. No one does.

Personally, I rarely make a sound when I laugh but, if something catches me right, I may snort in surprise or giggle or, when truly helpless, will sound like Muttley (from Wacky Races – see clip here).

Does that mean one of my laughs is faked?

I’m really NOT a good audience member for a comedian as I am sooooooooo quiet. But, like most people, it depends on how surprised I am by a joke as to what sound comes out (if any).

This article, here, identifies 15 different types of laughter.

Patrick’s School Play

This is driving me mad because I’ve heard Jimmy tell this story a couple of times, but cannot source the interview / podcast it was from.

I’ll do my best to remember the details and will come back to edit this post, if I can find a source!

Jimmy’s brother, Patrick, is 14 years younger than him and the story was about him being in a school play. I think Jimmy was about 20 but can’t remember what it was that he’d said was so funny, about the performances of the kids, but he was at the back of the hall and crying with laughter.

Jimmy started his “honk” and was attracting attention, from other parents, and his older brother (Colin) punched him in the arm to try and shut him up.

You know something definitely really happened when you’re searching and notice that Google’s AI panel knows all about it…but then let’s itself down by giving you a totally random link as the source.

Early TV Performances

In another interview that I can’t find (probably the same one as the one with the school play anecdote, above) Jimmy said that, when he first started making TV, he was really self-conscious about his laugh, to the point where he would try to not laugh at all.

Social Laughter

There have been a couple of times, on TV shows, where I have thought Jimmy might have engaged in what this article calls Social Laughter (item 3). I’m not sure what the difference is between that and what they determine as a Fake Laugh (item 2) as I think most people would assume they are one and the same thing. You’re pushing a laugh out to try and make someone feel better, look like you got an unfunny joke etc.

When Jimmy is a host on a TV panel show he’s trying to make great TV (see the Professionalism post) and this means encouraging the other panellists to have fun and crack jokes.

I’ve noticed on a handful of occasions that a panel show joke has fallen flat, in the studio, and Jimmy has deployed what I would term a Social Laugh, to give encouragement / support to the joke teller. As an example – see this Sloss post, about 8oo10c.

But sometimes its hard to do a Social Laugh and not have it sound Fake. Especially if it has to be deployed more than once in a recording session.

IMHO, as someone that has watched a HUGE percentage of his TV output, this is just him being a mensch and not only totally acceptable, but also a kind thing to do. We all do it at some point (just not in front of a camera).

Still doesn’t mean that he’s faking his laugh.

And finally…

The video below has the man himself answering the question – with a nice, self-deprecating twist at the end.

What baffles me about his whole debate is – why on earth WOULD he have developed a fake laugh?

He laughed like this BEFORE he started comedy, then tried to hide it and then let it out and proud. But it adds nothing to his comedic skill, so there’s no advantage to doing it. It’s not a thing that has brought him MORE success, as an International Comedian.

The only teeny, tiny positive it brings is that sometimes, during recent live shows, there have been heckle / crowd work clips that have shown him let out a honk and the audience have cheered.

Not exactly a money spinner, is it?

For other myth-busting posts – see here.

Why do you laugh backwards?

Excellent response here. Love this one, from 2024.