Jimmy Carr

Too far, Jimmy Carr: Fury at Down's kids joke

Jimmy Carr sparked fury with a sick joke about Down's Syndrome children.

Jimmy Carr (he's the Carr with slicked-down hair and strangely shiny skin) recorded onstage in Glasgow during his latest tour. There's no denying he's a master of the one-liner and the smart put-down, but he also likes to go close to the knuckle. Jimmy Carr: Making People Wince could be an alternative title for parts of his act.

Say what you like about Jimmy Carr, but underestimate his gagmanship at your peril. While his filthy live material is sometimes aligned with that of Frankie Boyle, Carr has a cartoonish quality lacking Boyle's mean-spiritedness, and comes out looking rather spruce. This lengthy and highly polished set was recorded at the Glasgow leg of his Making People Laugh tour, and he does, preaching to a stadium crowd of the converted with a relentless torrent of rudeness while skilfully disarming an equally relentless torrent of hecklers.

Jimmy Carr: comedy's most wanted

He doesn't drink, rarely eats after 6pm and approaches every joke as if he were solving a puzzle. But for all his discipline, does Jimmy Carr sometimes go too far?

Dave have decided to revive their panel show Argumental, but not to revive any of the regulars who appeared in the first three series, with John Sergeant, Marcus Brigstocke and Rufus Hound being replaced with Sean Lock, Seann Walsh and Robert Webb.

The main question with this change is, "Has it worked?" Well, in terms of banter between host and panel, it does seem to be better. I think that having a comedian rather than a journalist in the chair is going to increase the laughs, simply because Lock is more used to having to improvise on the spot, as well as being used to the panel show format as a captain on 8 Out of 10 Cats.

However, I've never really been keen on Webb's appearances on panel games. It doesn't seem to be his kind of format, unlike his comedy partner David Mitchell. I also think Walsh is the stronger performer, but despite this Webb won the first episode in the series...

The main highlight of the debut episode was guest Jimmy Carr having to argue that, "There's no place for women's sport on television," while standing next to Britain's only professional sumo wrestler, which is a rather terrifying prospect. You were just waiting for her to faux-lash out at him, but instead it was Walsh who offered to fight her.

I thought it was an OK debut, but it needs a few more episodes to bed in.

Jimmy Carr apologises for M5 crash joke

Jimmy Carr has apologised for writing a joke about a car crash on Twitter mere days after the M5 disaster.

Jimmy Carr: I never feel guilty about gags

Comic Jimmy Carr says he never feels guilty about his material.

Rejoining the depressingly interchangeable comedy panel show circuit, the show returns for a fourth series on Dave. As the self-professed "home of witty banter", it should really be what it does best, as witty banter is precisely what Argumental hopes to synthesise. And when the insufferable Russell Kane isn't speaking, it has its moments. Sean Lock looks comfy, having replaced John Sergeant in the host's chair, while Robert Webb and stand-up Seann Walsh take on the roles of the new team captains, replacing the outgoing Rufus Hound and Marcus Brigstocke. Jimmy Carr also guests.

Jimmy Carr interview: My laugh has a Facebook page

An interview with Jimmy Carr.