And that little exchange pretty much sums up the tone of the evening at Jimmy Carr's second show in SA: Gagging Order. An assault of crude but witty one-liners that tap dance that fine line of acceptance and offence. From feltching (probably don't look that up if you don't know what it is) to paedophilia and bestiality Jimmy kindly guided the audience through the most cringe-worthy of crudest subject matter. In fact, he's ever so polite about it that he mostly gets away with it. His posh private school accent, deadpan delivery and signature "Ha Ha Haaar" laugh, which punctuates every joke, allows him to get away with murder.
And, speaking of getting away with murder - that was pretty much his opening joke. More specifically, getting away with murder in South Africa, (Gotta love an international comedian who does his location research) Zuma, Oscar and Dewani all mentioned in quick succession. "So I just bought you cheap flowers from the garage for Valentine's Day; well at least I didn't shoot you."
Even attempting a South African accent (sounding like it had been modelled off DiCaprio's pretty substandard attempt in Blood Diamond, as one audience member heckled) Jimmy really tailored his routine to a South African audience. Lord knows we have a lot of material. Some that is so unbelievable it doesn't need to be comedically tweaked. Zuma's power shower hour one example that springs to mind.
Carr is the thinking man of crude comedy and you gotta love him for it. Let's hope he makes a third local coming in the near future.
