Comic contemplates his own death

Jimmy Carr wants his death to be spectacular, suggesting that being ripped apart by sharks would be a good way to go.

The comic speaks about the ideal way to die on the new episode of Kathy Burke’s podcast.

He said he wanted those close to him be able to tell a story like: ‘Oh, Jimmy died… funny story. He flew to South Africa and he went on one of those great shark cage experiences and he forgoed the cage. He said, no cage for me, thanks. I'll just jump in there with a fish’. 

Carr did actually have one close encounter with a shark but said: ’It's not a good story because it's too fantastical.

He explained :’I was swimming with a friend in Key West and there were sharks in the water. And one sort of flipped around. 

'We'd been swimming with these small sharks all day and we slightly misjudged the size of this thing. It was enormous. And it flipped around and came at us. 

‘I remember just thinking of the old joke, "I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you." Just to swim faster than my mate Henry onto the fire coral.

'Then we got back on the boat and the guys went, ‘These are just reef sharks’. I went, ‘Yeah, with the black tip on the fin’, and they went "Oh, mate. Whoa!’

‘But I think [being] torn apart by sharks and wanting it… that’s a great story for everyone.’

Carr also recalled the fist laugh he got from his mother.

He said: ‘I had meningitis when I was a child. So my first memory is a lumbar puncture in Limerick in the General [Hospital], and they had to do a lumbar puncture. 

‘I was three, I think, and I was always told it was very close to death. 

‘The doctor sort of went, "It's going to be very painful." 

‘And I went, "you've got to be cruel to be kind" in a little child's voice… Somehow I'd heard the phrase.

Burke said she found the story moving, with Carr adding that the childhood illness made him appreciate life more ‘because I was always told, "Oh, you nearly didn't make it".'

• Where There’s A Will, There’s A Wake with Kathy Burke is available now

Published: 16 Apr 2024