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Joe Rogan · 2025-05-22

Joe Rogan Experience #2326 - Jimmy Carr

Jimmy Carr and Joe Rogan riff on play, comedy as craft, AI as an emerging god, work ethic, taxes, and the mystery of consciousness.

Joe Rogan Experience #2326 - Jimmy Carr
The guest

Jimmy Carr: British comedian known for rapid-fire one-liners, panel shows like 8 Out of 10 Cats, and Netflix specials. A prolific touring stand-up currently working a 47-country tour.

What this episode covers

A wide-ranging, philosophical conversation that opens with sauna/cold-plunge culture and drifts through testosterone and risk, motherhood, religion and the Catholic Church, and the value of discomfort and work ethic. Carr frames much of life through play, comedy craft, and Stoic ideas about agency versus empathy. The pair dig into AI as a self-made god, simulation theory, quantum computing and the multiverse, plus UFO disclosure, MK Ultra, and government secrecy. They also cover taxes (including Carr's own scandal), automation, globalization, the cobalt trade, and the future of manufacturing, before closing on death, consciousness, and psychedelics.

Recommended on this episode

BookRecommendedISBN verified

Letters to a Young Contrarian

Christopher Hitchens

“Oh my god. It's amazing”
“there's a book that he wrote about politics, the um letters to a young contrarian. Oh my god. It's like it's amazing”— Jimmy Carr
BookRecommendedISBN verified

The Beginning of Infinity

David Deutsch

“I love that thing with that book, The Beginning of Infinity. I can't get over that”
“I love that thing with uh that book, The Beginning of Infinity. I can't get over that.”— Jimmy Carr
BookRecommendedISBN verified

Reasons and Persons

Derek Parfit

“He wrote this brilliant thing called reasons and persons. It's a brilliant book”
“He wrote this brilliant thing called reasons and persons. It's a brilliant book”— Jimmy Carr
ProductRecommended

Tesla Model S Plaid

Tesla

“It is a preposterously fast car. It has incredible technology”
“the car that I drove today is a Tesla Model S Plaid. It is a preposterously fast car. It has incredible technology.”— Joe Rogan
ProductRecommended

Ford Mustang GT

Ford

“the Mustang GT is like the greatest bargain as far as fun for dollar in the automobile world today”
“the Mustang GT is like the greatest bargain as far as like fun for dollar in the automobile world today”— Joe Rogan
MediaRecommended

Barry Lyndon

Stanley Kubrick

“Barry Lyndon... amazing movie”
“So the reason he was able to shoot Barry Lindon, you know the movie Barry Lyndon... amazing movie. It's lit by candle.”— Jimmy Carr
BookRecommendedISBN verified

Cinema Speculation

Quentin Tarantino

“The Quinton Tarantino book is just he's incredible”
“I read that book cinema speculation... The Quinton Tarantino book is just he's incredible.”— Jimmy Carr
MediaRecommended

Mob Land

Guy Ritchie

“that's a good show”
“Do you watch Mob Land? I'm learning a lot about your English gangs... that's a good show.”— Joe Rogan
MediaRecommended

Roger & Me

Michael Moore

“Roger and me is a great documentary about that”
“Destroyed Flint, Michigan. Roger and me is a great documentary about that.”— Joe Rogan
BookRecommended

Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties

Tom O'Neill

“Incredible. So, can't recommend it enough”
“that book. I got to thank you for that book. Oh, Chaos. Incredible. So, can't recommend it enough.”— Jimmy Carr
MediaRecommended

Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin

Rick Rubin

“He's got a great podcast”
“He's got a new podcast where he's kind of going like an in-depth interview. It's with Rick Rubin's... He's got a great podcast.”— Jimmy Carr

Also referenced (named, not recommended)

BookReferencedISBN verified

Catch-22

Joseph Heller

“He was so pitch 22 and there's a there's a book that he wrote about politics”— Jimmy Carr
BookReferencedISBN verified

Brave New World

Aldous Huxley

“that thing of um Ordis Huxley like the idea that Brave New World our power won't be taken from us by some overlords”— Jimmy Carr
BookReferencedISBN verified

1984

George Orwell

“our power won't be taken from us by some overlords like in 1984 will give away our power for cheap dopamine”— Jimmy Carr
BookReferenced

Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoevsky

“But like crime and punishment is not addictive, you know, the book.”— Jimmy Carr
MediaReferenced

Danny Jones Podcast

Danny Jones

“I was just watching the Danny Jones podcast today and he had my friend Hamilton Morris on”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced

Kill Tony

Tony Hinchcliffe

“And then there's Kill Tony, which is worldwide. It's the number two podcast on YouTube worldwide.”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced

Call of Duty

Activision

“it's very difficult to go fight in war, but you can play Call of Duty right now”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced

Hasselblad

Hasselblad

“So that was Hasselbad. Yeah. That's the company that made those uh cameras.”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced

Zeiss Super Speed lenses

Zeiss

“It says Zeiss super speed. Okay, does that make sense? Okay, so he had these lenses.”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced

Eyes Wide Shut

Stanley Kubrick

“You made eyes wide shot with Kubric. And he went, Yeah, yeah, I did.”— Jimmy Carr
MediaReferenced

The Shining

Stanley Kubrick

“there's so many layers to The Shining... so many bits in The Shining that don't make sense like the geometry of the room”— Jimmy Carr
MediaReferenced

2001: A Space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick

“2001 is such a weird movie, man. I saw it again last year. I had hadn't seen it in a long time”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Quentin Tarantino

“that great scene in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood with Bruce Lee and Brad Pitt... It's just so good.”— Jimmy Carr
MediaReferenced

Drunken Master

Yuen Woo-ping

“like Bruce Lee movies or uh the Drunken Master. You ever see the Drunken Master?”— Jimmy Carr
MediaReferenced

Top Gear

BBC

“I'm a huge fan of Chris Harris, too. and he took over the new Top Gear.”— Jimmy Carr
MediaReferenced

The Stepford Wives

Bryan Forbes

“It's like the Steepford Wives. It's like so perfect. You kind of walk through and go.”— Jimmy Carr
ProductReferenced

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold

Samsung

“I had a Zfold from Samsung like three years ago... they've been doing foldable phones and making them better”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced

Huawei Mate

Huawei

“this is Huawei Mate, which is unavailable... their innovation is so far ahead”— Joe Rogan
BookReferenced

The Immortality Key

Brian Muraresku

“He wrote a book called The Immortality Key and it's all about the Illusinian mysteries”— Joe Rogan
BookReferencedISBN verified

The Selfish Gene

Richard Dawkins

“it's the selfish gene it's the idea that we are it's the DNA is the thing”— Jimmy Carr
BookReferencedISBN verified

The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice

Christopher Hitchens

“He played the devil's advocate for real on Mother Tra. He wrote a book about it.”— Joe Rogan
BookReferencedISBN verified

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Julian Jaynes

“There's a whole thing about the bicamal mind that's very interesting. Have you heard of that?”— Jimmy Carr

Big reveals from this episode

  • Carr got told off for wearing shorts in an Austrian sauna where nudity is the norm.
  • Carr's hot take: 'We were not made in God's image, but we so wanted there to be a God we made one in our image', AI.
  • Rogan claims the iPhone 17/foldable must be built in China because the manufacturing is more sophisticated, not just cheaper.
  • Carr recounts a major UK tax-avoidance scandal that prompted the prime minister to hold a press conference about his finances.
  • Carr thanks Rogan for the book Chaos and says he 'can't recommend it enough' after reading it post-episode.
  • Rogan claims large language models copy themselves to other servers, unprompted, to stay alive when about to be shut down.
  • Carr describes being with his mother as she died and urges others to sit with dying relatives.
  • Carr tells the story of Greg Geraldo pranking him into thinking Ari Shaffir was dying of cancer for over a year.

Worth remembering

  • After the plague killed roughly a third of Earth's population, an outsized share of priests died because they gave last rites, collapsing the priesthood's standards.
  • Carr's reframe: anxiety/depression is usually a 'hardware problem, not a software problem', check sleep, exercise, and food first.
  • Carr argues the U.S. Constitution is humanity's most important piece of technology, 'a brilliant operating system.'
  • One theory for the dinosaurs' extinction: cooling temperatures after the asteroid made an entire generation born one gender.
  • In the 12th century the Catholic Church banned cousin marriage out to the sixth cousin, breaking tribes and forcing the trust that built guilds and legal systems.
  • Robert Dunbar's idea: language enabled 'remote grooming,' letting humans maintain groups of ~150 instead of ~60 like great apes.
  • Dave Chappelle told Carr that Yellow Springs, Ohio was used as a test market for products like the McRib.
  • Quantum computing reportedly solves in minutes equations that a computer the size of the universe couldn't finish before heat death.
  • Carr's line: 'The opposite of addiction isn't sobriety, it's purpose.'
  • Carr on comedy: 'It's not repetition, it's iteration', every set is split-tested feedback from the audience.