Before & Laughter: The funniest man in the UK’s genuinely useful guide to life

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Currently appearing as one of the judges on the BBC One talent show I Can See Your Voice, Carr is set to resume his stand-up tour, Terribly Funny, at the Palace Theatre in London on June 15. They argue that those words, as a standalone, feel brutal, discriminatory, unfunny and indefensible. Carr mined it for self-deprecating jokes and was generally praised for the way he handled the fallout - but only after being thoroughly roasted by his co-stars on the comedy show he was presenting. Because can you remember there was an ad campaign about five years ago saying that one in four people have experienced a mental-health problem? The answers are in this book, which contains valuable and mind-opening advice that everyone will benefit from, at whatever point in their lives.

Rather disarmingly, he stresses repeatedly throughout his book that anyone could have done this, and that he had no supernatural talent for comedy.The book recounts how he became a sort of surrogate partner to his mum after she separated from his father in 1994 and struggled with depression.

Although he didn't repeat any jokes about Travellers, he did go through jokes about rape, Islam, paedophiles and others, she said. The pandemic gave him more time to spend with his son, and he admits that he would desperately like another but doesn’t know how possible that is. I think if you have a friend that’s tetraplegic you have to be quite chatty, because obviously the typing takes him so long,” he says, in a remark that feels like one of his jokes, but isn’t.

Feeling unfulfilled, he had what he describes in the book as a quarter-life crisis, which prompted him to change careers. From prioritising the future over the present, to understanding the benefits of laughter, and from working on your disposition to finding your edge, Carr suggests some key pillars to help us free ourselves from punishing patterns of behaviour and negative internal voices, so that we can pursue our dreams.

Because can you remember there was an ad campaign about five years ago saying that one in four people have experienced a mental health problem? We are saddened that in 2019 we have to deal with such prejudice to the dwarfism community (and other minority groups) in a time where we all strive to live equal lives and celebrate diversity without fear of humiliation or preconception. Some believe that Carr has crossed a line, as he's picked on a community that is too often marginalised.

Carr worked as a marketing executive for Shell, a job he hated, before a "quarter-life crisis" at 25 led to him study psychotherapy and begin doing stand-up. There’s that lovely phrase, that you die twice – once when you die, and again the last time someone says your name. But with jokes throughout, he promises "self-analysis through the power of laughter at its most rewarding. I think if you have a friend that’s tetraplegic you have to be quite chatty, because obviously the typing takes him so long,” he says, in a remark that feels like one of his jokes but isn’t.

Carr is an engaging presence – friendly, enthusiastic, happy to answer uncomfortable questions, albeit with an unnervingly intense stare at times. The book covers most of his life, from growing up in Slough, near London, and going to university at Cambridge to meeting his partner of 20 years, the TV producer Karoline Copping, and hosting shows such as 8 Out of 10 Cats.He seems to have witnessed a different pandemic to me, in which well-signposted icebergs were frequently ploughed into and alternative ideas were plentiful, yet often ignored or mocked. In 2016 he became the first British stand-up to record a Netflix original special with his show Funny Business.