During a guest appearance on the BBC motoring show Top Gear, Carr set a new celebrity test track lap record on the 'Star in a Reasonably Priced Car' segment.

"[30] In January 2006, Carr made a joke on Radio 4's Loose Ends, the punchline of which implied that Gypsy women smelled.

He was the Museum Curator (in his five appearances in 2012) and a guest on the 2018 Annual Stock Take Christmas special, alongside Lee Mack, Jo Brand and Sally Philips.

[47] Also on 5 and 6 July 2009, Carr was the warm up act for Las Vegas band the Killers at their DVD record gigs (Live from the Royal Albert Hall).

[48] In October 2009, Carr received criticism from Sunday tabloid newspapers for a joke he made about British soldiers who had lost limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying the UK would have a strong team in the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

[53] Carr was criticised in November 2011 for a joke about the Variety Club's Sunshine coaches, which offer holidays for children with Down syndrome.

[54] A Guardian profile in 2012 said: "In terms of reach and earning power... one of the nation's most popular stand-up comedians... in his ability to pull in crowds which generate millions in tour and DVD sales..." and as "the undisputed king of deadpan one-liners...".

[60] In the week 15–21 April 2024 Netflix listed the show as being 8th in the global Top 10 (in the category TV, English) with 2.3m viewing hours.

Carr has often said how important the Fringe is to anyone that wants to get into comedy, and that he is "a performer at night but during the day I'm a punter and have conversations with people about what show they liked and what they didn’t.

Although he would eventually go on to return each year as a paid stand-up comic, he initially had to resort to trying to save money by sleeping in his car (a Rover 75) or on the floor of somewhere that other comedians had rented.

[66] The August 2001 two-week stint, with Rubbernecker, was Carr’s first Fringe appearance, with his name in the official programme and his first mention on the Comedy site Chortle.

The poster and programme billed him as "England’s answer to Emo Philips",[69][70] and he performed in the Dining Room of the Gilded Balloon from 2 to 26 August.

This enabled him to move his shows to the larger venue of the Pleasance Courtyard, but the Festival’s rules (on TV appearances) meant that he was judged to now be a “star” and therefore couldn’t be nominated for the 2003 Perrier Award.

[77] Held at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre, it was a regular Fringe fund raiser, headed by Alan Carr, for Waverley Care.

[78] Previously, The Guardian had been reasonably positive in relation to reviews of comedians headlining at the Fringe; however, articles from 2007 saw the paper declare that "household names were drowning out more pioneering art".

[79][80] The 2008 Edinburgh programme[81] never listed dates or a venue for Carr’s shows this year; this was possibly because his attendance was confirmed after printing.

Edinburgh 2010[86] sees Carr debut his new show, Laughter Therapy, a few days after the end of his Rapier Wit tour.

[108] His first venture into making TV shows in the US was The Strategic Humour Initiative (hosted by Sir David Frost) back in 2003.

During this festival, Carr slotted in one of his own tour gigs, at the Palace Theatre,[123] and also performed at the Hollywood Palladium as a part of the line-up for Bill Burr Presents Friends Who Kill,[124] which was filmed for another Netflix Special.

[126] Carr has been performing there for many years and is one of a small number of British comedians that are listed as alumni[127] and, in 2018, was given the honour of having his name painted on one of the club's walls.

[137] In 2006, the book The Naked Jape: Uncovering the Hidden World of Jokes, on the history and theory of joke-telling, by Carr and Lucy Greeves, was published by Penguin.

Newspapers and radio stations phoned the mothers of soldiers maimed in battle, recited the joke, then reported their outraged reactions.

[141] The scheme is understood to involve UK earners "quitting" their job and signing new employment contracts with offshore shell companies based in the low-tax jurisdiction of Jersey.

[144] Earlier in 2012, during the second series of Channel 4's satirical news programme 10 O'Clock Live, Carr had lampooned people who avoid paying their taxes.

[147] The show had been released in December 2021 without comment on the joke but received widespread attention the following February after a clip was posted and shared online.

He was condemned by the Auschwitz Memorial, Hope not Hate[148] and The Traveller Movement, who called anti-Romani prejudice the "last acceptable form of racism" in the UK.

[149] He also faced criticism from British politicians, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary.

Writers like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins helped change my view, but I don't go on stage banging on about being an atheist...

"[140] He has stated that he underwent a lot of psychotherapy (specifically neuro-linguistic programming) at the time of his crisis in order to help him cope with his loss of faith, and that he is qualified as a therapist.

[156] Carr lives in North London with his Canadian partner Karoline Copping, a commissioning editor for Channel 5,[11] with whom he has been in a relationship since 2001.