Jimmy Carr

But underneath that veneer of suave innocence lies a mind of pure, unadulterated filth.

James Anthony Patrick Carr was born in London in 1972 to Irish parents. What is plainly obvious from the moment he opens his mouth is that he's a bit of a clever clogs. Achieving four A grades at A-Level he then went on to study at Cambridge university. After graduating with a degree in social and political sciences he was hired by Shell oil as a marketing executive. A job which he described as "technically the easiest job on the planet."

Jimmy had a comedy calling though, and two years later he took redundancy to work for his father's production company. A few film flops inspired him to concentrate on writing and performing stand up. Channel 4 then spotted him at the Royal Variety Performance and gave him the job of presenting Distraction and Your Face Or Mine?

Jimmy's live stand-up work started at around the same time at the Edinburgh festival. Like most other wits on this list, he triumphed there, but more impressively he sold out an entire month's worth of shows in two days. He also received five star reviews from four top newspapers.

Sold out tours, DVDs, radio, a book and more TV work followed. In fact there is not much that Jimmy has not done in the field of comedy. He even writes material for fellow wits Ricky Gervais, Lily Savage and Frank Skinner as well as Bo Selecta.

As if all these comedy achievements were not enough, he also set the lap record on Top Gear. Although The Stig described him as "the worst driver we have ever had" and "the luckiest man alive." Jimmy is also a world record holder, being the first comedian to perform in cyberspace. His gig took place on Second Life, where he performed to 100 virtual attendees.