Controversial comedian Jimmy Carr used to have the "easiest job in the world".
After graduating from Cambridge in 1994 with a first class degree in social science and political science, he opted to work as a marketing executive for oil giant Shell.
But despite admitting he could've done the job in his sleep, Jimmy was "miserable" and bored, and so when he was offered voluntary redundancy he didn't hesitate.
He had recently taken a course in neurolinguistic programming through the job, and he claimed it helped him realise how his mind was working to hold him back.
"The big transition I made was to work out what I really wanted: to live to work," he wrote in his book, Before & Laughter.
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"I wanted to do something that would be a part of my life, not just something I had to do in order to do the things I really wanted to do."
Jimmy received a redundancy payment of £5,000 from the company and began to realise that he might make it big in comedy, as he toured the circuit.
Later that month, he performed his first-ever paid stand up gig - having done his first unpaid pub show just the previous month.
"Eighty pounds for 20 minutes in Plymouth," he told the Independent.
"The petrol was £60 and I only had 15 minutes of jokes. But I was just as happy as I could be."
By 2002, his first solo show in Edinburgh, named Bare-Faced Ambition, was nominated for a Perrier Award.
The phone didn't stop ringing from then on, as Jimmy hosted shows including Distraction, Your Face or Mine and 8 Out of 10 Cats, alongside touring relentlessly and releasing DVDs of his material.
He's no stranger to controversy, either.
Jimmy was involved in an alleged K2 tax avoidance scheme which was exposed in The Times and accused stars of quitting jobs to sign new employment contracts with offshore companies based in Jersey.
He described his involvement as a "terrible error of judgement" in a public apology, and has since poked fun at the scandal with jokes at his own expense.
Currently, the father-of-one is under fire for making a 'disgusting' joke about the Holocaust in his new Netflix show, His Dark Materials.
The 49-year-old is said to find "humour in the darkest of places" in the blurb for his stand-up special, and he admitted some of the jokes would be "career-enders".
In a clip from the show, which was released on Christmas Day, the 8 Out of 10 Cats host warns the audience to "strap in" before making a quip about the half a million Roma and Sinti people who were killed by the Nazi regime.
Jimmy said: "When people talk about the Holocaust they talk about the tragedy of six million lives being lost to the Nazi war machine, but they never mention the thousands of Gypsies killed by the Nazis because no one wants to talk about the positives."
His remarks have sparked a huge backlash.
One viewer wrote: "It’s estimated that around 75% of Europe’s gypsy and Roma population were murdered in the Holocaust. Take @jimmycarr off the air and cancel all his projects immediately.
Another said: "Absolutely abhorrent. I know we joke about it but we have a serious issue regarding offensiveness in comedy.
"The number of people I’ve known and talked with on dating apps, for example, that talk about comedy purely through offensiveness is worrying. Evil from Carr."
The post has been shared many times on Twitter, with The Traveller Movement’s official account posting: "This is truly disturbing and goes way beyond humour. We need all your support in calling this out."
In response to the footage, the CEO of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, Olivia Marks-Woldman OBE shared a statement, which read: "We are absolutely appalled at Jimmy Carr's comment about persecution... and horrified that gales of laughter followed his remarks.
"Hundreds of thousand of Roma and Sinti people suffered prejudice, slave labour, sterilisation and mass murder simply because of their identity - these are not experiences for mockery."
The Mirror has contacted representatives for Jimmy Carr, while Netflix said they are not commenting on the matter.
On Sunday, Jimmy appeared to address the furore on stage, claiming he was "going down swinging" and doubling down with more jokes that have been deemed offensive.
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