Steve Carrell: Genial guy who is making 'em laugh – but why is he funny?

Yet not everyone laughs at the same things. It's a mystery to me how one-trick ponies like Ricky Gervais have managed to sustain a career.

Then there's Steve Carell, star of this week's release, Date Night, who leaves me somewhat befuddled. Really, is he that funny? Millions of Americans seem to think so. Who am I to nit-pick?

I once asked John Cleese about the concept of comedy and how it travelled. I suggested that our colonial cousins had a very different sense of humour to the Brits.

Cleese disagreed strongly, and said so. After all, how could something as quintessentially British as Monty Python translate so well to Stateside audiences?

I accept he has a point. And he should know. Forty-odd years of doing stupendously silly things as a Python, and winning belly laughs from Des Moines to Doncaster, prove it.

But back to Steve Carell. The 47-year-old father-of-two, from Concord, Massachusetts, is now one of the United States' premier box office attractions, eclipsing, at least momentarily, the likes of Steve Martin and Jim Carrey.

I was blissfully unaware of Carell until his scene-stealing performance as a gurning, out-of-control newscaster in Carrey's 2003 comedy/romance, Bruce Almighty.

Aside from the teaming of Carrey and Jennifer Aniston – and Morgan Freeman as God – the film provided Carell with his breakthrough.

And, fair enough, he was funny. Very funny. But it was just a fleeting moment in another comic's film.

Who would have thought it would lead to a sequel with Carell trousering $5m as the star, and that this $200m flick, Evan Almighty, would go down in cinema history as one of the biggest turkeys that ever waddled out of Hollywood?

In the four-year gap between the two films, Carell worked with Woody Allen, Will Ferrell, Judd (Knocked Up) Apatow and Alan Arkin on Little Miss Sunshine.

The years since have seen Carell consolidating his position as the dignified, deadpan, quietly pathetic, blustering, exasperated, soul-cripplingly disappointed Everyman.

Both Dan in Real Life and Get Smart played to his strengths, while his casting in the US remake of The Office was genius.

Now there's Date Night, which teams him with Tina Fey, the gagster beloved for her spot-on Sarah Palin impression. Carell and Fey star as married couple Claire and Phil Foster, determined to pep up their passion with a date at a Manhattan restaurant.

Naturally, it goes spectacularly wrong as the Fosters are mistaken for another couple and are caught up in a tumultuous web of intrigue.

From an outsider's point of view, casting Carell and Fey appears to be a no-brainer. Yet Carell is the first to admit that as a comic, he's a slogger. There is no hint that he was the class clown as a youngster.

"I still do not consider myself to be the life and soul of the party," he says. "I am not necessarily the most articulate or the funniest person to be around; I really don't know if I would want to hang out with me..."

Unlike some comedians – Eddie Murphy, Steve Martin, Robin Williams – who enjoyed massive early success before their careers veered off in other directions, Carell appears to relish the rewards of later stardom.

Perhaps the stench of Evan Almighty has something to do with his comment that having success as a fortysomething is "a good thing because you take it for what it is. Becoming successful has not shifted the focus of my life."

Carell is still sufficiently in awe of his heroes to gush about them. He is a fan of Peter Sellers, Steve Martin and his Little Miss Sunshine cohort, Alan Arkin.

He loves the early Mel Brooks movies and the broad physical comic action of Buster Keaton and Jim Carrey.

"There is no rhyme or reason to comedy," he explains. "It is just whatever makes someone laugh. I hate talking about what makes people laugh really, because it is such a personal thing.

"The more you analyse and break down comedy, the less funny it becomes. The more you dissect it and try to figure out what makes it work, the less it makes you laugh.

"I grew up listening to Bill Cosby and George Carlin records, and I love Bob Newhart. They are all different stylistically but all incredibly funny and insightful in their own ways. And they are all revolutionary."

Point taken. Like John Cleese said, comedy is universal. Perhaps I should just shut up and start laughing.

Date Night is out on general release.