Jim Carrey’s most recent project with Michel Gondry sees the 56-year-old comedian plays an upbeat entertainer whose life behind the scenes becomes increasingly fraught. And, he gets a handjob from a puppet.

Showtime released a disturbingly bizarre new trailer in which the protagonist unravels after heartbreak, shaves his hair off and has several public outbursts. “I have a tremendous amount of pent-up anger inside of me,” Carrey’s character Mr Pickles says in the trailer. “Everyday it grows and grows. I don't know where it's coming from or how to stop it. I am magma from the neck down.”

It looks to be a role only Carrey could play as it has touches of the manic physical comedy he became famous for, but also ultimately becomes a tale about a bruised showman. Late last year, he told a New York crowd that he was “afraid of the river of tears”. “I’ve gone through it and I’m telling you, you don’t survive.” Shortly afterwards he gave a sad existential interview at Fashion Week.

According to the show’s synopsis, Kidding will follow Mr Pickles – also known as Jeff – “a kind man in a cruel world faces a slow leak of sanity as hilarious as it is heartbreaking”.

Gondry and the comedian last worked together on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind which is probably one of the best films ever made so understandably there’s a lot of anticipation building for their next project together.

Speaking to an audience at TCA, Deadline said Carrey told the crowd that he felt the project was similar to The Truman Show. “(It is) the idea of identity, the search for identity of who you are; what’s an authentic person has always been attractive to me … the idea of being hit by a freight train in life and hanging on to the idea of yourself, that’s really attractive.”

Watch the trailer below.