Watch the Trailer From Jim Carrey's Disturbing New Series - PAPER Magazine

Like a sad clown brought to real life, Jim Carrey's new project, which sees him playing a comedian in mid-life crisis, is underway. The project, a new series called Kidding, is directed by Michel Gondry and premieres on September 8 on Showtime. The duo previously worked together on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

In the disturbing trailer below, chronicling Carrey's character (named Mr. Pickles) and his steady decline into madness, he has public outbursts and yes, he gets a handjob from a puppet. For Carrey, whose specialty is a manic brand of physical comedy, Kidding feels like a perfect fit for the actor, and maybe even a life-imitating-art scenario. His tragic showman act in the series is not dissimilar to Carrey's own mental health struggles off-camera, which have been well-documented. In one interview last year, he said of his own depression: "When the rain comes, it rains, but it doesn't stay."

Deadline reported that Carrey told a crowd that Kidding was similar to his work on the 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," he says. The idea of being hit by a freight train in life and hanging on to the idea of yourself. That's really attractive."

Catch the trailer, below.

Photo via Showtime