Ricky Gervais pays PR shills to pose as his "dedicated fans" on social media [split topic]

[BritishHobo]

I'd wondered, but until your post I hadn't actually considered what it meant; Ricky Gervais, paying somebody to be a prominent fan, and then offering them interviews and production visits to make himself look like he cared about his fanbase.

Ricky Gervais, the man whose fansite (Pilkipedia) grew to dislike him so much, that he had to pay someone to pretend to be interested in him.

[HappyTree]

If you have to pay someone to tell you you're wonderful, well, you just became your own worst critic.

[Pit-Pat]

That's actually fascinating - is it public? Isn't it the sort of thing that people get into trouble for, like that historian Orlando Figues, who rubbished other books on Amazon whilst writing favourable reviews for his own under some assumed names?

I know he seems desperate for people to love him, but given how much he pretends not to care about his critics I find it almost unbelievable that he'd be quite so pathetic as to set up a dummy fansite.

[Noodle Lizard]

Isn't Ep 5 the one with the Robot Grief Dog?
Fucking mental.

[thraxx]

Isn't Ep 5 the one with the Robot Grief Dog?
Fucking mental.

Why is he hawking muppets merchandise?

[Noodle Lizard]

Also, they entered Ep 6 ... the one where DEREK'S FUCKING DAD DIES. 

[Pit-Pat]

Why is he hawking muppets merchandise?

Running out of money Greedy cunt?

[BlodwynPig]

Time to put Gervais to sleep.

Brief Nog Lobot'

[Pit-Pat]

Also, they entered Ep 6 ... the one where DEREK'S FUCKING DAD DIES. 

The love and belching of a good woman allowed Derek to finally mature to the stage that he could immediately get over the death of his father and symbolically ride a bike.

[BritishHobo]

Isn't Ep 5 the one with the Robot Grief Dog?
Fucking mental.

"I was just worried it was too heartbreaking." - Ricky Gervais on his work.

I was just worried it was too heartbreaking.

[bonesbonesbonesbones]

In the last 3 hours he's retweeted four tweets from two separate accounts he clearly also runs (one is the official Derek feed and the other is for Brent and his music), saying to vote for him. Now, complete mentalness aside, is he co-ordinating with a PA who is doing this for him, or does he write all the tweets himself? Either way, it's fucking nuts.

https://twitter.com/DavidBrentMusic

https://twitter.com/DerekTVShow


I've literally voted for Freeman about a hundred times now. Don't regret a single vote.

[bonesbonesbonesbones]

So, far example, was there a series of emails between Ricky and his PA or someone else he's hired to write this?

https://twitter.com/DerekTVShow/status/494216152227545091

I just can't... How do you...? In what way does he...? Why is he...?

...

[George Oscar Bluth II]

I don't think I'll ever stop finding this man fascinating.

He literally cares about some stupid poll on the Radio Times website. He's a millionaire who lives in New York and is mates with Louis CK. And he cares about a poll on the Radio Times website.

[bonesbonesbonesbones]

That's what confuses me. He's won at life. He's made something brilliant, made loads of money (which doesn't always happen to people who make brilliant things, and did involve a fair amount of luck, obviously) and now has complete creative freedom. Why chase the bullshit stuff? Stuff that he would have laughed in the face of ten years ago? I sort of get it if you become famous as a teenager or in your twenties, but he's fifty fucking years old.

[BritishHobo]

Those accounts are really interesting. After every episode of Derek that Derek one had quality screenshots with quotes, fuelling hashtags, which Gervais would endlessly requote. Every wacky phrase used in the episode, turned into a hashtag for trending purposes. Now, months after Derek has finished, he's still filling his feed with them. It's like he's trying to create a shuffle playlist of the entire show, but with screenshots instead of video.

[BritishHobo]

That's what confuses me. He's won at life. He's made something brilliant, made loads of money (which doesn't always happen to people who make brilliant things, and did involve a fair amount of luck, obviously) and now has complete creative freedom. Why chase the bullshit stuff? Stuff that he would have laughed in the face of ten years ago? I sort of get it if you become famous as a teenager or in your twenties, but he's fifty fucking years old.

What's even more baffling is that this is what he keeps saying. He's obsessed with putting across this idea of not caring about reviews or critics, just being happy, but then at the same time he goes on and on about all these meaningless awards, and using his existing awards to shut down anybody who has a problem with him. It's a baffling kind of ongoing denial, I don't understand how he doesn't see it.

[Thomas]

haha :)

[thraxx]

That's what confuses me. He's won at life. He's made something brilliant, made loads of money (which doesn't always happen to people who make brilliant things, and did involve a fair amount of luck, obviously) and now has complete creative freedom. Why chase the bullshit stuff? Stuff that he would have laughed in the face of ten years ago? I sort of get it if you become famous as a teenager or in your twenties, but he's fifty fucking years old.

It's exactly what Brent would do.  With every action it becomes more obvious that Brent was not a character at all, it was just Ricky Gervais with a licence to be himself, all the filters taken off.

[bonesbonesbonesbones]

It's exactly what Brent would do.  With every action it becomes more obvious that Brent was not a character at all, it was just Ricky Gervais with a licence to be himself, all the filters taken off.

But what's weirder is that Brent wasn't his character when he did The Office. The early series of XFM show someone who is - mostly - self-aware and very aware of people who get a bit of success and get twatty about it. It's his gradual morphing into  Brent over the years which is so odd. Imagine how much Brent would love social media and the idea of doing a social media campaign for Derek to help him win the fucking Emmy. And a fucking Radio Times poll.

[Pit-Pat]

AFTER THE RADIO TIMES VOTES ARE IN, THE INEVITABLE CONCLUSION

US chat show host:
So England recently awarded you a 'Radio Times' award?"

Ricky Gervais:
[voice dripping with sarcasm]
Yeaah. It's kind of like winning a TV Weekly magazine award. Yeah.TV Weekly. It's not even the TV Guide.

[Cut to band leader laughing]

US chat show host:
So you haven't put it up on the shelf with other awards then?

Ricky Gervais
[even more sarcasm]
Yeaah.
[mimics acceptance speech]
Oh! Thank you very much! I'm definitely going to put this Radio Times Award right here next to all my Emmys!

[Cut to chat show host laughing]

Ricky Gervais:
No, it's going in the downstairs loo
[starts laughing with all his teeth showing]
with all the BAFTAs.

[Lt Plonker]

https://twitter.com/TelevisionAcad/status/494233572954238976

"Can you confirm this?"

I mean, really.

[bonesbonesbonesbones]

This is the first blog post from Tadpole Hitler. The 'Ricky paid for it to be set up' theory would explain why this fan writes like such a PR dickspladge. Apologies if this has already been posted. And, to be fair, some fans do write like PR dickspladgeses, so maybe it'a legit...



THURSDAY, 31 JANUARY 2013

Derek Episode 1 Review
Ricky Gervais's genius scripting of the phrase 'Tadpole Hitler' in Derek not only created a hashtag furore on Twitter last night, but urged me to do something spontaneous for once and buy the domain tadpolehitler.com. This site will be a dedicated fansite to the already critically-acclaimed Derek, as well as all the other Gervais genius creations, as he continues to do what so many others fail to do - create TV gold time and time again.

Derek is already dubbed a 'controversial character,' but why it has such an unfounded reputation, I don't know. Derek was compassionate, ground-breaking TV and is already an instant classic. From Dougie's ridiculous hair and Kev's sex-crazed foolery, to Hannah's battles with the authorities and Derek's innocence, we have a TV comedy drama like no other.

With big thought-provoking topics such as the percentage of elderly people who die when re-homed and why it is actually unimportant to find out whether or not Derek has autism (or tism?) we then laugh at Karl Pilkington's character when he's called "an egg with sideburns." Karl plays Dougie, who is basically Karl Pilkington, so in his first real acting role he has little problem getting into character!

Derek is fantastic storytelling interspersed with superb comedy moments. For me, on the back of An Idiot Abroad, Karl Pilkington stole the show and he showed the acting world that not only can he moan and say all sorts of delightful, insightful wonders in his own life, but he can also act like the best of them. I'm sure you will all agree that you could really feel his genuine anger in the closing moments of the show.

Well done Ricky - you've struck gold again and I'm already looking forward to episode 2 next week!

[BritishHobo]

https://twitter.com/TelevisionAcad/status/494233572954238976

"Can you confirm this?"

I mean, really.

Astounding. Gervais retweeted that question before it was even answered, and then about twenty tweets later retweered the answer.

There's also this batshit tweet:

I don't know how this got out but someone has leaked that I'm nominated for another Emmy for my role as #derek. No point in denying it now.

I've also only just noticed his Twitter bio, which drops any pretence of irony and literally just shouts 'I have tons of awards and have done different projects, so FUCK YOU if you criticise me':

Multi Emmy, Bafta, & Golden Globe-winning Writer, Director, Actor, Producer, Author and Stand up Comedian. Oh, and One Trick Pony :)

Two years ago I wouldn't have thought it possible for the man to get any more arrogant or smarmy or hypocritical. He has utterly surpassed my expectations.

[bonesbonesbonesbones]

The guy who runs the site is called M. A. Sibson and published a children's book about two years ago. Failed children's author hired to be paid fan? I would also bet twenty five pounds that this review (given it's similarity to the tadpole prose) is written by someone whose name rhymes with N A Glibgun. 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/pdp/profile/A3IECZ3JTEDMHQ/ref=cm_cr_dp_pdp

[BritishHobo]

And yet the most baffling thing of all here is that Gervais got nominated for an Emmy for Lead Actor. I've been very careful since Derek's pilot first aired not to be a dick about anyone who actually likes the show; they have a different opinion to me, and that's totally fine, I'm not looking down on them for that.

But Best Lead Actor? Really? For Derek? Really?

[bonesbonesbonesbones]

And there we go...

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/msibson


I think that's a smoking gun.

[bonesbonesbonesbones]

Look at the 'blog' and 'personal website' bits...

[BritishHobo]

Good work, bonesbonesbonesbones. I personally wouldn't have gotten any further than staring in astonishment at the opening line "Ricky Gervais's genius scripting of the phrase 'Tadpole Hitler'...".

Credit to the bloke as well, I suppose, for whom it's just a job. I wonder what he actually thinks of Derek; does he write lines like that with tongue-in-cheek, or does he mean every word, having landed quite a cushy job 'pretending' to be a fan of his favourite show?

[bonesbonesbonesbones]

This was removed, so only exists in cached form. I wonder if they took it down, because it's a bit too transparent as to what is actually going on?

http://www.zoominfo.com/CachedPage/?archive_id=0&page_id=7059623492&page_url=//www.punchcomms.com/blog/punch-welcomes-matt-sibson-also-the-man-behind-the-derek-fan-site&page_last_updated=2014-04-01T18:14:02&firstName=Matt&lastName=Sibson

[BritishHobo]

Interesting that he doesn't specify how Gervais got involved. He says that he set up the site, and within five weeks had scored and published interviews with every member of the cast as well as running a competition with Gervais; but no mention of when Gervais actually became a part of it.