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

[Mr Banlon]

I was going to call my next cat Derek because it's such a human name for an animal that it would be funny. Gervais has spoiled that now.

Maybe Colin. Greg. Reginald Iolanthe Perrin. Ah yes, Reggie the cat. Ok, panic over.

Jonathan Ross gave Ricky a dog. He called it Syndrome, because it keeps jumping on the furniture, and it gives him an excuse to shout 'that' out with impunity.

[Noodle Lizard]

Subtly lowering expectations there ...



This really pissed me off, right.  As he well knows, the Emmys aren't voted for by the public.  That'd be like Steve McQueen saying of '12 Years A Slave' "Oh, the new Transformers did so much better at the box office, I don't stand a chance in these Oscars!"

Admittedly, this award does always seem to go to one of Chuck Lorre's spawn, but that's definitely not the only thing stopping Gervais from winning it.  I guess he's neglected to notice that most of the other comedy nominees are part of shows that are also nominated for several other awards, whereas 'Derek' is up for fuckall.  They knew they couldn't nominate 'Derek' for anything else because there isn't a single clip you could show that isn't laughably shit.

I still think he's only been nominated at all because they want him at the ceremony.

[MuteBanana]

That supposedly great analysis that proves why he should win the award with the clips is awful.

One of him just standing in the background smiling. One of him crying over a dead dog. One of him strangling someone. One of him acting like a giddy cunt. I forget the fifth one but none of them prove  why he should win best comedy actor.

[Moribunderast]

Taking the mantra #BEMORELIKEDEREK a little too literally.

"I've also instructed the wife to smoke and drink for the duration of the pregnancy, in the hopes that our kid comes out a mong kind."

I adore that quote ye lads have dug up re: depression. In the wake of his response to Robin Williams' death, it's a thing of beauty. One of the many quotes I'd love to see him confronted with by an interviewer with balls. And the idea that you never see non-celebrities with depression? He's fucking INSANE! I can't begin to fathom how he sees life and the people who inhabit it with him. He's a nonsense person.

[Larry Two-Feet]

Reading all this makes me want to create a twitter account and tell Ricky Gervais how much of a cunt he is but then I think he probably already knows exactly how much of a cunt he is, so I'm not going to bother. I might write a bot that just retweets everything he deletes and adds #coward.

[chand]

God, I forget sometimes how truly bewildering his Twitter is. Constant promotional RTs of his other accounts, and then suddenly there'll be a really earnest animal rights tweet. At one point in his timeline there's a comedy picture of him doing his 'mong' face in bed with Greg James, who's also pulling a face, immediately after a picture of him getting his face licked by a cute dog with the caption "Have a peaceful night". Then further down, a retweet of the official Derek account that says "RT if you loves Ivor".

At one point these tweets appear in his timeline one after the other:
https://twitter.com/thebuav/status/499255281562292225/photo/1
https://twitter.com/DerekTVShow/status/496940998564794368

The two sides of Ricky Gervais, there. The serious face, angry about the barbaric treatment of Kenyan baboons. Then back to self-promotion, and yet another appearance for the "looking up old ladies' skirts" joke they're so obviously proud of. It's all just so...weird.

[Replies From View]

God, I forget sometimes how truly bewildering his Twitter is. Constant promotional RTs of his other accounts, and then suddenly there'll be a really earnest animal rights tweet. At one point in his timeline there's a comedy picture of him doing his 'mong' face in bed with Greg James, who's also pulling a face, immediately after a picture of him getting his face licked by a cute dog with the caption "Have a peaceful night". Then further down, a retweet of the official Derek account that says "RT if you loves Ivor".

At one point these tweets appear in his timeline one after the other:
https://twitter.com/thebuav/status/499255281562292225/photo/1
https://twitter.com/DerekTVShow/status/496940998564794368

The two sides of Ricky Gervais, there. The serious face, angry about the barbaric treatment of Kenyan baboons. Then back to self-promotion, and yet another appearance for the "looking up old ladies' skirts" joke they're so obviously proud of. It's all just so...weird.

Well, we are all of us varied and contradictory beings who do many different things during the day, from one moment to the next.  It might just be that Twitter is an odd place to be presenting one side of yourself then another, when we're used to professional spaces being quite carefully delineated so that we know what's what.

There was an interesting question that Stewart Lee asked on his RHLSTP, about how Herring reconciles on Twitter all the different personae he has flowing around in his creative life.  Herring's response was flippant but Lee's thought was a good one, I think.  If Twitter is a problematic space for these things then it's interesting to see someone like Gervais rubbing up against the edges, undoubtedly not deliberately but because he can't keep a check on who he is at any one time, and just like Herring merely typing what he wants, occasionally swapping out an "and" with an ampersand when he goes over the character limit.

Ha, "character limit".

[Larry Two-Feet]

Fucking hell (lads), I've had to learn Ruby to do this. His tweets are depressing as fuck.

Wordcloud of his last 100 tweets


Still, in for a penny...

[Queneau]

Good work. I'd make one of the posts in this thread but I'm lazy.

[Larry Two-Feet]

Know what? Fuck this project. I can't be arsed. It's like punching a s*****c in the face to impress your mates.

How to do it:
Aquire the tweets and put the "id_str" and the "text" into some kind of map.
Update the feed and compare the "id_str" to the ones in your map.
Tweet the text of the missing "id_str"s.
Call your app "virtualInanity".

[madhair60]

DO THE THING.

[Replies From View]

Know what? Fuck this project. I can't be arsed. It's like punching a s*****c in the face to impress your mates.

Gee, well.  If it's that easy why not just do it anyway?

[Larry Two-Feet]

I was totally into it this morning but reading the tweets it seems like a bad thing to do.
:) :) :) :) :) :) cheers :) :) :) Might get an emmy :) robinwilliams :( cheers :) RT:Derekdidn'tsuckbigdonkeyballs :) :) cheers RT:netflixpaidformyhouse :)

All those moments will be lost in time, like a cunt talking like a cunt in rain. Time to die. *RELEASE THE ROBOT GRIEF-DOVE*

[Replies From View]

The robot grease dove, more like.  Greasy so that it slips through time more easily.

[checkoutgirl]

The robot grease dove, more like.  Greasy so that it slips through time more easily.

Yeah.

[Larry Two-Feet]

R: Ha-HAH! Karl, what do you think of a greasy dove working its way up your urethra?
S: Yeah, up your urethra? Maybe not a reeealll dove?
K: I just think...
S: Just sayin'...
R: Up your URETHRA. Ha-HAH! Oh MAN! IMAGINE THAT! A DOVE!
K: I just think it would be rubbish. Who wants a urethra-dove? I'll tell you who. No-one. No-one wants a urethra-dove. What would be the point? Midgets, maybe. They could use the claws to clean themselves out or summat. You know, midget urethritis or whatever. Clean THAT up...
R: NO-ONE! Brilliant!
S: Didn't turn out quite the way I expected but still... carry on.
R: Brilliant!
K: I made you.
R: Ha-HAH! Amazin'. God's a dick. _sexist Fellate me on twitter.
S: Think you mispronounced follow.. there.
R: Fuck you. I'm Jesus.

[BritishHobo]

God, it's like they've never been away.

[Old Nehamkin]

Hey, does anyone have that classic gif of Gervais trying to high-five Chris Rock and getting dinghied? Laughing just thinking about it.

[Noodle Lizard]

The new hero of comedy:



HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

_{I still reckon he fucks the animals.}

[waste of chops]

Hey, does anyone have that classic gif of Gervais trying to high-five Chris Rock and getting dinghied? Laughing just thinking about it.

[MuteBanana]

The new hero of comedy:

A fair point. Would we care if he was professionally still funny? That tweet reminds me of his Suarez joke. A big talking point and he comes up with something most normal people would delete before sending. Why has he run out of jokes?

[HappyTree]

Maybe it works like with music. He's done his first album which used all the stuff he'd been working on for years. His second album wasn't as good, diminishing returns, etc. With Derek he did his first totally solo album which resurrected some crap demos of stuff in very bad taste he did a long time ago. But he had to try to repackage it to mask how mean-spirited it all was.

Nobody likes his stuff, he's creatively spent, so he now is a troll on Twitter and desperately tries to use PR to remain relevant.

Normally he would go off and concentrate on his family now, but he doesn't have any children. He should stop the comedy and desperate ego stuff and dedicate his energy to real animal welfare which is something good about him he really believes in. And would be far, far more rewarding for himself. He would actually be happy instead of having to pretend he is by posing for photos with his mouth open.

He should give Brian May a ring, ask him about chipping in with the badger and fox stuff. Get Bill Oddie on board. The three of them could be our animal crusaders.

[MuteBanana]

Never going to happen. For all the hassle he gave Pilkington about broadening his horizons and experiencing new cultures can you imagine Gervais putting himself in a situation that doesn't have a five star hotel in New York or London?I could tweet the shit he does and look like a top bloke. He has the money and power to go out there and help but chooses to tweet from his bath.

[BritishHobo]

Never going to happen. For all the hassle he gave Pilkington about broadening his horizons and experiencing new cultures can you imagine Gervais putting himself in a situation that doesn't have a five star hotel in New York or London?I could tweet the shit he does and look like a top bloke. He has the money and power to go out there and help but chooses to tweet from his bath.

I always liked when Pilkington raised the point that neither of the two (although Merchant did travel a bit) had had anywhere near the experiences he was going through.

[Replies From View]

I always liked when Pilkington raised the point that neither of the two (although Merchant did travel a bit) had had anywhere near the experiences he was going through.

When he's in helping out in Africa by building some homes he has a good phone call with Merchant along those lines.  Pilkington is saying he doesn't feel like what he's doing is enough, but Merchant is taking this to mean Pilkington doesn't want to help.  So he has a rant, leaving Pilkington to ask exactly when was the last time Merchant left his swish office to physically help out in Africa.  Which again Merchant misunderstands as Pilkington being apathetic.

That was one of the very few discussions in Idiot Abroad that I suspected hadn't had the misunderstandings deliberately heightened for some kind of effect.

[MuteBanana]

I always liked when Pilkington raised the point that neither of the two (although Merchant did travel a bit) had had anywhere near the experiences he was going through.

It's weirder that Gervais doesn't travel. Gervais seems to do well with avoiding paparazzi I guess because he's a bit of a British hero for doing well here and in America. But I can't remember ever seeing him "abroad".

[Frazer]

23 million shills? Ricktory über alles!

[newbridge]

I'm waiting for the day a few years from now when he shows up on Celebrity Big Brother as Ricky Gervais rather than as Andy Millman.

[Noodle Lizard]

BIG NEWS.  I'm probably going to meet Ricky Gervais today.  Seriously now.  What should I ask???  There are so many things!

[Steven]

Ask him if he reads CaB. Also ask if he came up with Derek when he was 14? And why was Derek a mong but now a messianic figure?