Ricky Gervais: SuperNature

[famethrowa]

I think he found out the correct way at some point but continued with the wrong pronunciation. This was either because he didn't want to admit he was wrong or as part of his childish doing the opposite of what is expected of him routine. Hard to tell the difference sometimes.

If we could find out how he pronounces "Bowie" in his private life, that would give a good insight.

I'm prepared to let him through on this one, as I'm still committed to saying MOOOOOG synthesiser, despite there being a proven "right" way to say it. Old habits and all that.

BTW, Is Gervais pronounced 'Ja-vace' or 'Jerr-vaze'?

I remember his mother phoning in to the radio show and saying he should pronounce his name "Jervay".

[Replies From View]

It was like when he said The Sopranos was his all-time favourite show, but when he went on the Talking Sopranos podcast he offered 15 minutes of basic surface-level opinions and then spent the rest of the time talking about why After Life was great and comparable to Sopranos.

He's a deeply incurious man and for someone who loves to talk about the philosophy of human behaviour, he also has no interest in exploring stuff beyond his worldview. An endlessly fascinating fuck.

I agree with this.  For all his apparent philosophising during his Xfm days I've reached the conclusion that he may have been parroting things he'd learned/read/heard rather than spent time thinking about anything.

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BTW, Is Gervais pronounced 'Ja-vace' or 'Jerr-vaze'?

It's pronounced "Cocker"

[Blue Jam]

Merchant once again proved his overall superiority by including Salesman by The Monkees in a recent episode of The Outlaws.

Gervais is weird when it comes to music. He posits himself as some sort of expert, a passionate music fan, but most of the stuff he likes is generic mournful folk-indie wank. He's a Coldplay man through and through.

And he doesn't even know how to pronounce 'Bowie' correctly, an artist he apparently idolises.

I find it weird that he gets so much praise from fans for things like putting Rocket Man in an episode of After Life. Yes, it's a good song, but it's a total safe bet isn't it? The scene where he smokes a big ol' heroin bifta is not exactly up there with hearing Evidently Chickentown pop up in an episode of The Sopranos.

[Dr Rock]

He's a fan of obscure stuff like Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen.

[imitationleather]

And old movies, like The Godfather Part Three.

[Ferris]

A true renaissance man!

[thelittlemango]

And old movies, like The Godfather Part Three.

It's not considered the best one...

[neov1974]

Ricky Gervais
@RickyGervais
I hope Prince William doesn't do a massive fart just as Kyrgios is about to serve.

One of the world's finest comedians^ right there

[Cold Meat Platter]

The 7 year-old running into the room where the adults are talking and saying 'bum'

[Petey Pate]

I agree with this.  For all his apparent philosophising during his Xfm days I've reached the conclusion that he may have been parroting things he'd learned/read/heard rather than spent time thinking about anything.

Not sure if this went widely noticed but in the HBO animated version of the Ricky Gervais Show some of the audio from the podcasts was edited to remove Gervais' factual errors. Presumably this was an edict from Gervais himself so that he would appear smarter.

The only one I can remember is when Gervais is badgering Pilkington to name an invention from after 1900 (when discussing the US patent office commissioner's infamous 1899 quote that 'everything that has been invented has already been invented', which itself is probably apocryphal). In the original podcast Gervais says 'cars, planes' when Karl comes up blank, but in the animated version he just says 'planes'.

Maybe there's a complete list somewhere of all the changes. I certainly don't want to be the person to compile it.

[Replies From View]

That segment annoys me anyway, because Pilkington isn't asking what was invented in the 20th century, he's asking what was so brilliant in 1899 that "someone" projected that everything to be invented already had been.

Gervais bullishly says "well think..." and proceeds to list television and other inventions that weren't around in 1899, so wouldn't have been part of the mindset that the quote came from.

[Captain Z]

No idea if it was edited or even included in TRGS, but I always remember a bit on Karl's idea of putting a mirror on the moon:

'I said "how would you make sure it always faced the earth?", he said "oh, does the moon move?", I said "yes".'

The moon doesn't move, the same side always faces the earth. Hence 'the dark side of the moon'.

[idunnosomename]

well it wobbles a bit, but I completely expect Ricky Gervais has no fucking idea how the moon works or even that you can sometimes see it in the day. he seems like that sort of idiot

[Replies From View]

No idea if it was edited or even included in TRGS, but I always remember a bit on Karl's idea of putting a mirror on the moon:

'I said "how would you make sure it always faced the earth?", he said "oh, does the moon move?", I said "yes".'

The moon doesn't move, the same side always faces the earth. Hence 'the dark side of the moon'.

The "dark side" is whichever portion of it is facing away from the sun, and from our perspective changes.  But yes the "far side" is permanently facing away from the Earth.

Gervais' pattern was always to step in and mock without engaging properly first.  It's a very tedious improvisation technique partly because it's always the same, partly because it's so mean-spirited from the start, and partly because listening is so crucial to improvisation.

[Ferris]

well it wobbles a bit, but I completely expect Ricky Gervais has no fucking idea how the moon works or even that you can sometimes see it in the day. he seems like that sort of idiot

...but without the basic curiosity to go abroad.

[Petey Pate]

That segment annoys me anyway, because Pilkington isn't asking what was invented in the 20th century, he's asking what was so brilliant in 1899 that "someone" projected that everything to be invented already had been.

Gervais bullishly says "well think..." and proceeds to list television and other inventions that weren't around in 1899, so wouldn't have been part of the mindset that the quote came from.

There's an awful lot of that in the podcasts, where Gervais automatically assumes whatever Karl says must be stupid, via deliberately (or not) misinterpreting what Pilkington is actually saying. Worst example of this is his reaction to Karl saying 'how would I know which one I was?' when asked about meeting a doppelganger.

[Dr Rock]

...but without the basic curiosity to go abroad.

Apart from America, has he ever gone abroad?

[Replies From View]

He strikes me as having a small comfort zone, but with enough education to speak about things he hasn't experienced or actually thought deeply about.

A man who could describe in detail what it's like to sleep in the Amazon rainforest, but hasn't done it himself and would never end up in the situation that he forced Pilkington through.

Putting someone out of their comfort zone and cackling at that discomfort, whilst living the privileged life of a millionaire - it's a pretty cunty model even if the outcome is entertaining, especially when he still presumes to lecture Pilkington on his ignorance.  Maybe this difference is what led to Pilkington splitting from Gervais - you got glimpses of it in the series, with him saying "there's no way Ricky/Steve would put up with this".


There's quite an eye-opening moment in the third series of Idiot Abroad, in the final episode when Pilkington is making Warwick Davis (who has been a proxy for Gervais until this point) eat lamb testicles and a rabbit head.  Pilkington is no longer out of his comfort zone and he's showing Davis up for all his "I want you to experience the pigeons and the Italian ice cream" tourist travelling approach, where he presumed he was more open-minded than Pilkington.  The moment in the cafe where Davis is flinching and genuinely upset about the food absolutely flips the dynamic, and it's a shame the series ends a few minutes after that, as it's the point where it starts getting interesting.

[notjosh]

A man who could describe in detail what it's like to sleep in the Amazon rainforest, but hasn't done it himself and would never end up in the situation that he forced Pilkington through.

Pilkington to Gervais:

[Bennett Brauer]

Apart from America, has he ever gone abroad?

Italy.

[Bennett Brauer]

Anyway, does Larry David travel outside the US? If not, he doesn't get criticized for it. I don't know if he's even visited the UK to do promotional appearances.

[Replies From View]

Italy.

Is he auditioning to play Al in a reboot of Quantum Leap?

[Dr Rock]

Anyway, does Larry David travel outside the US? If not, he doesn't get criticized for it.

Well, I don't know about criticism but it makes me think much less of he man that he could visit any country in the world, but lacks the curiosity to do so.

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I'm not sure where Larry David came into the conversation (it seems out of the blue unless I've missed an earlier post), but as far as I'm aware Larry David never made a number of projects dedicated to ridiculing a person for lacking experiences that he doesn't personally have either.

There's something interesting about the fact that Pilkington's development across the three series of Idiot Abroad goes largely unremarked.  At the start of series 3, the notion remains that Pilkington's mind is closed to new cultures, and Davis becomes his travelling companion in order to pursue Gervais' vendetta.  Yet all of Davis' references are completely tourist-based - eating Italian ice cream, 'doing the pigeons' and cultural stuff like the masquerade ball.  It's Pilkington who has more experience with foreign foods and living out of his comfort zone - something that becomes especially apparent in episode 3.

But right to the end Gervais is still pushing that Pilkington lacks experience, and projects that he needs to complete a bungee jump (a hang-over from series 2) in order to overcome something or other.  It's completely out of touch with the notion of self-progress to make that kind of call on someone else's behalf.  And because of this narrative structuring the end of episode 3 becomes Pilkington's refusal to do that and 'oh well'.

I really do wish that series 3 had lasted a few more episodes as it feels truncated, and it would have been interesting to see Pilkington taking control more after the meal of the rabbit head and lamb testicles, but maybe those negotiations actually happened off-camera and led to it ending when it did.  I've long thought that eight episodes of An Idiot Abroad 3 were drafted, and Karl negotiated five of these to become the first series of his own project The Moaning of Life.

[Bennett Brauer]

I'm not sure where Larry David came into the conversation (it seems out of the blue unless I've missed an earlier post), but as far as I'm aware Larry David never made a number of projects dedicated to ridiculing a person for lacking experiences that he doesn't personally have either.

No it was just me, and fair enough. I sometimes irrelevantly wonder why Larry David never seems to have come to Britain and I was in the mood for typing.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

A few years ago on this very forum, someone posted a surreptitious photograph they'd taken of Larry David looking quite perturbed in Trafalgar Square. So he's definitely visited the UK at least once in his life.

[Martin Van Buren Stan]

Wonder if he's still proud of his crypto commerical

[willbo]

What about when they forced Karl to get his prostate checked and watched through a hidden camera? You couldn't do that now. Like, really.

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What about when they forced Karl to get his prostate checked and watched through a hidden camera? You couldn't do that now. Like, really.

It's clear that Pilkington knows that he's being filmed:  he jokes that Richard Blackwood "had a colonic on telly; never seen again".  And afterwards he remarks "I don't think it's the kind of thing people pay a Sky subscription for, to be honest.  In HD."

He knew he was being filmed, and he had the choice of whether to do it or not, before leaving the studio with Gervais and Merchant and again when he was with the doctor alone chatting beforehand.  I wouldn't view it as a non-consensual "forced" situation personally.

It's also interesting that a call-back to the previously discussed "what do you think about people who say we bully you" conversation happens immediately before this scene.  It's only now that I realise it functions as something of a disclaimer for the prostate examination set-up.