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March 28, 2024, 08:48:32 AM

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Ricky Gervais: SuperNature

Started by Blue Jam, July 29, 2018, 02:09:02 PM

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Cold Meat Platter


Ferris

Oh go on then (34m 53s):


Worse than I remember.

frajer

Three seasoned stand-up comedians and a boy who drank too much orange squash.

As well as the failed high five I remember a great bit where someone asks Gervais if he remembers writing his first joke and Rock immediately says "yeah, he wrote it last week."

grainger

Quote from: frajer on May 30, 2022, 12:41:43 PMGervais' own psuedo-intellectual musing on what goes into his jokes really is amazing. Whenever I hear him pontificating yet again about why it's fine to make jokes about minority groups, and that he sets out to offend everyone so that's what makes it fair, it really does remind me that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

"I make jokes about everyone" was also literally the defence that Bernard Manning used.

Ferris

It'd carry more weight if he actually did do that.

He's not having a pop at cab drivers, or tories, or morons who read the sun, or people who didn't go to university, or material on how hilarious it is that Philip and the queen will soon be dead, or jerry Seinfeld being a nonce and Louis CK being a sex offender, or Jewish people or Sri Lankans, or [continues indefinitely] etc etc. I mean, neither do I but that's because I'm not a cunt, and I thought he was having a go at everyone and that was the entire defense.

He definitely doesn't find room to write gags about short, balding, overweight white men 60+ with an inferiority complex. He might do better on here if he did.

Never finds time to do gags at the expense of his audience or himself or his mates, or anything genuinely societally offensive enough to impact his bottom line.

Strangely enough, he always finds time to have a pop at gay people (or non-binary or otherwise nonconforming people) or people experiencing disabilities. Funny that.

Replies From View

Quote from: frajer on May 30, 2022, 07:21:07 PMThree seasoned stand-up comedians and a boy who drank too much orange squash.

It's quite baffling the way that Gervais so quickly found himself in the position of performing massive stand-up gigs on the back of 12 episodes of a sitcom.  He's never been in the humble position of honing his craft in front of small audiences, or developing one of his shows through a series of work-in-progress versions.  I'd feel like such a fraud in his shoes, but he's up there as smug as can be, describing layers of irony in stand-up that he's nicked from Stewart Lee, as if he has worked any of it out for himself.

^ obv that swift "rise" has been picked apart thoroughly on here, but it's astounding that in the decade+ since taping that self-celebration, Ricky does not seem to have even attended a comedy club, let alone working up material in front of real audiences, ever? In that regard, the new special's reversion to playground bullying is at least a step up from reading out tweets that annoyed him, off his phone, as in [the last special I noticed, if not the last actual one].

Stigdu

So, did anyone here actually enjoy any of his previous stand-up shows? Animals? Humanity? The other ones?

dead-ced-dead

Quote from: Stigdu on May 31, 2022, 10:47:28 AMSo, did anyone here actually enjoy any of his previous stand-up shows? Animals? Humanity? The other ones?

Animals and Humanity are mostly harmless, just dull.

Pdine

Quote from: Stigdu on May 31, 2022, 10:47:28 AMSo, did anyone here actually enjoy any of his previous stand-up shows? Animals? Humanity? The other ones?

There are other comedians whose personality or manner gets in the way of my enjoying them a little (Emo, Katt Williams, Simon Munnery) but the material overtops that easily and I end up loving it. Gervais never quite achieves that for me: it's middling material delivered in a douchey way by an unlikeable man. I do think he worked well in the XFM shows though, diluted and balanced by better comedians.

Stigdu

Quote from: Pdine on May 31, 2022, 10:58:33 AMThere are other comedians whose personality or manner gets in the way of my enjoying them a little (Emo, Katt Williams, Simon Munnery) but the material overtops that easily and I end up loving it. Gervais never quite achieves that for me: it's middling material delivered in a douchey way by an unlikeable man. I do think he worked well in the XFM shows though, diluted and balanced by better comedians.

Ah, I don't get that with Gervais. I think he's very likeable and funny, but I confess to never having seen the XFM shows (I think they were mentioned earlier in the discussion), so it's something I may invariably catch up on at some point.

Shaxberd

Watched Animals years ago. At the time I was a big fan of The Office and the podcasts (and thought Extras was decent, if overhyped) so I was expecting to be thoroughly entertained, but it didn't do it for me.

With hindsight what I liked best about his early work was the rest of the cast - Tim and Gareth in the Office, Karl Pilkington in the podcasts, Steven Merchant and Barry from EastEnders in Extras. Gervais was at his best when he surrounded himself with funny people and humour came from his character's interactions with others. Being a gag man on stage isn't one of his strengths, especially after he decided to double down on being 'outrageous'.

Stigdu

Extras was all about Les Dennis and Keith Chegwin for me. :)

Pdine

Quote from: Stigdu on May 31, 2022, 11:07:42 AMAh, I don't get that with Gervais. I think he's very likeable and funny, but I confess to never having seen the XFM shows (I think they were mentioned earlier in the discussion), so it's something I may invariably catch up on at some point.

https://www.therickygervaisshow.com/xfm-vault/

Des Wigwam

Quote from: Stigdu on May 31, 2022, 10:47:28 AMSo, did anyone here actually enjoy any of his previous stand-up shows? Animals? Humanity? The other ones?

Think I enjoyed Animals (if not change the name to the one that it is when you read the last bit if this) at the time but not as much as I expected. I watched it at a time when his shrieking / disbelieving delivery was still quite fresh and I'd discovered the XFM shows to boot. I was disappointed when he ended on the urban legend of the man who shits himself/buys jeans/throws old jeans out of train window /discovers he has bought a denim jacket. I had heard it fairly recently on the XFM show where he and Merchant had (very funnily) torn it apart as Karl told it as a true story. I remember thinking - that's just an urban legend told as your own joke plus it's not as funny as when it was on XFM.

Totally agree with @Replies From View (and Chris Rock) that Gervais isn't a stand-up yet has manufactured this reputation and very lucrative career as one. Is there anyone else who has done similar? Stephen Merchant did do stand-up. I thought it was quite middling but Robin Ince loved it (cf. RHLSTP). It would make more sense that he had this career rather than a man who seems to have no interest in the art. But maybe that's precisely why Merchant hasn't.



Dr Rock

Quote from: Stigdu on May 31, 2022, 11:07:42 AMAh, I don't get that with Gervais. I think he's very likeable and funny, but I confess to never having seen the XFM shows (I think they were mentioned earlier in the discussion), so it's something I may invariably catch up on at some point.

They're all on YouTube, easily found. Best stuff he's been involved with. Try 'Ricky Karl and Steve' - most of it is solid gold.

dissolute ocelot

Some of Animals was quite funny in a "twitter account with humorous facts about squirrels" way, but there was way too much shit about God. Sadly he chose the wrong direction for his subsequent work. I watched a bit of it recently, turning on at random, and there were long sections where he just read something off pieces of paper and nobody made any noise, it was like a school assembly. So yes, he's not a stand-up comedian, he's not even someone with a humorous Powerpoint.

Jumblegraws

#769
I liked Animals at the time, same with Politics only less so, thought Fame stank of staleness. Gervais would then go on to do Life's Too Short and a bunch of other stuff that eroded my goodwill for him to the point that by the time Science came out, I watched it with friends with the same detached irony as when we rented Roy 'Chubby' Brown DVDs from a library, which I'm sure the Rickster, with his love of comedy that disappears up itself, can appreciate.

I also suspect that if I hadn't watched the first two at an age when my experience of other stand-up was basically zero then I wouldn't have been so impressed.
ETA: Just realised my memory's a bit wonky as Science preceded Life's Too Short by two years.

Stigdu

Oh, I loved Life's too short! I forgot about that show.

Dr Rock

Oh dear. Go watch some Mitch Hedburg on YouTube.

Brundle-Fly

I remember the promo shots for Life's Too Short premiere being rather iffy but never saw this one before. Bizarre choice.


I critisised "life's too short" on a gaming forum at the time and one user demanded that I post my address so he could come round and beat me up.
He told me to fuck off and die and if I didn't laugh I should watch "my family" or "red dwarf" instead.

I was very polite and fair in my critique, I thought. I wasn't goading anyone or being a twat.
Very strange behaviour.

Des Wigwam

Quote from: Stigdu on May 31, 2022, 01:50:38 PMOh, I loved Life's too short! I forgot about that show.

I liked bits of Life's Too Short. I was going to say having not really liked Animals and then watched this I thought that's when I saw cracks appear. Then I thought there must have been a couple years between them though. Just looked it up and there were 7 years. I do know that I didn't have a TV during that time (it broke, I'm not a hipster*) so would have watched DVDs on my laptop. I must not have been aware of Ricky Gervais during that time so probably only saw interviews with him were he would have still seemed a bit of a novelty.

I do remember that Stephen Merchant looked a bit like there was someone behind the camera pointing a gun at him. Or maybe just holding up a picture of his family and drawing their finger across their throat to remind him why he was there.

Lasting memory of it is that it relied on dropping celebs in doing things being awful which I don't enjoy much (seemed old hat even then) and is why I didn't really watch Extras 2 (or like Extras that much - Grant Mitchell / Cheggers / Barry / Les Dennis aside. I hate the Samuel L Jackson one as he clearly had it written in that he could not be uncool).

* maybe I was a hipster before everyone else liked being a hipster

Des Wigwam

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on May 31, 2022, 02:06:15 PMI remember the promo shots for Life's Too Short premiere being rather iffy but never saw this one before. Bizarre choice.


That is ... odd.


Martin Van Buren Stan

We're further away from Life's too Short than Life's too Short was from The Office when it (life's too short) was broadcast.

Jumblegraws

Quote from: ImmaculateClump on May 31, 2022, 02:12:45 PMI critisised "life's too short" on a gaming forum at the time and one user demanded that I post my address so he could come round and beat me up.
He told me to fuck off and die and if I didn't laugh I should watch "my family" or "red dwarf" instead.

I was very polite and fair in my critique, I thought. I wasn't goading anyone or being a twat.
Very strange behaviour.
Is it just me or is it quite strange to draw an equivalence between Red Dwarf and My Family like that? I remember on the XFM shows one of the prizes for Rockbusters one week was something Red Dwarf related, and Merchant and Gervais had a quick sneer at it. Hmmm...

Haha, yeah, I didn't dare admit that I really liked early red dwarf when I was younger.
I think "comedy nerd" was what he was going with with that reference, but like you say, "my family" suggests the exact opposite.