Ricky Gervais: SuperNature

[willbo]

There's a giveaway that Pilkington knows that he's being filmed, and it's when he jokes that Richard Blackwood "had a colonic on telly; never seen again".

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.

oh I feel silly now. I just assumed they treated Karl like such crap noone cared. I missed the joke tbh!

[Blue Jam]

Larry David "dislikes travel, with all its disruptions":

https://www.gq.com/story/larry-david-cover-profile-february-2020

He has been to the UK though:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2010/mar/29/larry-david

...but in any case he doesn't write comedy calling out other people for being incurious and having a narrow comfort zone. If anything he sends himself up for being out of his comfort zone as a New Yorker in LA.

[Blue Jam]

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.

This really really bothered me when I first saw it:

https://youtu.be/imT-Tr1g-2g?t=972

Claiming animal models used in medical research don't work and computer models are better, and that animal research only happens because pharmaceutical companies pay universities a tidy sum to test out their drugs. In the UK at least it's actually illegal to carry out an experiment on an animal if a suitable non-animal model exists, and using animal alternatives is generally encouraged (often with financial incentives). Because animal research is expensive and time-consuming and subject to legal restrictions there is actually a lot of money in developing non-animal alternatives. Computational biology is also a pretty good field to go into right now if you want job security, because it seems that every life science research group is trying to recruit a bioinformatician. As for Big Pharma actually trusting academics and throwing money at us to test their products properly? Pffffft I wish ;) Oh yes, and drugs aren't tested on beagles because of some money-making conspiracy from Big Beagla, it's because it's the law- it has to be done to evaluate safety before a clinical trial on humans can be approved.

I bet Gervais isn't even aware of organoid culture, a non-animal alternative which has been the most sexy of "sexy science" topics for about a decade now and which gets loads of funding and attention. I can understand him not reading Cell or Nature but has he ever picked up a copy of New Scientist or even read the science stories in newspapers?

As someone whose job involves developing animal alternatives it's frustrating to hear stuff like this from people whose only qualification is thinking dogs are cute.

I think I mentioned upthread that the concept of SuperNature- that understanding a natural phenomenon doesn't destroy the mystery, but actually makes it even more impressive and awe-inspiring- is pretty much the blurb of Richard Dawkins' Unweaving The Rainbow. I have to wonder if he skimmed the back cover of the book one day, or met Dawkins at a Skeptic event, or got given a signed copy or somthing, and he half-remembered that little concept and thought it must be an original idea of his. I'm not saying he ripped it off, I'm sure he didn't and I imagine it's just a little thing his brain absorbed before filing it away for years.  A bit like Daisy in Spaced when she's telling Marsha a story about a fearless warrior girl she met on her trip to Asia without realising she's describing the plot of Mulan.

It's weird that he's so aligned with the Skeptic movement and has done loads of events with scientists and yet seems so utterly incurious about science. He's far from alone though, I've known countless people who will claim they find science utterly fascinating before it becomes clear that their interest is purely superficial and they'd be dismissive of any findings that don't align with their worldview. Bit like my (very Catholic) mother: "This science you do is so fascinating isn't it? But tell me- you don't really believe we came from monkeys do you? Why didn't all the other monkeys evolve into humans then?"

It's not just science of course, having a superficial interest in something and acting like an expert on it is essentially what hipsters do with music, film, photography etc, or poseurs do with wine, art and culture.

[checkoutgirl]

Yet all of Davis' references are completely tourist-based

I haven't watched that show in years but isn't it the producers that come up with all that stuff and the talent then just go along with what they're told to do?

[Replies From View]

I haven't watched that show in years but isn't it the producers that come up with all that stuff and the talent then just go along with what they're told to do?

No, some if not most stuff was set up by Gervais/Merchant (eg trying to lift Pilkington up with balloons, performing in a circus) but Davis and Pilkington came up with their own activities.  Eg. being tourists in Venice and the masquerade ball (Davis), trying some kind of water jet pack and meeting some conjoined twins (Pilkington).  By and large it seems like anything that required planning in advance (and created narrative structure, like banging on about bungee jumping opportunities) was worked out by the producers (including booking decent accommodation for Warwick and shitty accommodation for Pilkington), and anything that could only be worked out by sensing the environment and going with the flow was Davis and Pilkington collaborating.

[checkoutgirl]

Weren't they going to call that The Short Way Around or something? With Karl on a bike with a basket and Davis in the basket, like the couple Karl grew up with?

What is it with Gervais and putting Davis in toilets and baskets and such and such?

[Replies From View]

Weren't they going to call that The Short Way Around or something? With Karl on a bike with a basket and Davis in the basket, like the couple Karl grew up with?

What is it with Gervais and putting Davis in toilets and baskets and such and such?

'The Short Way Round' is series 3's secondary title, I believe.  And the bike thing happens.

[Bennett Brauer]

He has been to the UK though:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2010/mar/29/larry-david

I clearly said "since 2010" in my post.

There's no need to go back and check.

[Bennett Brauer]

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.

Can you be sure it wasn't just someone holding this up in front of the camera?

[Ferris]

Has Larry spent the last 20 years sending, say, the character of George Costanza to culturally uncomfortable situations (while sneering at the sidelines) and indirectly mocking the uncomfortable nature he himself created, all with a veneer of laughably-unearned worldliness?

Because if not, I reckon Larry gets a pass and Gervais is worthy of continued mocking.

[Bennett Brauer]

You're the third person to make that point.

In my miserable defence of a frivolous post - I know Larry David the character makes jokes about keeping his own horizons as narrow as possible - isn't the Karl-mocking just a performance? I don't think Gervais has claimed in any seriousness to be particularly cosmopolitan himself. ^{_{Please don't make me defend him anymore.}}

[Ferris]

David is pretty much always the subject of his own humour, whereas gervais sets himself up as the rational knight in armour and everyone else who isn't as "clever" as him is the target. The fact that he has the smug intellectual curiosity of a 16 year old doesn't help his cause.

The target and context of the two writers could t really be more different. Larry has done something funny and worth watching in the last 15 years so he's ahead there too (even if I have my own issues with the actual material he makes).

Overall - yeah, nah, I sort of see where you're coming from but gervais is several orders of magnitude more ripe for a pop on the "take the piss" scale.

His shitty standup being "read a PowerPoint and drink a tin of fosters" is beyond parody (where Larry David has not bothered to tread) but, I suppose, outside of the scope of this particular criticism.

The real fun stuff is: which performer does Chris rock consider to be his peer rather than a slightly embarrassing man unworthy of a high five? Would David have allowed that to happen, or would he have the confidence of the respect of his peers to call that failed high five back? As always, gervais is fascinating but a slightly tragic figure really.

*diana Brent dance*

[Bennett Brauer]

[idunnosomename]

Larry David is funny and Ricky Gervais is a cunt