Worried about Derek

[phes]

Sadly I think mbedds 5(?) Derke clips are lost to time. Scenes from the show stripped of their discordance and contextualized more in keeping with the actual messages of the show

Less kindness is magic, more

[Vince the Shirker]

So who was the first person to call it "Derke"? That would be an interesting part of the Derke mythology to know

[Barry Admin]

Why's everyone misspelling all the names now? Ugghh.

mbedd vids might still be here, can't see them on my phone as no flash. https://mbedd.com/derek/

[twosclues]

The episode that managed to fit in: the introduction of a beloved dog, that dog's death, the construction of a robotic likeness of the dead dog, and (if I'm not mistaken) the main couple struggling to cope after a miscarriage, one of them leaving to join the merchant navy, before changing his mind in shorter time than I've spent writing this. 20 minutes of television.

[Barry Admin]

So who was the first person to call it "Derke"? That would be an interesting part of the Derke mythology to know

Was never really a thing that I recall. Deliberate misspellings of names are now spilling out from the Labour threads, I think, e.g saying "Neol" is now also a thing.

I'm gonna filter it all out in my browser with a tampermonkey script as it's irritating and just not funny. Reddit-tier banter.

Sorry, sorry. Peace and love peace and love.

[Midas]

"The Council"

[Kankurette]

From TV Tropes:

Gervais plays 49-year-old Derek Noakes, a care worker in a home for the elderly who has worked there for three years. He likes watching reality television shows and game shows and is interested in celebrities, fame, YouTube, and above all, talking about animals. He is kind, helpful, and selfless, with good intentions. He is vulnerable because of his childlike naivety and lack of intelligence. He is ridiculed and ostracised, as well as being marginalised by mainstream society because of his social awkwardness, unattractiveness, and lack of inhibitions. Derek says it is more important to be kind than to be clever or good-looking. Many media sources describe him as autistic, although Gervais himself has always stated that Derek is not mentally disabled.

That description alone gives me bad vibes.

[phes]

They'll be in here somewhere, fill your boots:

Series 1
https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=34436.0
https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=45030.0

Series 2
https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=41535.0

Xmas special:
https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=91322.0

Rewatch
https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=65892.0

That's not the original thread 1.

That's here.

https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=34436.0

Derek was definitely regularly referred to as Derke going back to at least 2014. Earliest misspelling I can see at a glance was by Sexton Brackets Drugbust in March 2014, Series 2 thread

[dead-ced-dead]

Why's everyone misspelling all the names now? Ugghh.

mbedd vids might still be here, can't see them on my phone as no flash. https://mbedd.com/derek/

I think Flash has been completely disbanded and all Flash videos that weren't moved to a different server are all unplayable.

Someone more techie may be able to correct me, though.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Was never really a thing that I recall. Deliberate misspellings of names are now spilling out from the Labour threads, I think, e.g saying "Neol" is now also a thing.

I'm gonna filter it all out in my browser with a tampermonkey script as it's irritating and just not funny. Reddit-tier banter.

Sorry, sorry. Peace and love peace and love.

To be fair, I think the deliberate misspelling of Yer Edm*nds' first name started out as a way of stopping the notoriously litigious and name searching Yer Edm*nds from finding the threads in which we take the piss out of him.

I daresay there's absolutely nothing in those threads to bring his lawyers sniffing around, but you know what he's like.

[Midas]

I think Flash has been completely disbanded and all Flash videos that weren't moved to a different server are all unplayable.

Someone more techie may be able to correct me, though.

It loads in my browser using the Ruffle Flash Emulator extension I have installed. The playback is a bit stuttery, but I think that might be because I currently have undiagnosed ADHD 492 tabs open.

[This isnt witty sorry]

I think Flash has been completely disbanded and all Flash videos that weren't moved to a different server are all unplayable.

Someone more techie may be able to correct me, though.

There's an emulator that's been developed, Ruffle that seems to work ok.

Watching them now it's shocking how gross the performance is. In a sane world it should've ended Gervais' career stone dead.

[Bigfella]

So here's my verdict on episode one.  Didn't start too well, had to go back to the start a few times.  What the fuck's he saying... "take notes, don't take notes".  "I'm Derek Noakes", it turned out.  The comedy structure was painting-by-numbers mockumentary, a good few years ago so I'll cut it some slack.  Baldy caretaker set against unlikeable superlager-guzzling misogynist.  Simple but effective showdowns between the care home manager woman and the council officials.  Liked the actor who played the old council boy, careful not to overplay it.  Just a quick, gentle smile and raised eyebrows when required.  The highlight was the background cast of elderly care patients, an expression from a wise old face is worth it's weight in gold.  Gervais himself, well.... he grinned, he gurned, hunched over, turned his head rapidly from side to side, but not for a moment could I see him as not Ricky Gervais.  David Jason can be Del Boy, Granville or Frost.  Leonard Rossiter could be Rigsby or Reggie Perrin.  What is Gervais not doing right?  Anyway, I'm going to power on and see if it gets any better.

[frajer]

From memory it simultaneously gets worse and more enjoyable, but only because it's so fun to roast the utter shit that Gervais thinks should not only be televised but should win awards.

He went through a phase on Twitter where he retweeted every link to Derek award polls, urging people to vote for the kind magic show. Then when the show inevitably failed to win, because it was fucking awful, Gervais went back through his timeline and deleted every tweet asking for votes.

A fascinatingly egotistical bastard with the thinnest skin imaginable.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

I likes the Coldplays. The words are kind, and they makes me do a big smile.

[This isnt witty sorry]

Didn't he turn up to some tv magazine's readers choice awards around that time? Had a face like thunder when Mrs Brown's Boys won instead.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

At the risk of sounding like some old "You had to BE THERE, man!" fart, I'm not sure that any CaB member watching Derek for the first time in 2024 will get as much perverse enjoyment from it as we did when it went out live.

Just the sheer incredulity of watching this insane thing unfolding before your eyes, and the comfort of knowing you're not alone.

I hope I'm wrong, I hope subsequent generations gaze upon it with all the grimly fascinated ire it deserves.

[phes]

At the risk of sounding like some old "You had to BE THERE, man!" fart, I'm not sure that any CaB member watching Derek for the first time in 2024 will get as much perverse enjoyment from it as we did when it went out live.

Just the sheer incredulity of watching this insane thing unfolding before your eyes, and the comfort of knowing you're not alone.

I hope I'm wrong, I hope subsequent generations gaze upon it with all the grimly fascinated ire it deserves.

This is absolutely true. I'm sure anyone watching it today could still find it a remarkable experience. But I think what made it so jaw dropping (lol) and spawned such funny and cathartic threads was the average CaB Gervais enthusiast had closely followed the declining career trajectory, M**g-Gate, his relentless quasi intellectual posturing on social media and becoming Twonk Cult Leader, the shit-tier media carpet bombing and social media circus in the build up and throughout. When it dropped, all of that just came together and what appeared was this paper thin and catastrophicly misjudged attempt attempt to avenge his M**g-Gate humiliation.

I think for a lot of general Gervais fans, they tuned in and thought 'hmm, don't think this is for me, seems a bit shit'. Watching here was probably a bit of a unique experience   

[Barry Admin]

Didn't he turn up to some tv magazine's readers choice awards around that time? Had a face like thunder when Mrs Brown's Boys won instead.

Yeah. Was it this maybe? https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=31942

He'd often promote these kinds of things with dumb, unbelievable reasoning ("I don't personally care if I win, I just want to annoy the haters"), then he'd delete all the evidence afterwards.

This is absolutely true. I'm sure anyone watching it today could still find it a remarkable experience. But I think what made it so jaw dropping (lol) and spawned such funny and cathartic threads was the average CaB Gervais enthusiast had closely followed the declining career trajectory, M**g-Gate, his relentless quasi intellectual posturing on social media and becoming Twonk Cult Leader, the shit-tier media carpet bombing and social media circus in the build up and throughout. When it dropped, all of that just came together and what appeared was this paper thin and catastrophicly misjudged attempt attempt to avenge his M**g-Gate humiliation.

Another aspect is we'd been waiting to see his "downs syndrome character" for years, after hearing about the Rubbernecker shows where Gervais would just piss himself laughing at what he was doing.

Then eventually the pilot came to light, which was jaw-droppingly awful.

And then the completely barmy decision to resurrect the character with his own series.

[Matthew Dawkins Jub Jub]

I rewatched a couple of episodes this evening because I hate myself.

What I really took from it (aside from the wretched Gervais performance) was how it just wasn't funny. There's nothing in it I found amusing in the slightest.

[madhair60]

Was never really a thing that I recall.

started in series 2 thread, used 145 times in there alone. personally i think it's funny but i can see why it wuold be annyoing.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

damhair60

[Ferris]

What I really took from it (aside from the wretched Gervais performance) was how it just wasn't funny. There's nothing in it I found amusing in the slightest.

Remember when he sat on a pie? Or fell in a frog pond?

Not good enough for you, is it?

[Ferris]

At the risk of sounding like some old "You had to BE THERE, man!" fart, I'm not sure that any CaB member watching Derek for the first time in 2024 will get as much perverse enjoyment from it as we did when it went out live.

I tried to keep the rewatch going as a solo effort in 2018 (?) but I just couldn't hack it.

You need a critical mass of people going "what the fuck is this shit", otherwise it is a relentlessly punishing watch.

[Matthew Dawkins Jub Jub]

Remember when he sat on a pie? Or fell in a frog pond?

Not good enough for you, is it?

No. It's back to the Baddiel's Syndrome mines for me! They know a thing or two about laughter there.

[dead-ced-dead]

I tried to keep the rewatch going as a solo effort in 2018 (?) but I just couldn't hack it.

You need a critical mass of people going "what the fuck is this shit", otherwise it is a relentlessly punishing watch.

I wasn't on C&B at the time, so I missed the original run. I tried doing a solo watch a few times, and managed to get to episode 4 or so each time.

Relentlessly punishing is right.

[TommyTurnips]

He went through a phase on Twitter where he retweeted every link to Derek award polls, urging people to vote for the kind magic show. Then when the show inevitably failed to win, because it was fucking awful, Gervais went back through his timeline and deleted every tweet asking for votes.

He did that a lot when the big awards dried up and he was desperate for the dopamine hit of just an award, any award. So he was begging his followers to vote for Ricky Gervais in Radio Times polls as the best thing in Britain and IIRC got annoyed when Susan Boyle won.

Then of course he would delete all evidence of begging for awards when he lost.

Getting beaten by Mrs. Brown's Boys in the TV Quick awards was a real highlight as not only did he show up to the ceremony but the Mrs Brown's Boys guys did a but of a diss in their acceptance speech by thanking their twitter followers.

[lankyguy95]

I was on CaB at the time but didn't watch Derek nor trespass the Derek threads. Big regret when I did eventually watch it.

[Bigfella]

Not content with watching Derek, I tried the first episode of Baddiel's Syndrome.  Had to chuck in the towel after five minutes.  Why am I doing this to myself?

[Rolf Lundgren]

Getting beaten by Mrs. Brown's Boys in the TV Quick awards was a real highlight as not only did he show up to the ceremony but the Mrs Brown's Boys guys did a but of a diss in their acceptance speech by thanking their twitter followers.

I think about this often. Ricky with a stuck-on smile giving a little salute while Brendan O'Carroll gives him a shout-out telling him how great he is.