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March 29, 2024, 10:21:07 AM

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Ricky Gervais's After Life series 3 [split topic]

Started by Cursus, July 23, 2020, 09:33:21 PM

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idunnosomename

The Guardian interviewer and writing is awful. But I like he has a mug with his face on it

Quote from: BritishHobo on December 18, 2021, 12:06:32 PMThat's what's always annoyed me about his shit Emmy speeches. He always hypes them up for ages beforehand about how edgy and offensive they'll be - and then it's all hacky shit that other people have done already.

But he's drinking a pint while he does it, that's edgy isn't it?

Ferris

I like all the trump-tier stuff about how he's doing better than everyone else but is clearly seething beneath the surface. He also can't mention anyone without dropping that they think he's great. I laughed out loud at how absurd the hislop name drop was.

Cuellar

He is at least still quite perceptive. His characterisation of twitter as a medium as 'road rage' is quite accurate, but then he still seems to think it has real value and can and should be used to guide your creative endeavours. I think it can be fatal for someone like Gervais, as far as he presents himself in this intveriew, who is desperately seeking approval. The bit at the end where a passer-by compliments one his Golden Globe jokes and he seems genuinely happy (as you would). Twitter is probably dreadful for this sort of creative person, because you can find any opinion on it. So anything you put out will find its fans, and you can just choose to listen to them. Then you end up in a negative feedback loop, 'well I'll put this out and see what they think - oh they love it! - well I'll keep doing more of that sort of thing - oh they love it! - well let's do more then...'. It's perhaps why he harps on about causing offence and upsetting people so much; ultimately he doesn't want to really offend or upset people, he wants them to like him.

It might be too broad a point, but maybe if he focused less on creating something that 'everybody' on twitter loved and more on something that he alone thought was good and worth making, he might end up with something of value.

I think his 'jester' comment is more revealing than he intended. The jester isn't just a random peasant the nobility tolerate. He makes a living only with their permission, speaking 'truth' to Power safely, with Power knowing this 'truth' poses no material threat whatsoever.

H-O-W-L

I shit my own artwork on to Twitter a lot and I found that I had to stop listening to input/requests from it and just throw out what I wanted to make for exactly that reason @Cuellar .


dissolute ocelot

Poor Stephen:

QuoteDid Merchant help discipline you as a writer? "No, The Office was the first thing I'd ever tried my hardest at..."

It's definitely funny how he thinks reading twitter is keeping him in touch with ordinary people. No wonder his interests seem to be imaginary wokeness and cute animals.

QuoteThere's been something strange about our meeting, but I can't quite place what. Only towards the end, when we've been talking for more than 90 minutes, does it strike me that he has not used my name once. Nor has he asked what it is. In fact he's not asked me a single thing. Most interviewees engage on a basic level – where have you come from today, do you like your job, what do you think of this or that? Not Gervais, though. I don't think I've ever met anybody less interested in other people.

Top work from Simon Hattenstone there.

Ferris

I think his stuff about twitter is revealing, but only because it reveals the dichotomy of gervais as someone who just wants to entertain and speak for the people (and by the way did you hear After Life was the most watched...zzz), but he also refers to it as an asylum that he can have chuckle at from his expensive house.

So is he a populist speaking truth to power on behalf of the little guy? Or the man who who sneers at his fans in anecdotes about the last time he met deniro?

Man without a country, not accepted by the elites but also loathes his audience so now he walks an uncomfortable line and seems miserable as a result. The idea of twitter being road rage is also 10+ years out of date but there you go.

Hex Triplet

Quote from: Ferris on December 18, 2021, 01:00:59 PMI like all the trump-tier stuff about how he's doing better than everyone else but is clearly seething beneath the surface. He also can't mention anyone without dropping that they think he's great. I laughed out loud at how absurd the hislop name drop was.

I also liked the bit at the end where some random bloke on the street walks past and says "that was a brilliant joke, Ricky".

Cuellar

Quote from: Ferris on December 18, 2021, 01:00:59 PMI like all the trump-tier stuff about how he's doing better than everyone else but is clearly seething beneath the surface. He also can't mention anyone without dropping that they think he's great. I laughed out loud at how absurd the hislop name drop was.

There does seem to be some sort of strange proportional relationship between Kindness and Anger in the Later Works of Ricky Gervais. Derek is a really angry show, real rage behind a lot of it, the token cunt in each episode appearing so one of the heroes can give them a real or metaphorical chinning. And the graphic and detailed threats levelled at the fat ginger kid in After Life, or the smashing up of the breakfast (or whatever it was) when the waitress is being a bit moody.

You have to be angry at the world, to be kind to the world. But you can't be angry at everybody, or else there'd be no one left to be kind to.

Ferris

Quote from: Cuellar on December 18, 2021, 02:25:19 PMYou have to be angry at the world, to be kind to the world. But you can't be angry at everybody, or else there'd be no one left to be kind to.

After Life Christmas special first draft final draft has let itself go.

sevendaughters

The subtlest and funniest bit was

QuoteGervais, 60

Blue Jam

Quote from: Cuellar on December 18, 2021, 02:25:19 PMYou have to be angry at the world, to be kind to the world. But you can't be angry at everybody, or else there'd be no one left to be kind to.

"You have to kill people to respect people, but you can't kill everybody because then there'd be no-one to respect."

BritishHobo

Fascinating how quickly he moves on from all the questions that really nail him - why he's obsessed with fat people, how he feels about Ash Atalla calling out his other obsession with drawing attention to people's disabilities - and shifts the topic into banal generalities. Still after all these years he's parroting that "some people are not bright enough to get his jokes; they confuse the subject with the target", his shit, lazy get-out. But his jokes really aren't that clever. And he seems to be the only comedian who has to keep saying that people are misunderstanding. Most other comedians who get shit for their jokes will double down, but at least have the conviction that they mean what they said. Gervais is stuck in this bizarre purgatory where he's too cowardly to defend the things he clearly thinks, so he's constantly filtering them through half-baked irony and then trying to claim he doesn't think them - while also courting the very audience who love him for thinking them.

What a boob.


ElTwopo

QuoteAs Gervais is quick to point out, After Life was the most watched British comedy in the world in the past decade, having been viewed by more than 85 million people.

He's the comedy equivalent of Richmond sausages.

DigForVictory

#436
It's hard to tell because he retweets Afterlife stuff about 2000 times a day but I don't think he's mentioned anything on his twitter about this Guardian interview. And he's never normally shy in promoting anything he does.

He comes across as an absolute tit throughout, saying the same fucking shite over and over about offence and wokeism etc. Again, can't seem to bare the thought of talking about Merchant at all.

My favourite part was the interviewer correctly saying that for all his money and him constantly going on about how happy he is, he really doesn't seem happy at all.

Mobius

Comes across as such an insecure unfunny cunt in that interview. Brilliant stuff.

Leo2112

That Guardian piece rips him apart, I'm not surprised Gervais isn't promoting it anywhere.  What a deeply insecure and weird guy he is - his encounters with people he finds too noisy are quite unpleasant and passive aggressive.


Quote from: DigForVictory on December 19, 2021, 11:45:02 PMMy favourite part was the interviewer correctly saying that for all his money and him constantly going on about how happy he is, he really doesn't seem happy at all.

Yeah the interviewer is spot on there.  Gervais frequently retreats into boasts about his wealth, but it all just feels very hollow.


Dickie_Anders

It is strange how the point of Extras was that you shouldn't sacrifice your integrity for commercial success, yet here Gervais is saying "all I ever cared about was viewership and ticket sales"

Cold Meat Platter

Ha ha inappropriate behaviour is hilarious, especially when it's really insulting.
But it's sad when someone you love dies :(
It's good to be kind.
Dogs are nice.
Everyone's an idiot except me!
ha ha

idunnosomename

i wonder if he's thought of releasing his crap music for Christmas No. 1 to raise money for food banks or dogs trust. probably shouldnt give him any ideas.

HHHAHAHAHA *laughs into camera with mouth wide open so tongue looks like a bare arse*

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: idunnosomename on December 18, 2021, 12:19:28 PMThe Guardian interviewer and writing is awful.

What? Hattenstone is an excellent interviewer and that article quite rightly tears Gervais to shreds.

Dog Botherer

Gervais comes across as a pathetic little toad in that interview, mostly surprised he has enough self awareness not to share it

Leo2112

He doesn't seem to have taken much heed of that 'kindness' message he's always going on about.  He actively appears to dislike people in general.

Cold Meat Platter

Quote from: Leo2112 on December 21, 2021, 03:21:49 AMHe doesn't seem to have taken much heed of that 'kindness' message he's always going on about.  He actively appears to dislike people in general.

It's essentially him trying to market himself. He's trying to create the impression he has qualities he clearly doesn't have for the purposes of making money/dopamine.
He knows people should be nice to each other. He's heard that somewhere.
He likes animals. He realises that's a winner with the plebs.
And ooooooooooh he's so wise, he has 'conversations' with Sam Fucking Harris cos he's not a fraudulent wanker at all.
And yet he's NEVER REALLY TRIED. Thank fuck because there's already people weeping their tits out at After Life so spare us the mass suicides from the sheer raw real emotion that you are truly capable of please O Kind One.

paruses

That Hampstead mansion thing jars. I know I'm stating the obvious but it's a real clanger and hangs in the air. It just doubles down on calling people mentally ill or criminal and that bit wasn't funny or insightful in the first place.  It's like he's doing his early 2000s schtick where he played the Brent /11 O'Clock Show persona in public and it still worked because he was novel and still likeable (or not just apparently an ego). 

Point of this post really is: can anyone pull off that "I'm so wealthy but self aware so it's OK" schtick? Frank Skinner does it and it never works and if anyone could do it I think he could. It always seems a non sequitur on his show unlike some of his name dropping or celeb-only activities that get rounded off with a "more relatable material" chide. Only really works with character acts far as I can think.

I am going to post this but bear in mind I woke up too soon.

jobotic

Was going to steer well clear of that article but i might read it now. Will I have to see him with his mouth wide open or in a too tight £200 t-shirt though 'cos I can't face that right now?

frajer

Quote from: jobotic on December 21, 2021, 09:22:56 AMWas going to steer well clear of that article but i might read it now. Will I have to see him with his mouth wide open or in a too tight £200 t-shirt though 'cos I can't face that right now?

It's a genuinely fascinating read.

But also yes, yes you will.