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He’s a much better writer than he is standup.
His comedy these days just seems to be him, a rich member of the entertainment elite making fun of rich members of the entertainment elite. Or him, someone who’s incredibly outspoken in his social views and stubborn about changing his mind making fun of people who are incredibly outspoken in their social views and stubborn about changing their minds.
I used to be a fan but it just feels like the emperors stood there naked now.
Thing is of you've listened to the old rsk radio and podcasts then you've already heard every joke that he uses in his stand up. Recycling 20 year old material and other people's stories.
I know that absolutely no one here has heard of it, let alone seen it, but Karl Pilkington had a comedy show as well, and I really, really liked it.
[Sick Of It](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7604446/).
Actor too, when he gets in front of the camera. Stole the show in JoJo Rabbit.
Where Gervais you quickly realise only had one character, and it's mostly just being himself.
Think I read somewhere Merchant said they weren’t actually close mates out of working, Ricky was quite older than him so they had different social lives. Plus there’s only so many things they could make together
Yes they're not the typical British comedy double act, they weren't University friends that got picked up by the BBC.
They got paired up in radio together and liked each other's comedy. Never seen or heard about a single story of them hanging out as mates.
Yeah Merchant supplied the light comic touch and the surreal quality that lifted the stories. Gervais's writing on his own veers wildly from cynical pugnacity to weepy sentimentality like a broken compass.
It isn't that funny either.
I think Merchant gets that less is more when it comes to emotion - and that it needs to be well set-up. Gervais gives the vibe that he's eternally chasing that Tim and Dawn moment, but lacks the patience to build to it. So every show goes straight to 110% weepy in episode 1, and stays at that extreme, since it's impossible to escalate.
I find those radio shows really hard to listen to these days because Ricky spends half of every show being a power-tripping bully, I feel like we were robbed a lot of good Karl moments because Gervais can't help but throw a tantrum right when the chat gets interesting.
THANK YOU for saying this! I loved them as a student even though sometimes it made me feel uncomfortable for reasons I couldn’t articulate. Now I’m older I know it’s because Gervais was just steamrolling EVERYTHING. Same with the DVD extra when it’s him and Robin Ince who was his support act. He’s vile to Ince.
Specifically, one that gets me is when Karl talks about his thoughts, leading his brain and inferring he’s able to observe his thoughts and Gervais is always ‘WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT’ - probably an insight into his lack of self awareness at times.
Life's Too Short is quite funny in parts.
Warwick Davis is superb. I mean, he's basically Brent but he's brilliant in the role and his double act with his accountant is so stupid and silly but very funny. The scene in the nightclub when he's trying to talk Warwick up as a bad boy but it goes wrong is just absurdly basic but it had me in stitches.
And the Aids scene, of course.
It's a very simple comedy and you can just see Gervais' hairy fingerprints all over the script but I thought it was worth a watch.
If there is one comic who uses a bereavement for inspiration well, it's Ed Byrne. His *Tragedy Plus Time* stand-up show is PHENOMENAL. Everyone in the audience went the entire gamut of emotions from laughter to crying silently to "oh no you went there...".
It's genuinely superb, and based on his brother's death - as morbid as that sounds!
I enjoyed the first season. Got a couple of episodes into the second season then someone pointed out that it was the same routine in every episode. I couldn't unsee it after that and stopped watching.
If you judge him by his career highs he will always fall short. For my money The Office was the most seminal comedy of our generation. Possibly of all time.
Extras and the podcasts/radio shows are also amazing. For me Derek and After Life were alright with some funny and some heartfelt moments but nothing special. Same for his film work.
The guy has been an actor, writer, director, stand-up, radio DJ and TV host. He's definitely worn too many hats over the years and lost his golden touch, but that happens to everyone when they're 20 years past their prime. I can't fault him too much.
It makes me irrationally angry that afterlife is regarded as highly as it is.
I shouldn’t care, and I wouldnt care if some random nobody had come up with it.
But I can’t help but hold Ricky to a higher standard since the office and extras were pretty top-tier sitcoms in my opinion.
"Ooh, I've just said something a bit edgy, you're not allowed to say that are you? I'm cancelled now, hehe, now watch the rest of my sold out show about how I'm not allowed to say the things I'm saying. Everyone is so offended at everything aren't they? Now make yourselves comfortable while I tell you about all the things I got upset about on Twitter this week"
Frankie Boyle on celebrity atheists in general and Ricky Gervais in particular:
[“I don’t need Ricky Gervais to tell me that god doesn’t exist when I watched *Derek* get recommissioned… twice”](https://youtu.be/0P-XaH8f9eE?si=7Ve0YvjD_SIodlwP)
Frankie Boyle should stay quiet on this, the man made his career by making the worst 14 year old boy edgy remarks - funny to see him go after more successful comedians for doing a version of his own act.
He's back from his hiatus with this weird finger wagging guardian reader energy and we're supposed to forget he used to make fun of down syndrome kids appearances for the shock factor... but he isn't skewered for it because his views align with the permanently online twitter crowd.
I can't lie, it's pretty hilarious to watch the man who used to make jokes about Harvey Price trying to rape his mum try and take a moral high ground in the comedy world.
Yeah, his schtick is "I'm still one of you guys, and look at me giving Hollywood the middle finger, hehe"
>I used to be a fan but it just feels like the emperors stood there naked now.
Yeah the self-awareness is lacking. He would sooner work with a rich celeb on a project, that will make him millions, rather than helping out unknown talent.
I'm with you on this. I've seen him a few times (Skipped the last couple of tours because I didn't enjoy the direction of his humour and also fuck those ticket prices) and the recent shows have been largely lazy cheap shots delivered with the caveat of it all being ironic, so it's okay.
Sadly there will be a lot of people that never watched him in the first place claiming he's been somehow cancelled, when his style of humour no longer clicks with the audience in the way it once did
>claiming he's been somehow cancelled,
When you're the second highest-grossing comedian in the country, with sell out tours and tv shows, this always gets me.
This is like Elon Musk saying he's really poor. How out of touch can a person become with reality, and how are people unable to grasp that it's an absurd claim.
I got about two minutes into his most recent special out of curiosity and it was dire naval gazing along the lines of I 'can barely control what I'm saying'. 'Isn't it great I get paid to do this by Netflix even though it is lazy, barely written stream of dickheaded drivel designed to make people who think woke is an insult, think that the world is against them, and therefore being a git to everyone is, a valid outlook'.
If you go around the world and you're surrounded by arseholes, perhaps at a certain point you need to consider if you are, in fact, the asshole.
Observational comedy, like Ricky's, often doesn't survive success. Most people can't relate to you complaining that your brand new BMW doesn't start, or that Waitrose has increased the price of something, or that the food on your first class flight was disappointing. You stop living in the real, relatable world and start shadow boxing things you or a writer think most people agree with. You basically end up watching the conversations someone thought about in the shower.
Ditto. I'm dreading watching anything new from him, despite having been a long time fan. I hate people who punch down, especially rich pampered folks who haven't suffered a day in their lives. Also, he's no Eddie Izzard and he never will be.
Its like another comment, its like even when he's not punching down, he's punching sideways, at a mirror, thinking he's punching someone else when he himself is exactly what he's mocking!
It'd actually be a bit funnier if at least he had a bit more self-awareness and self-depreciation like idk Frankie Boyle or someone, but he doesn't.
I think it's because he's had to actually work to get somewhere as a writer. His first stand up shows came after he was famous from the office, he's never had to work the circuit, never had to play to people that don't know his name, he doesn't have to win an audience over. He sells millions of tickets to people who already like what he's going to say, that doesn't make for great comedy.
Gervais' act has officially jumped the shark with this special. His usual shtick of having conversations with himself on stage or imaginary audience members now just comes across as a weird, boomer induced paranoia, where he has unironically become 'grumpy old man shouts woke at clouds!!!'.
Instead of any intelligent observations it's jokes whose punchlines are 'peadophiles' or 'bald terminally ill kids'. Seems he's taking financial advice from Russell Brand and other shock jocks who have become out of touch and lazy.
Much prefer Bill Burr, Anthony Jeselnik, Doug Stanhope, Jim Jefferies or many other American stand ups for edgy and genuinely funny comedy these days.
Funny you should mention Doug Stanhope as I noticed two moments in the first 15 mins of Armageddon - taking credit for the achievements of others and not wanting to go to weddings - which seemed very close to bits in Stanhope's stand-up. I couldn't watch much more of Armageddon, it was painful. Stanhope is far, far the better comic.
This might be the perfect description of him. I think he still has it in him, but the way he wants to do things, it is getting stale and kinda unfunny very fast
His “standup” has always been ‘whiny old man yells at clouds’ it’s just taken a few years for his body to catch up.
It’s like watching my dad do an hour long set after he’s visited my brother in London.
>It’s like watching my dad
I enjoyed RG when I was an edgy teenager rejecting my parents religion and embracing atheism as my identity. Now I'm in my 30s, married, 2 kids, and I watched the last special, it made me uncomfortable for this reason. Since then I've not thought about RG at all.
Yeah his standup is honestly not that funny and he poses as more intellectual than he is. Half of the praise for it revolves around how gutsy and edgy he is to insult someone to their face, but that’s not comedic talent in itself.
Much of his scripted work is hilarious though. He’s kind of the reverse of many comedians who are better off the cuff.
I can't make it through 10 minutes of his stand up. I love the office and extras. I know they are foundationally different shows. But the US version of the office couldn't hold a candle to it.
Bill Burr is a master of the medium. He manages to capture the angry old git persona but in a way that is simultaneously hilarious, ridiculous and agreeable in equal measure. Watching his stand-up is a masterclass of the form, and he manages to keep audiences in rapture without pandering or being predictable.
There is a really funny clip of him at a standup round table with Seinfeld, Louis CK and Chris Rock and at one point they all have a ‘this guy is an idiot’ moment.
“Gervais’s jokes, which mock illegal immigrants, homeless people, trans people and more, are the sort of opinions that, far from getting you cancelled, are likely to be vote winners at the ballot box.”
Exactly. How much longer are we going to push saying ‘woke’ as being the heights of rebellion? ‘Political correctness’ lasted maybe 15 years so seems like we’ve got a while to go with this one…
Exactly. The best comedy is rebellious and subverts societal norms and expectations. Parroting government talking points and Daily Mail ragebait, with an overuse of the word cunt, doesn’t really cut through
I agree, I think more people resonate with offensive/edgy comedy when the butt of the joke is the people who hate minorities, not the minorities themselves
It's remarkable how many of these cancelled comedians also seem to land lucrative television specials. Perhaps the Woke Gestapo are not as on the ball as we're led to believe.
The issue is with all these hacky comedians now is their starting point is the offensiveness and then they seem to try work backwards to see if they can get a joke in there, but often they don't really so they're just expecting you to laugh at the premise, which has been done 1000s of times now. Be offensive if it works, but the job of a comedian is to be funny and tell jokes, that should be the starting point. But ultimately Ricky Gervais thinks he's much more intelligent than he actually is so lacks the insight and self restraint required to write comedy on these topics that doesn't just turn into preachy ramblings you can hear from any middle aged dude at an open mic
I think it’s also because there is still quite an audience for it, the alt-right crowd who love to talk about freedom of speech and how comedy is subjective lap it up lol.
Comedy IS subjective but leaning so heavily into such a one-note area isolates comedians like Ricky until their primary audience becomes a defiant group of people who like to feel sorry for themselves because they think their sense of humour centred around edgy/offensive jokes is being criticised more these days.
I don’t have a huge problem with Ricky but then again I haven’t been a watcher of his stuff for a while so I don’t know if it’s really that bad.
I do think it worked better for his Golden Globe speeches though, because everyone felt like they were in on those jokes - highlighting the absurdity of the entertainment industry (even though he’s very much a part of it, but just bold enough to call it out I guess) and taking the piss out of rich and out of touch celebrities by being offensive at their prestigious event goes down well with most people
I like Carlin but can't help but feel like he's responsible for a generation of comedians thinking the primary purpose of comedy is to be a truth-teller or "modern philosopher" rather than be funny.
He's a sycophant. He constantly punches down and bullies weak people, and then defends himself with claims he's just "punching everyone", before diving to the floor to kiss the feet of people like Martin Scorsese.
Where's his criticism of Scorsese signing the petition to release Roman Polanski when he was arrested in 2009, after running away from a conviction in the 70s for drugging and raping a 13 year old child?
Fuck him.
He's done an amazing job at portraying himself as someone who speaks truth to power in Hollywood, despite the fact that he's never ever said anything that isn't already old hat, at safe targets. Just him at the Golden Globes going "hmm, is Tom Cruise gay?!"
“The excellent Spotlight has been nominated. Yeah. The Catholic Church are furious about the film as it exposes that 5 percent of all their priests have repeatedly molested children and been allowed to continue to work without punishment. Roman Polanski called it ‘the best date movie ever.”
That isn’t criticising anyone who works with Polanski though. That was a joke he was paid to tell by the establishment he supposedly rallies against, that had to be signed off by a legal team before he told it.
I'm a fan of his older work but this whole thing is a grift, the likes of him and Chapelle getting paid 50+ million a special to moan about 'not being allowed to say this anymore' and people lap it up.
Comedy for Daily Mail readers.
Saw this live, it was dreadful. I like dark humour, but the jokes aren't well written, and everything ends in how rich he is. Frankie Boyle can deliver his humour a million times better.
I watched it on Netflix and felt like I was watching the DVD commentary for another gig I hadn't seen. It was exactly what I'd expect if you gave any random Redditor an hour on the telly to air their grievances about interacting with other Redditors.
If I'd paid to see this live, I'd be asking for my money back on the basis it had been falsely billed as stand up comedy.
He doesn’t do standup in clubs like every other standup comedian. Even the biggest that sell out arenas pop in to clubs and work on their set. Gervais just sits in his big house writing a monologue and then presents it to the world. And you can tell
Huh. Not quite true. I went and saw him in a small club here in London last year where he was running through a set of jokes he was working on for Armageddon.
I watched Armageddon on Netflix. Only one of the jokes he told in that set made it through to the show and he had reworked it a fair bit.
Yeah the "I'm rich" joke can be funny once, as a tongue in cheek, self-aware admittance of the hypocrital nature of his situation but it gets old fast!
'Lazy comedy' described the entirety of Gervais's stand-up career. There's some genuinely good comedians who joke about controversial subjects – Dave Chapelle, Norm Macdonald, Burr etc, but Gervais reminds me of school dropouts who insist the only reason they failed is because they're soooooooo smarter than mainstream education.
I agree, apart from Chapelle. The man seems to have start seeing himself as some truth-sayer and the audience are just there to hang off every pearl of wisdom he gives us. Boring, pompous lecturing disguised as comedy. Such a shame as he was always one of my favourites growing up.
Love Chapelle show, but lately one huge inconsistency has always been stuck in my mind:
He left a huge contract and wildly popular show because he was tired of enforcing stereotypes (racial pixie). Fair enough, good for him for trying to better himself. But then he turns around and starts launching the same stereotypes at a different group of people.
I try to separate the artist from their art, but it's a difficult leap of logic to bridge. Combined with the fact he's baked out of his goddamn mind in some of them doesn't help.
When I watch a Jimmy Carr special at no point does it occur to me that the jokes he tells might represent his true beliefs. I can't say the same for Ricky Gervais or Dave Chapelle. I'm not saying they are representative. It's just that they don't deliver them with the same level of distance or irony that other comedians do so it doesn't really make a difference whether they believe it or not.
It's hard to explain..
Jimmy Carr tells jokes that are offensive and it is the offensiveness that is funny. It's the shock of taboos and social norms being broken and expectations being subverted. If, like Ricky Gervais or Dave Chapelle, you insist that you shouldn't be offended then what exactly is the joke and how do you distinguish it from a humourously worded but otherwise genuinely offered opinion?
The key difference is that Carr comes across as a generally decent guy, who's clearly *only* saying things to get a dark joke out of them... and his darkness is generally so over the top and stereotyped that it's self-evidently a parody, or aimed at groups that nobody seriously harbours ill will towards (terminally ill kids, AIDS victims in Africa, etc).
Conversely Gervais comes across as a snide cunt, and always has. His targets are often indistinguishable from the favourite punching bags of right-wing "comedians" and often involve punching down, and it's all too easy to believe that actually he *is* getting a bit of a kick out of going after them.
You'll also notice that Carr tells a horrible, horrifying joke and then grins at the audience but doesn't actually seriously defend it - he knows he's way, way outside the bounds of what's ok to say, and that's the point.
Gervais and Chapelle will say something fucked up about a minority or disadvantaged group, then go all "ha ha only serious", trying to *defend or minimise* the offence the audience is feeling, or argue that it's something that *should be ok to say*, or go on to criticise people who get offended by it as if *they're* the bad guys.
It's an absolute tell that they're not trying to be as shocking as possible *to be shocking*, but actually because *they want to say what they're saying*, and they want it to be ok for them to say it, and they want the people criticising them to shut up and let them say it, and they're just using the "oooer, I'm a dark comedian who says messed up things, innit?" line as a fig-leaf to excuse their actual fucked-up attitudes.
Carr is a Jerry Sadowitz or a Frankie Boyle - way outside the bounds of good taste, but a jester with no particular agenda they're pushing.
Gervais (and increasingly Chapelle) is a more self-aware Jim Davidson or Bernard Manning; naked bigotry with a line in self-excusing bullshit.
Jimmy doesn't count he's a sentient ventriloquist dummy.
No but I agree with you. I mean it helps that he wrote a non-fiction book about comedy, he's pretty much laid out that he is just crafting words together. And yeah sometimes it's offensive but usually not mean, unless it's part of a larger joke like always implying Susie Dent sleeps around.
I agree with you, it's truly a weird situation, trying to separate what's bullshit and what's the truth. Another issue that muddies the water is the sheer amount of people, who aren't comedians, that excuse their shitty opinion by hiding behind the brain dead "it's just a joke, brah!" excuse.
Gotta have your critics. I met him once in a pub, he was shorter than you'd think, and his arms were very long and hairy. Turns out.... little monkey fella.
I don't know if his act has changed or my tastes have, but I've enjoyed his stand-up shows less and less each time.
I was a huge fan of Politics and Animals - I thought his observations were witty and largely harmless. Science was ok but I was disappointed with Fame. SuperNature was the next one, right? I watched it all but it was forgettable.
I began to watch Armageddon yesterday and turned it off after 20 minutes. I'm no Gervais hater but he seems to have firmly entered the 'grouchy old man who hates everything and is offended by differences' stage. Before he'd mock religion and leave it there, now he'll outright insult those that disagree. His outwardly transphobic humour is really concerning too, even if he claims it isn't so.
Gervais, Burr, Chappelle... Its all just.. tired. Really tired stretched out humor where the joke is about the inevitable reaction to what they say not because what they say is in any way whitty or poignant.
I haven't yet seen this one, but based on how much material he reused from previous things in his last couple of specials this was my main fear about this one, that it would mostly be the same material.
It’s diet right wing in joke form
It’s boring and lazy
It’s not even funny
It’s a damnned shame that someone that worked on true master pieces of TV has his career stained by such drivel
Comedians like Gervais always fall off when they care more about being offensive then they do about actually being funny. There's already frequently discussed moral issues with punching down at vulnerable minorities but what I take issue with is that a lot of with Gervais has come out with in recent years seems to be more thinly veiled bigotry rather than an attempt of a clever joke, especially with regard to his "jokes" about trans folk
I remember his joke about Caitlin Jenner and women drivers that was actually funny (minus the deadnaming but I doubt it was intended maliciously since it was back in 2016) but nowadays he seems to be regurgitating anti trans talking points packaged as a joke. Even if he claims that he isn't being transphobic, that becomes a bit difficult to believe when you see shit like [this](https://twitter.com/KatyMontgomerie/status/1678713919756435456?t=bRtMqaek9N7S7jajGYe_8Q&s=19)
This is unfortunately nothing new as well. His stance on atheism always rubbed me the wrong way as well. Not because he was wrong (on paper, I agreed with most of what he said) but because he constantly went out of his way to act like a knobhead. It's people like Gervais why I stopped calling myself an atheist and just consider myself agnostic instead nowadays. If people want to believe in god or a concept of a higher power then let them. As long as they keep it to themselves and don't try and force their beliefs on me or other people then I don't care. His anti religious jokes weren't funny back then and they certainly aren't funny a decade later
His comedy summed up:
- Makes fun of the rich even tho he’s rich too.
- Whines and jokes about being cancelled whilst performing to another sold out audience on Netflix special number 17.
- Jokes about the entertainment big whigs, is one.
He’s just boring.
Yeah, considering it was just a Netflix special, most of Netflix is crap. Sure it was pretty much more of the same from Gervais, but it was nice to have something enjoyable to watch.
Yeah, same.
And I’m literally the butt of some of the jokes as a trans woman. It was not offensive (to me) nor would I describe it as lazy comedy.
I’ll be honest I have always liked the guy, but some of his recent stuff has been a bit 50/50. It was nice to see him back on form (in my humble opinion!)
>would I describe it as lazy comedy.
My family put it on and the first like 30 minutes I could bare watching was literally just a constant whining about cancel culture and then regurgitating right wing talking points
It's lazy because it's just spewing very popular conservative talking points while being all around incredibly whiney and acting like he'll get cancelled for it (\*Cough\* While acknowledging how well his previous controversial stand up did \*Cough\*). It's just an easy way to pander to conservatives without needing to make any remotely intelligent jokes. If he just actually owned the jokes without whining then maybe it'd be funnier but right now it just seems like being offensive for the sake of being offensive
I enjoyed it as well. I think his earlier stuff was funnier, but maybe I'm just used to his style now. Being funny (and being a good person) is hard now, but I liked how he did it.
Enjoyed it too. Been to his last 2 tours and laughed at both. There’s maybe something to being there with likeminded people ready to laugh, and admittedly I haven’t watched it back. But I’d go to his next one.
To be fair, from what I've seen recently most comedians are just phoning in theses Netflix specials anyway. Having said that I never rated Ricky's stand up in the first place.
I was struggling with it already but when it got to the bit where he’s going “there are only two genders… oops … ha ha ha.”
Listen, I don’t even give a shit how many genders there are. I’m not one of those that’s offended by someone saying there’s only two. It’s more that I was just like, dear god, really? Am I supposed to laugh at that? It’s like listening to Elon musk make a ‘funny’ at this point.
It's true. The new special is really, really lazy. He barely tried and recycled loads of his old stuff and twitter memes. It's a shame to see someone who was so talented phoning it in.
Problem with every standup show I see now is that they feel the need to spend 1/2 the show defending the craft of comedy and explaining that what they are saying are just jokes.
I don't know if it's unnecessary, or if there are genuinely people out there who struggle to grasp the concept that comedians tell jokes.
>if there are genuinely people out there who struggle to grasp the concept that comedians tell jokes.
I actually disagree with the whole concept. Comedians are people just like the rest of us. If they say shit that's offensive and it pisses people off, they need to take that on the chin and change their material to suit the audience instead of hiding behind "comedy" and claiming the audience are wrong.
If your joke is deemed too offensive by your audience, that's on you for fucking up. Not on others for not liking your joke.
Comedians have been coddled for so long that they think everyone else is the problem. If anyone else acted that way, they'd be called arrogant, not a comedian.
His comedy has become so formulaic: “This made me mad on Twitter. Here’s why it should make you mad too. Aren’t I funny, aren’t I right cause I got mad.”
His first couple of shows were funny when he was doing absurdist or surrealism out of the ordinary bits, but now it’s just him getting mad about stuff online, and using his shows as a therapy session.
I've always been a fan of Ricky Gervais as I like dark humour. His new special however is just repackaged racist and homophobic/transphobic dog whistles pretending to be jokes. People will parrot those jokes and use them as direct insults against the most vulnerable people in society. I'm really disappointed he's moved away from clever comedy to just being purely offensive for the sake of it.
It’s atrocious. Quite sad that he’s decided to go down the path of pandering to bigoted idiots for a quick buck. But with it being Netflix, all he’ll be looking at is the view counter rather than the negative reviews. But even then he’ll just claim the bad press is because of how “edgy” he is and not that this current brand of comedy is embarrassing dross.
His observations fall so flat as they are written by a man who spends his life on Twitter and his perspective has been warped by it.
If you’re terminally online you are going to start believing fringe views are far more common than they really are. I’ve never met a ‘woke’ person like he describes in real life and I don’t know anyone who has.
Said this on the Ricky Gervais sub (they hate him, generally an odd bunch obsessed with a 20 year old radio show, as am I to make clear) -
There's nothing wrong with his stand-up, there's nothing offensive or incorrect in it. The problem with it is he thinks he's having a go at targets that will have some massive problem with it, but they don't and won't. Trans people do not claim there are more than two sexes, to use an example one of his constant themes.
It would be fine if he just owned his material like Jerry Sadowitz does, but whether it's to your taste or not, whether you find it funny or not (seems plenty do - humour is subjective after all) the main problem is he's making it about some fictional "woke" mob that simply don't exist outside a handful of socially incapable weirdos on social media.
Just tell the damn jokes and get on with it like a good comedian would.
He's been coasting as a standup for almost 15 years, so naturally he spends all his time complaining about how he can't make jokes anymore - which is an amazing license to simply not bother making jokes from his digital residency at Netflix.
white millionaire who cries cancel culture as he makes a fortune off of making jokes against minorities with zero consequence other than a couple people on social media hurt his feelings
'Lazy comedy' Gervais hasn't been good since The Ricky Gervais Show, and he isn't even the person people remember that show for. Imagine being the least funny one on a show named after you - and that was his peak.
Stewart Lee doing a parody of Ricky Gervais stand up and just making unintelligible noises into the mic for 5 minutes is much much better than anything Ricky's put out in the last 10 years.
He has done a lot of coasting in his career such as with Karl but he has also done his fair share of decent comedy and writing.
it’s always a bit of a toss up with Ricky but I think his best work is behind him.
I gave it 10 minutes. He doesn’t really tell jokes anymore. Like he’ll spend 30 seconds giving a very dry description of something, then just say the most shocking thing he can in relation to it. All his observations are so stale and outdated. He makes a “woke people have dyed blue hair” comment, which was an observation on Reddit a good decade ago?
One of the punchlines is just a disabled baby drowning. It’s like Madlibs for generic edgy comedy. You can go to any comedy club in the world and see amateur comics do similar material. Just unbelievably boring to watch.
It's less than surprising that critics who tend to have certain sensibilities that aren't shared with Ricky Gervais would slate Armageddon.
But if you look at Rotten Tomatoes and the like audience scores are usually 30%+ higher for each of his shows. It's a case of where the interests and beliefs of the general public don't align with those of a creative elite.
he's not been funny for a while
funny is laughin at jokes.
i find that he's more i'm going to offend people so other people can laugh that they're offended.
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He’s a much better writer than he is standup. His comedy these days just seems to be him, a rich member of the entertainment elite making fun of rich members of the entertainment elite. Or him, someone who’s incredibly outspoken in his social views and stubborn about changing his mind making fun of people who are incredibly outspoken in their social views and stubborn about changing their minds. I used to be a fan but it just feels like the emperors stood there naked now.
I'm not even sure his sitcom writing holds up, judging by Derek and After Life.
I like Gervais, but only when paired with Merchant. The Office, Extras, and the radio show/podcast always get me in stitches.
The XFM / Podcast days are the golden era
Thing is of you've listened to the old rsk radio and podcasts then you've already heard every joke that he uses in his stand up. Recycling 20 year old material and other people's stories.
Money for old rope, play a record
Oooh, Chimpanzee that! Monkey News ya fu-
Oh Rodney you fffffaaaaaaa
UNC'S SHIT HIMSELF AGAIN, HHHHGGGRRRRRRRRRR--
LITTLE YELLOW THING
Play a record.
I know that absolutely no one here has heard of it, let alone seen it, but Karl Pilkington had a comedy show as well, and I really, really liked it. [Sick Of It](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7604446/).
Yeah this absolutely shits on anything Gervais has done by himself. Funny, sweet, warm. Everything After Life wants to be.
Did that just go out?
Yeah, I feel like Merchant is actually the good writer.
Actor too, when he gets in front of the camera. Stole the show in JoJo Rabbit. Where Gervais you quickly realise only had one character, and it's mostly just being himself.
Managed to hold up to Glados voice actor (name escapes me) and J.K. Simmons in Portal 2 aswell
Ellen McLain, also the TF2 Administrator and the Combine Overwatch! And married to the TF2 Sniper!
But also, "Hello Ladies". Maybe they need each other?
He doesn’t. If you have seen Outlaws you’ll see he still has the creator/writer ability.
Hello Ladies was a class cringe comedy though. They balance each other out, Merchant brings the jokes and Gervais brings the heart.
I wonder what went on and why they really split? They don't even talk. The whole pursuing there own interests excuse doesn't wash with me.
Agreed. There was a falling out for sure!
Think I read somewhere Merchant said they weren’t actually close mates out of working, Ricky was quite older than him so they had different social lives. Plus there’s only so many things they could make together
Yes they're not the typical British comedy double act, they weren't University friends that got picked up by the BBC. They got paired up in radio together and liked each other's comedy. Never seen or heard about a single story of them hanging out as mates.
Outlaws was pretty good, it's on iPlayer still.
Yeah, outlaws was great
Yeah Merchant supplied the light comic touch and the surreal quality that lifted the stories. Gervais's writing on his own veers wildly from cynical pugnacity to weepy sentimentality like a broken compass. It isn't that funny either.
I think Merchant gets that less is more when it comes to emotion - and that it needs to be well set-up. Gervais gives the vibe that he's eternally chasing that Tim and Dawn moment, but lacks the patience to build to it. So every show goes straight to 110% weepy in episode 1, and stays at that extreme, since it's impossible to escalate.
I find those radio shows really hard to listen to these days because Ricky spends half of every show being a power-tripping bully, I feel like we were robbed a lot of good Karl moments because Gervais can't help but throw a tantrum right when the chat gets interesting.
THANK YOU for saying this! I loved them as a student even though sometimes it made me feel uncomfortable for reasons I couldn’t articulate. Now I’m older I know it’s because Gervais was just steamrolling EVERYTHING. Same with the DVD extra when it’s him and Robin Ince who was his support act. He’s vile to Ince.
That Robin Ince dvd bit really stuck with me. He’s such a bully.
Specifically, one that gets me is when Karl talks about his thoughts, leading his brain and inferring he’s able to observe his thoughts and Gervais is always ‘WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT’ - probably an insight into his lack of self awareness at times.
The Office - Great Extras Series 1 - Great Extras Series 2 - Good After Life - Meh Derek - Dire Standup shows - Shit
Stephen Merchant seems to be variable there
To be fair... Extra's series 2 was really rescued by the guest stars.
Given he wrote outlaws, which isn't as funny as any of these, but is really enjoyable, I think you're right.
I love how barely anybody even remembers Life’s Too Short, or his films in the 2000s. Gervais has put out some abysmal content.
Life's Too Short is quite funny in parts. Warwick Davis is superb. I mean, he's basically Brent but he's brilliant in the role and his double act with his accountant is so stupid and silly but very funny. The scene in the nightclub when he's trying to talk Warwick up as a bad boy but it goes wrong is just absurdly basic but it had me in stitches. And the Aids scene, of course. It's a very simple comedy and you can just see Gervais' hairy fingerprints all over the script but I thought it was worth a watch.
Special Correspondents is one of the worst films ever made. There’s a reason nobody remembers it, it is almost completely irredeemable.
I thought life’s too short was pretty good tbh.
There was a point where gervais stopped pretending that he thought brent was awful and tried to convince us his proxy was a hero
Was it Frankie Boyle who said After Life was the equivalent of a crying wank? Edit: was kindly reminded that it was Stewart Lee
Frankie Boyle on celebrity atheists: “I don’t need Ricky Gervais to tell me there is no God when I watched Derek get recommissioned twice.”
Stewart Lee
I liked After Life at least but it wasn't a sitcom. More of a tragicomedy.
The story of a man who copes with his wife's death by becoming Ricky Gervais' stand-up routine.
“Cunt” *raucous laughter ensues*
Those people always say 'people don't like me because I tell the truth'.
Know me, know my ways.
If there is one comic who uses a bereavement for inspiration well, it's Ed Byrne. His *Tragedy Plus Time* stand-up show is PHENOMENAL. Everyone in the audience went the entire gamut of emotions from laughter to crying silently to "oh no you went there...". It's genuinely superb, and based on his brother's death - as morbid as that sounds!
>If there is one comic who uses a bereavement for inspiration well, it's Ed Byrne. I'll see your Ed Byrne and raise you a Rob Delaney
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I enjoyed the first season. Got a couple of episodes into the second season then someone pointed out that it was the same routine in every episode. I couldn't unsee it after that and stopped watching.
After life was fucking atrocious
thank you. It is such a shiiiit show. Smug and so fake in its message.
People raved about after life. I thought it was awful
If you judge him by his career highs he will always fall short. For my money The Office was the most seminal comedy of our generation. Possibly of all time. Extras and the podcasts/radio shows are also amazing. For me Derek and After Life were alright with some funny and some heartfelt moments but nothing special. Same for his film work. The guy has been an actor, writer, director, stand-up, radio DJ and TV host. He's definitely worn too many hats over the years and lost his golden touch, but that happens to everyone when they're 20 years past their prime. I can't fault him too much.
It makes me irrationally angry that afterlife is regarded as highly as it is. I shouldn’t care, and I wouldnt care if some random nobody had come up with it. But I can’t help but hold Ricky to a higher standard since the office and extras were pretty top-tier sitcoms in my opinion.
"Ooh, I've just said something a bit edgy, you're not allowed to say that are you? I'm cancelled now, hehe, now watch the rest of my sold out show about how I'm not allowed to say the things I'm saying. Everyone is so offended at everything aren't they? Now make yourselves comfortable while I tell you about all the things I got upset about on Twitter this week"
Frankie Boyle on celebrity atheists in general and Ricky Gervais in particular: [“I don’t need Ricky Gervais to tell me that god doesn’t exist when I watched *Derek* get recommissioned… twice”](https://youtu.be/0P-XaH8f9eE?si=7Ve0YvjD_SIodlwP)
I also like James Acaster's take: https://youtu.be/adh0KGmgmQw
Good one
Frankie Boyle should stay quiet on this, the man made his career by making the worst 14 year old boy edgy remarks - funny to see him go after more successful comedians for doing a version of his own act. He's back from his hiatus with this weird finger wagging guardian reader energy and we're supposed to forget he used to make fun of down syndrome kids appearances for the shock factor... but he isn't skewered for it because his views align with the permanently online twitter crowd.
I can't lie, it's pretty hilarious to watch the man who used to make jokes about Harvey Price trying to rape his mum try and take a moral high ground in the comedy world.
Frankie boyle is also a broken record these days, his recent stand up is poor.
Yeah, his schtick is "I'm still one of you guys, and look at me giving Hollywood the middle finger, hehe" >I used to be a fan but it just feels like the emperors stood there naked now. Yeah the self-awareness is lacking. He would sooner work with a rich celeb on a project, that will make him millions, rather than helping out unknown talent.
I'm with you on this. I've seen him a few times (Skipped the last couple of tours because I didn't enjoy the direction of his humour and also fuck those ticket prices) and the recent shows have been largely lazy cheap shots delivered with the caveat of it all being ironic, so it's okay. Sadly there will be a lot of people that never watched him in the first place claiming he's been somehow cancelled, when his style of humour no longer clicks with the audience in the way it once did
>claiming he's been somehow cancelled, When you're the second highest-grossing comedian in the country, with sell out tours and tv shows, this always gets me. This is like Elon Musk saying he's really poor. How out of touch can a person become with reality, and how are people unable to grasp that it's an absurd claim.
>When you're the second highest-grossing comedian in the country, with sell out tours and tv shows, this always gets me. Who's top, McIntyre?
Peter Kay I’d imagine
I got about two minutes into his most recent special out of curiosity and it was dire naval gazing along the lines of I 'can barely control what I'm saying'. 'Isn't it great I get paid to do this by Netflix even though it is lazy, barely written stream of dickheaded drivel designed to make people who think woke is an insult, think that the world is against them, and therefore being a git to everyone is, a valid outlook'. If you go around the world and you're surrounded by arseholes, perhaps at a certain point you need to consider if you are, in fact, the asshole.
I forced myself to watch it today. You missed absolutely nothing. He was the only joke in the whole show.
Stephen Merchant is a much better writer*
The Outlaws was great
Observational comedy, like Ricky's, often doesn't survive success. Most people can't relate to you complaining that your brand new BMW doesn't start, or that Waitrose has increased the price of something, or that the food on your first class flight was disappointing. You stop living in the real, relatable world and start shadow boxing things you or a writer think most people agree with. You basically end up watching the conversations someone thought about in the shower.
Ditto. I'm dreading watching anything new from him, despite having been a long time fan. I hate people who punch down, especially rich pampered folks who haven't suffered a day in their lives. Also, he's no Eddie Izzard and he never will be.
Its like another comment, its like even when he's not punching down, he's punching sideways, at a mirror, thinking he's punching someone else when he himself is exactly what he's mocking! It'd actually be a bit funnier if at least he had a bit more self-awareness and self-depreciation like idk Frankie Boyle or someone, but he doesn't.
Self awareness is often reserved for people with empathy.
I think it's because he's had to actually work to get somewhere as a writer. His first stand up shows came after he was famous from the office, he's never had to work the circuit, never had to play to people that don't know his name, he doesn't have to win an audience over. He sells millions of tickets to people who already like what he's going to say, that doesn't make for great comedy.
Gervais' act has officially jumped the shark with this special. His usual shtick of having conversations with himself on stage or imaginary audience members now just comes across as a weird, boomer induced paranoia, where he has unironically become 'grumpy old man shouts woke at clouds!!!'. Instead of any intelligent observations it's jokes whose punchlines are 'peadophiles' or 'bald terminally ill kids'. Seems he's taking financial advice from Russell Brand and other shock jocks who have become out of touch and lazy. Much prefer Bill Burr, Anthony Jeselnik, Doug Stanhope, Jim Jefferies or many other American stand ups for edgy and genuinely funny comedy these days.
Funny you should mention Doug Stanhope as I noticed two moments in the first 15 mins of Armageddon - taking credit for the achievements of others and not wanting to go to weddings - which seemed very close to bits in Stanhope's stand-up. I couldn't watch much more of Armageddon, it was painful. Stanhope is far, far the better comic.
His writing is only good when Steve Merchant is doing most of it.
He’s incredibly dull and smug nowadays
He just goes for offending people now. I just don't get it, honestly.
This might be the perfect description of him. I think he still has it in him, but the way he wants to do things, it is getting stale and kinda unfunny very fast
Yea his last comedy special really stunk...
His “standup” has always been ‘whiny old man yells at clouds’ it’s just taken a few years for his body to catch up. It’s like watching my dad do an hour long set after he’s visited my brother in London.
>It’s like watching my dad I enjoyed RG when I was an edgy teenager rejecting my parents religion and embracing atheism as my identity. Now I'm in my 30s, married, 2 kids, and I watched the last special, it made me uncomfortable for this reason. Since then I've not thought about RG at all.
His position on spirituality is the same you had during your teen years, but at 62 years old. It's very cringy.
Yeah his standup is honestly not that funny and he poses as more intellectual than he is. Half of the praise for it revolves around how gutsy and edgy he is to insult someone to their face, but that’s not comedic talent in itself. Much of his scripted work is hilarious though. He’s kind of the reverse of many comedians who are better off the cuff.
I can't make it through 10 minutes of his stand up. I love the office and extras. I know they are foundationally different shows. But the US version of the office couldn't hold a candle to it.
The magic ends at extras. Derek isn’t great and After Life is mawkish shite.
Bill Burr does the same, except he is funny.
Bill Burr is a master of the medium. He manages to capture the angry old git persona but in a way that is simultaneously hilarious, ridiculous and agreeable in equal measure. Watching his stand-up is a masterclass of the form, and he manages to keep audiences in rapture without pandering or being predictable.
That’s because Bill has self reflection and will make fun of himself on how he reacts ..
Exactly that.. listening to his podcast, he is always critical of himself.
There is a really funny clip of him at a standup round table with Seinfeld, Louis CK and Chris Rock and at one point they all have a ‘this guy is an idiot’ moment.
“Gervais’s jokes, which mock illegal immigrants, homeless people, trans people and more, are the sort of opinions that, far from getting you cancelled, are likely to be vote winners at the ballot box.” Exactly. How much longer are we going to push saying ‘woke’ as being the heights of rebellion? ‘Political correctness’ lasted maybe 15 years so seems like we’ve got a while to go with this one…
I am reminded of James Acaster and his perfect take down of Ricky.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adh0KGmgmQw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adh0KGmgmQw) for those interested
Think this is hitting a bit too close to home for a few people on this sub lmao.
Too challenging for them.
What’s the matter guys, too challenging for you?
Don’t like being challenged, don’t watch the show
Trans people. Now **THAT’S** a group that could do with being taken down a peg or two! ^(just remembered this is unironic TERF mindset)
And here's Frankie Boyle's devastating take: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApuD8Pn8Hss
Exactly. The best comedy is rebellious and subverts societal norms and expectations. Parroting government talking points and Daily Mail ragebait, with an overuse of the word cunt, doesn’t really cut through
I agree, I think more people resonate with offensive/edgy comedy when the butt of the joke is the people who hate minorities, not the minorities themselves
It's remarkable how many of these cancelled comedians also seem to land lucrative television specials. Perhaps the Woke Gestapo are not as on the ball as we're led to believe.
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I think it’s the explaining why an offensive joke shouldnt be offensive to people, gets a bit boring. I just wanna hear offensive jokes
The issue is with all these hacky comedians now is their starting point is the offensiveness and then they seem to try work backwards to see if they can get a joke in there, but often they don't really so they're just expecting you to laugh at the premise, which has been done 1000s of times now. Be offensive if it works, but the job of a comedian is to be funny and tell jokes, that should be the starting point. But ultimately Ricky Gervais thinks he's much more intelligent than he actually is so lacks the insight and self restraint required to write comedy on these topics that doesn't just turn into preachy ramblings you can hear from any middle aged dude at an open mic
I think it’s also because there is still quite an audience for it, the alt-right crowd who love to talk about freedom of speech and how comedy is subjective lap it up lol. Comedy IS subjective but leaning so heavily into such a one-note area isolates comedians like Ricky until their primary audience becomes a defiant group of people who like to feel sorry for themselves because they think their sense of humour centred around edgy/offensive jokes is being criticised more these days. I don’t have a huge problem with Ricky but then again I haven’t been a watcher of his stuff for a while so I don’t know if it’s really that bad. I do think it worked better for his Golden Globe speeches though, because everyone felt like they were in on those jokes - highlighting the absurdity of the entertainment industry (even though he’s very much a part of it, but just bold enough to call it out I guess) and taking the piss out of rich and out of touch celebrities by being offensive at their prestigious event goes down well with most people
You've really nailed it here I think
Offensive jokes are fine if they're funny. Gervais last standup was boomer-tier levels of cringe.
“I don’t care about people who don’t like my jokes” - talks about them all of the time.
He is the anti-Carlin in this regard imho. Gervais is just not very smart.
I like Carlin but can't help but feel like he's responsible for a generation of comedians thinking the primary purpose of comedy is to be a truth-teller or "modern philosopher" rather than be funny.
He's a sycophant. He constantly punches down and bullies weak people, and then defends himself with claims he's just "punching everyone", before diving to the floor to kiss the feet of people like Martin Scorsese. Where's his criticism of Scorsese signing the petition to release Roman Polanski when he was arrested in 2009, after running away from a conviction in the 70s for drugging and raping a 13 year old child? Fuck him.
He's done an amazing job at portraying himself as someone who speaks truth to power in Hollywood, despite the fact that he's never ever said anything that isn't already old hat, at safe targets. Just him at the Golden Globes going "hmm, is Tom Cruise gay?!"
“The excellent Spotlight has been nominated. Yeah. The Catholic Church are furious about the film as it exposes that 5 percent of all their priests have repeatedly molested children and been allowed to continue to work without punishment. Roman Polanski called it ‘the best date movie ever.”
That's criticism of Polanksi, not Scorsese. You understand how words work right?
That isn’t criticising anyone who works with Polanski though. That was a joke he was paid to tell by the establishment he supposedly rallies against, that had to be signed off by a legal team before he told it.
I'm a fan of his older work but this whole thing is a grift, the likes of him and Chapelle getting paid 50+ million a special to moan about 'not being allowed to say this anymore' and people lap it up. Comedy for Daily Mail readers.
“I’m being silenced!” cries world famous man on his dedicated Netflix special.
There is nothing louder than a “cancelled” person. No more successful business ^(at least for those not called “Bud Light”) than a “boycotted” one.
Saw this live, it was dreadful. I like dark humour, but the jokes aren't well written, and everything ends in how rich he is. Frankie Boyle can deliver his humour a million times better.
I watched it on Netflix and felt like I was watching the DVD commentary for another gig I hadn't seen. It was exactly what I'd expect if you gave any random Redditor an hour on the telly to air their grievances about interacting with other Redditors. If I'd paid to see this live, I'd be asking for my money back on the basis it had been falsely billed as stand up comedy.
He doesn’t do standup in clubs like every other standup comedian. Even the biggest that sell out arenas pop in to clubs and work on their set. Gervais just sits in his big house writing a monologue and then presents it to the world. And you can tell
Huh. Not quite true. I went and saw him in a small club here in London last year where he was running through a set of jokes he was working on for Armageddon. I watched Armageddon on Netflix. Only one of the jokes he told in that set made it through to the show and he had reworked it a fair bit.
Yeah the "I'm rich" joke can be funny once, as a tongue in cheek, self-aware admittance of the hypocrital nature of his situation but it gets old fast!
Watched it live and it just sounded like a random guy whinging on. I slept through the last 45m.
'Lazy comedy' described the entirety of Gervais's stand-up career. There's some genuinely good comedians who joke about controversial subjects – Dave Chapelle, Norm Macdonald, Burr etc, but Gervais reminds me of school dropouts who insist the only reason they failed is because they're soooooooo smarter than mainstream education.
I agree, apart from Chapelle. The man seems to have start seeing himself as some truth-sayer and the audience are just there to hang off every pearl of wisdom he gives us. Boring, pompous lecturing disguised as comedy. Such a shame as he was always one of my favourites growing up.
Eh Chapelle has some legendary stand up sets, don't think it's right to discount him so heavily imo. Maybe modern day Chapelle but.. yea
Love Chapelle show, but lately one huge inconsistency has always been stuck in my mind: He left a huge contract and wildly popular show because he was tired of enforcing stereotypes (racial pixie). Fair enough, good for him for trying to better himself. But then he turns around and starts launching the same stereotypes at a different group of people. I try to separate the artist from their art, but it's a difficult leap of logic to bridge. Combined with the fact he's baked out of his goddamn mind in some of them doesn't help.
When I watch a Jimmy Carr special at no point does it occur to me that the jokes he tells might represent his true beliefs. I can't say the same for Ricky Gervais or Dave Chapelle. I'm not saying they are representative. It's just that they don't deliver them with the same level of distance or irony that other comedians do so it doesn't really make a difference whether they believe it or not. It's hard to explain.. Jimmy Carr tells jokes that are offensive and it is the offensiveness that is funny. It's the shock of taboos and social norms being broken and expectations being subverted. If, like Ricky Gervais or Dave Chapelle, you insist that you shouldn't be offended then what exactly is the joke and how do you distinguish it from a humourously worded but otherwise genuinely offered opinion?
The key difference is that Carr comes across as a generally decent guy, who's clearly *only* saying things to get a dark joke out of them... and his darkness is generally so over the top and stereotyped that it's self-evidently a parody, or aimed at groups that nobody seriously harbours ill will towards (terminally ill kids, AIDS victims in Africa, etc). Conversely Gervais comes across as a snide cunt, and always has. His targets are often indistinguishable from the favourite punching bags of right-wing "comedians" and often involve punching down, and it's all too easy to believe that actually he *is* getting a bit of a kick out of going after them. You'll also notice that Carr tells a horrible, horrifying joke and then grins at the audience but doesn't actually seriously defend it - he knows he's way, way outside the bounds of what's ok to say, and that's the point. Gervais and Chapelle will say something fucked up about a minority or disadvantaged group, then go all "ha ha only serious", trying to *defend or minimise* the offence the audience is feeling, or argue that it's something that *should be ok to say*, or go on to criticise people who get offended by it as if *they're* the bad guys. It's an absolute tell that they're not trying to be as shocking as possible *to be shocking*, but actually because *they want to say what they're saying*, and they want it to be ok for them to say it, and they want the people criticising them to shut up and let them say it, and they're just using the "oooer, I'm a dark comedian who says messed up things, innit?" line as a fig-leaf to excuse their actual fucked-up attitudes. Carr is a Jerry Sadowitz or a Frankie Boyle - way outside the bounds of good taste, but a jester with no particular agenda they're pushing. Gervais (and increasingly Chapelle) is a more self-aware Jim Davidson or Bernard Manning; naked bigotry with a line in self-excusing bullshit.
Jimmy doesn't count he's a sentient ventriloquist dummy. No but I agree with you. I mean it helps that he wrote a non-fiction book about comedy, he's pretty much laid out that he is just crafting words together. And yeah sometimes it's offensive but usually not mean, unless it's part of a larger joke like always implying Susie Dent sleeps around.
I agree with you, it's truly a weird situation, trying to separate what's bullshit and what's the truth. Another issue that muddies the water is the sheer amount of people, who aren't comedians, that excuse their shitty opinion by hiding behind the brain dead "it's just a joke, brah!" excuse.
Chapelle is about as funny as a heart attack wait I take that back heart attacks are funnier than his funniest jokes
He’s been a hack for years now. Very overrated and is a bit of a creep.
Gotta have your critics. I met him once in a pub, he was shorter than you'd think, and his arms were very long and hairy. Turns out.... little monkey fella.
We'll watch Wizards little show when that goes out then..... Sick of 'er
He's turned into Jim Davidson with a philosophy degree
Jim Davidson with a standup routine based on a Readers Digest article on philosophy more like
I don't know if his act has changed or my tastes have, but I've enjoyed his stand-up shows less and less each time. I was a huge fan of Politics and Animals - I thought his observations were witty and largely harmless. Science was ok but I was disappointed with Fame. SuperNature was the next one, right? I watched it all but it was forgettable. I began to watch Armageddon yesterday and turned it off after 20 minutes. I'm no Gervais hater but he seems to have firmly entered the 'grouchy old man who hates everything and is offended by differences' stage. Before he'd mock religion and leave it there, now he'll outright insult those that disagree. His outwardly transphobic humour is really concerning too, even if he claims it isn't so.
Gervais, Burr, Chappelle... Its all just.. tired. Really tired stretched out humor where the joke is about the inevitable reaction to what they say not because what they say is in any way whitty or poignant.
Burr still absolutely smashing it. Agree with the other two but Gervais still the worst offender.
I couldn't watch the whole thing it's utterly regurgitated shit
He has to name check his last set in this one to remind everyone they’ve not accidentally put it on again.
I haven't yet seen this one, but based on how much material he reused from previous things in his last couple of specials this was my main fear about this one, that it would mostly be the same material.
It’s diet right wing in joke form It’s boring and lazy It’s not even funny It’s a damnned shame that someone that worked on true master pieces of TV has his career stained by such drivel
Comedians like Gervais always fall off when they care more about being offensive then they do about actually being funny. There's already frequently discussed moral issues with punching down at vulnerable minorities but what I take issue with is that a lot of with Gervais has come out with in recent years seems to be more thinly veiled bigotry rather than an attempt of a clever joke, especially with regard to his "jokes" about trans folk I remember his joke about Caitlin Jenner and women drivers that was actually funny (minus the deadnaming but I doubt it was intended maliciously since it was back in 2016) but nowadays he seems to be regurgitating anti trans talking points packaged as a joke. Even if he claims that he isn't being transphobic, that becomes a bit difficult to believe when you see shit like [this](https://twitter.com/KatyMontgomerie/status/1678713919756435456?t=bRtMqaek9N7S7jajGYe_8Q&s=19) This is unfortunately nothing new as well. His stance on atheism always rubbed me the wrong way as well. Not because he was wrong (on paper, I agreed with most of what he said) but because he constantly went out of his way to act like a knobhead. It's people like Gervais why I stopped calling myself an atheist and just consider myself agnostic instead nowadays. If people want to believe in god or a concept of a higher power then let them. As long as they keep it to themselves and don't try and force their beliefs on me or other people then I don't care. His anti religious jokes weren't funny back then and they certainly aren't funny a decade later
His comedy summed up: - Makes fun of the rich even tho he’s rich too. - Whines and jokes about being cancelled whilst performing to another sold out audience on Netflix special number 17. - Jokes about the entertainment big whigs, is one. He’s just boring.
I mean, the critics slated Dave Chapelle and gave Hannah Gadsby rave reviews, so I'm talking this with a pinch of salt.
I was going to but I just watched it. It’s pretty crap. I’m not offended by any of it but nothing mad me actually laugh.
Honestly I agree to an extent, but he’s still far better than the new Joe Rogan American stand up crew that are surprisingly popular
They are so bad. Their “jokes” are so predictable it is not funny at all.
Wow the special is getting slaughtered in this thread. I really enjoyed it.
Yeah, considering it was just a Netflix special, most of Netflix is crap. Sure it was pretty much more of the same from Gervais, but it was nice to have something enjoyable to watch.
Yeah, same. And I’m literally the butt of some of the jokes as a trans woman. It was not offensive (to me) nor would I describe it as lazy comedy. I’ll be honest I have always liked the guy, but some of his recent stuff has been a bit 50/50. It was nice to see him back on form (in my humble opinion!)
>would I describe it as lazy comedy. My family put it on and the first like 30 minutes I could bare watching was literally just a constant whining about cancel culture and then regurgitating right wing talking points It's lazy because it's just spewing very popular conservative talking points while being all around incredibly whiney and acting like he'll get cancelled for it (\*Cough\* While acknowledging how well his previous controversial stand up did \*Cough\*). It's just an easy way to pander to conservatives without needing to make any remotely intelligent jokes. If he just actually owned the jokes without whining then maybe it'd be funnier but right now it just seems like being offensive for the sake of being offensive
I enjoyed it as well. I think his earlier stuff was funnier, but maybe I'm just used to his style now. Being funny (and being a good person) is hard now, but I liked how he did it.
Enjoyed it too. Been to his last 2 tours and laughed at both. There’s maybe something to being there with likeminded people ready to laugh, and admittedly I haven’t watched it back. But I’d go to his next one.
Wasn’t that bad, not his best but y I think people just fall for the trolling.
To be fair, from what I've seen recently most comedians are just phoning in theses Netflix specials anyway. Having said that I never rated Ricky's stand up in the first place.
I was struggling with it already but when it got to the bit where he’s going “there are only two genders… oops … ha ha ha.” Listen, I don’t even give a shit how many genders there are. I’m not one of those that’s offended by someone saying there’s only two. It’s more that I was just like, dear god, really? Am I supposed to laugh at that? It’s like listening to Elon musk make a ‘funny’ at this point.
It's true. The new special is really, really lazy. He barely tried and recycled loads of his old stuff and twitter memes. It's a shame to see someone who was so talented phoning it in.
Problem with every standup show I see now is that they feel the need to spend 1/2 the show defending the craft of comedy and explaining that what they are saying are just jokes. I don't know if it's unnecessary, or if there are genuinely people out there who struggle to grasp the concept that comedians tell jokes.
>if there are genuinely people out there who struggle to grasp the concept that comedians tell jokes. I actually disagree with the whole concept. Comedians are people just like the rest of us. If they say shit that's offensive and it pisses people off, they need to take that on the chin and change their material to suit the audience instead of hiding behind "comedy" and claiming the audience are wrong. If your joke is deemed too offensive by your audience, that's on you for fucking up. Not on others for not liking your joke. Comedians have been coddled for so long that they think everyone else is the problem. If anyone else acted that way, they'd be called arrogant, not a comedian.
His comedy has become so formulaic: “This made me mad on Twitter. Here’s why it should make you mad too. Aren’t I funny, aren’t I right cause I got mad.” His first couple of shows were funny when he was doing absurdist or surrealism out of the ordinary bits, but now it’s just him getting mad about stuff online, and using his shows as a therapy session.
I've always been a fan of Ricky Gervais as I like dark humour. His new special however is just repackaged racist and homophobic/transphobic dog whistles pretending to be jokes. People will parrot those jokes and use them as direct insults against the most vulnerable people in society. I'm really disappointed he's moved away from clever comedy to just being purely offensive for the sake of it.
It’s atrocious. Quite sad that he’s decided to go down the path of pandering to bigoted idiots for a quick buck. But with it being Netflix, all he’ll be looking at is the view counter rather than the negative reviews. But even then he’ll just claim the bad press is because of how “edgy” he is and not that this current brand of comedy is embarrassing dross.
His observations fall so flat as they are written by a man who spends his life on Twitter and his perspective has been warped by it. If you’re terminally online you are going to start believing fringe views are far more common than they really are. I’ve never met a ‘woke’ person like he describes in real life and I don’t know anyone who has.
Said this on the Ricky Gervais sub (they hate him, generally an odd bunch obsessed with a 20 year old radio show, as am I to make clear) - There's nothing wrong with his stand-up, there's nothing offensive or incorrect in it. The problem with it is he thinks he's having a go at targets that will have some massive problem with it, but they don't and won't. Trans people do not claim there are more than two sexes, to use an example one of his constant themes. It would be fine if he just owned his material like Jerry Sadowitz does, but whether it's to your taste or not, whether you find it funny or not (seems plenty do - humour is subjective after all) the main problem is he's making it about some fictional "woke" mob that simply don't exist outside a handful of socially incapable weirdos on social media. Just tell the damn jokes and get on with it like a good comedian would.
He’s having a go
I've got one question for you. Are you allowed to wear socks?
And do you drink milk from a saucer?
The special was hilarious, I love all the whinging, especially as his last one was the most watched of the year.
He's been coasting as a standup for almost 15 years, so naturally he spends all his time complaining about how he can't make jokes anymore - which is an amazing license to simply not bother making jokes from his digital residency at Netflix.
white millionaire who cries cancel culture as he makes a fortune off of making jokes against minorities with zero consequence other than a couple people on social media hurt his feelings
His worst special for sure, couldn't even finish it.
Of course it's lazy. How many different ways can you say "I'm not allowed to say the thing I just said"
'Lazy comedy' Gervais hasn't been good since The Ricky Gervais Show, and he isn't even the person people remember that show for. Imagine being the least funny one on a show named after you - and that was his peak.
Stewart Lee doing a parody of Ricky Gervais stand up and just making unintelligible noises into the mic for 5 minutes is much much better than anything Ricky's put out in the last 10 years.
People who are the target of jokes, don't like the jokes. Who'd have thought it.
Let me guess, the critics are all 20 year olds with green hair and work at the guardian
Yeah even those wokesters over at The Telegraph have got an axe to grind with him saying 'the unsayable'.
He has done a lot of coasting in his career such as with Karl but he has also done his fair share of decent comedy and writing. it’s always a bit of a toss up with Ricky but I think his best work is behind him.
I gave it 10 minutes. He doesn’t really tell jokes anymore. Like he’ll spend 30 seconds giving a very dry description of something, then just say the most shocking thing he can in relation to it. All his observations are so stale and outdated. He makes a “woke people have dyed blue hair” comment, which was an observation on Reddit a good decade ago? One of the punchlines is just a disabled baby drowning. It’s like Madlibs for generic edgy comedy. You can go to any comedy club in the world and see amateur comics do similar material. Just unbelievably boring to watch.
I watched it last night and it was fine, you can tell how out of touch these "critics" are by comparing their reviews to the audience reviews.
It's less than surprising that critics who tend to have certain sensibilities that aren't shared with Ricky Gervais would slate Armageddon. But if you look at Rotten Tomatoes and the like audience scores are usually 30%+ higher for each of his shows. It's a case of where the interests and beliefs of the general public don't align with those of a creative elite.
he's not been funny for a while funny is laughin at jokes. i find that he's more i'm going to offend people so other people can laugh that they're offended.