The Ricky Gervais Thread

[Shadow Wolf]

I find most comedians & comics unfunny.

Me as well. I only like a few. They are usually more vulgar and have a darker sense of humor. Gervais' disgust of humanity and love of animals is a reason I love him. And because there are no sacred cows to him. He's not mean or crude, but just about everything is fair game.

 

[Revoltingest]

Me as well. I only like a few. They are usually more vulgar and have a darker sense of humor. Gervais' disgust of humanity and love of animals is a reason I love him. And because there are no sacred cows to him. He's not mean or crude, but just about everything is fair game.

Not mean or crude?
The difference I see is that most comics use
meanness & crudity as crutches, purely for shock.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Not mean or crude?
The difference I see is that most comics use
meanness & crudity as crutches, purely for shock.

What I mean by that is he won't make jokes about things like rape or the symptoms and manifestations of physical/mental handicaps. It wasn't the peanut allergies he joked about, after all, it was people telling him he shouldn't even have that mentioned in his jokes (even though he was making fun of himself and how starting to make a lot of money spoiled him).

 

[Revoltingest]

What I mean by that is he won't make jokes about things like rape or the symptoms and manifestations of physical/mental handicaps. It wasn't the peanut allergies he joked about, after all, it was people telling him he shouldn't even have that mentioned in his jokes (even though he was making fun of himself and how starting to make a lot of money spoiled him).

I've heard one celeb say that Gervais checked with
him ahead of time about roasting him in a show.
He strikes me as a very skilled writer.

 

[Brickjectivity]

I've heard one celeb say that Gervais checked with
him ahead of time about roasting him in a show.
He strikes me as a very skilled writer.

He deserves to be roasted though, and I think he'd enjoy a good roasting. He's so entertained by himself in his own mind, but on stage he looks like an anxious worm. His face is full of pain, like he's about to be eaten by a bird. He tries to pass it off as boredom, but its clear he's got imposter syndrome. He thinks any one of us could do what he does, except that we have a mouth filter and have never met Madonna on a talk show. I could sneak up behind him and tell him to sit down and shut up and let the experts make some jokes. The Golden Globes should have done wonders for his ego, but he lost it in grade school.

 

[Debater Slayer]

What I mean by that is he won't make jokes about things like rape or the symptoms and manifestations of physical/mental handicaps.

He has apparently done something similar at least once before:

Daily Mirror: Tory minister demands comedian Ricky Gervais apologises for branding M.E. sufferers ‘lazy’ | 23 June 2018 | The ME Association

Then there's this too (setting aside the opinions in the piece; I'm just using it because it quotes Gervais' joke):

David Lister: So why the rape joke, Ricky?

Also, while a lot of his points about animal rights are sound, his blanket and unnuanced opposition to animal research and testing plays into the hands of those who demonize all animal researchers despite the significant efforts of many among the latter to develop treatments and medical procedures both for humans and animals.

He may be a popular comedian, but he's no medical expert despite having good intentions concerning animal rights.

 

[Debater Slayer]

While he's not the funniest comedian (though he is quite funny), he's among my favorites because if his animal rights activism.

I'm not sure whether he's aware of how much suffering (medical) animal research has helped to alleviate or the amount of lives it has saved (particularly for humans and domesticated animals), but since I doubt he has any bad intentions, I think he probably isn't. Considering that he's a high-profile celebrity, I think his repeating misconceptions about such a field is pretty harmful even though he may mean well.

 

[Martin]

Another demonstration of how Britain produces the best comedy.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

He has apparently done something similar at least once before:

Daily Mirror: Tory minister demands comedian Ricky Gervais apologises for branding M.E. sufferers ‘lazy’ | 23 June 2018 | The ME Association

Then there's this too (setting aside the opinions in the piece; I'm just using it because it quotes Gervais' joke):

David Lister: So why the rape joke, Ricky?

Also, while a lot of his points about animal rights are sound, his blanket and unnuanced opposition to animal research and testing plays into the hands of those who demonize all animal researchers despite the significant efforts of many among the latter to develop treatments and medical procedures both for humans and animals.

He may be a popular comedian, but he's no medical expert despite having good intentions concerning animal rights.

You're going to have to post footage of Gervais himself doing this. For starters he doesn't do rape jokes. He might mention it in a joke (like his character in the Office did), but he doesn't make jokes themselves about rape. And the MS? People said he made fun of peanut allergies but he didn't. That's why I used that as an example.

 

[Debater Slayer]

You're going to have to post footage of Gervais himself doing this. For starters he doesn't do rape jokes. He might mention it in a joke (like his character in the Office did), but he doesn't make jokes themselves about rape. And the MS? People said he made fun of peanut allergies but he didn't. That's why I used that as an example.

I don't really follow him or any other comedians: aside from the frequency of problematic material in many stand-up routines, I just generally don't find stand-up comedy interesting.

There doesn't seem to be a video of the joke in question, so it seems that if he indeed said it in those exact words, it was probably in a less publicized event.

I applaud any comedian who makes a decision to avoid rape jokes, though, so good on Gervais if he has done that... although I'd still be concerned about his misconceptions on animal research, which a friend has told me have personally affected her by encouraging protests where people got verbally abusive and resulted in the lab staff needing security escorts near where she works.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I don't really follow him or any other comedians:
...
There doesn't seem to be a video of the joke in question, so it seems that if he indeed said it in those exact words, it was probably in a less publicized event.

That makes it pretty hard to criticize them. You have to know the full joke, you have to know the context, and often times you can't go by sensationalized journalists trying to stir the **** pot. That's how articles of Chappelle supporting Trump got started even though he's never supported Trump and he did address those rumors in one of his stand ups.

 

[Debater Slayer]

That makes it pretty hard to criticize them. You have to know the full joke, you have to know the context, and often times you can't go by sensationalized journalists trying to stir the **** pot. That's how articles of Chappelle supporting Trump got started even though he's never supported Trump and he did address those rumors in one of his stand ups.

Chappelle is a whole different story; his controversial jokes are widely circulated. (And yes, I've watched videos of those.)

As for Gervais, I'd be more concerned about his efforts against necessary animal research than any joke, to be fair, since at least the latter have an extremely slim (if any) chance of threatening someone's safety or halting essential medical development.

 

[Watchmen]

Ricky Gervais has a new Netflix special called SuperNature. It’s not his best work, but I was definitely entertained. Love Ricky.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Ricky Gervais has a new Netflix special called SuperNature. It’s not his best work, but I was definitely entertained. Love Ricky.

That's basically my thoughts. And watching it, it left me feeling if he were more political he'd be a sort of English George Carlin (though he'd also have to seriously up the word play, which doesn't really do).