I like him but I agree he’s not very funny. But, there are things I’ve seen him in that I have humorous memories of, but I’m sure I didn’t laugh out loud at the moment. Like when he was on Louie as Louie’s doctor and he always tells him he has Aids or something. When I think about that it seems like it was pretty funny. But, I don’t think I laughed at the time.
When I opened this thread I thought it was about a new series he was in called “Nope” and I was intrigued.
I love him in The Office, Extras, Derek, Afterlife, An Idiot Abroad - he was even funny in that game show with the little kids. But I don’t like his standup.
I did like him in the Office, but I really like him in Derek. I was just going to say I might be the only board member that knows about this, but thought I better search before making the claim. Nope, I’m not the only one:
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=702543&highlight=derek
This. I can still picture Gervais going up and down with his arms.
He’s a comic genius, in my eyes.
I was brought up on a council estate just as I was, dirt poor.
I see him as a great social commentator. Watch Derek, actually sit and watch it.
It’s beautiful. As is the way he speaks of his upbringing. He’s not ashamed of it.
I can’t stand The Office, which just made me wince, and I steered clear of the later sitcoms also. But I saw him doing standup a couple of months ago and he was hilarious.
Strange.
j
The British version of the office is hilarious imo.
His stand up is amazing as are his podcasts.
I know nothing of Ricky Gervais, but is the Will Kempe character in the Shakespeare players in the BBC show Upstart Crow really like him? I think that character (played by Spencer Jones, about whom otherwise I also know nothing) is funny.
He’s funny once in a while and not funny quite often and just awful, bad, horrible a surprising amount of time.
Extras was a classic example of bad humor. He used what I call the “man in the green hat joke” a ton of times. The idea is this: The Idiot says something like: “You know what I hate, men who wear green hats.” etc. Of course just then a man with a green hat walks by, is offended, The Idiot cringes, etc.
A trite, stale, predictable joke category and it’s Gervais’ stock-in-trade on Extras.
He also overdoes the “embarrassment” humor like too many British people. Oh, I just said/did something embarrassing, time to cringe and wince, and now I’ll be embarrassed about being embarrassed so I can drag this dumb thing out even longer. Stephen Merchant also relies on this stale trope.
One would think after Spike Milligan and Monty Python British comedy would have steered towards fresh, original humor. But even Cleese went retrograde with Fawlty Towers.
I enjoyed his stand up. The TV shows, not to much.
Sometimes, I don’t don’t even know what to say to such Grandpa-like rantings. Monty Python did inspire lots of new lines of comedy but you’re asking “why didn’t all other types of comedy die?” Because people think it’s funny, that’s why not.
I wish to keep the lines clear between the person and the work as well.
I’ve never seen any of his Britcoms like Office, so I can’t say anything about those. I saw some promos for Afterlife and that looked OK, but I never did find that series here in the US. I didn’t look that hard.
Didn’t he host the Oscars once? Or one of those award shows. I watched that for a while, found him very funny part of the time, but more often cringeworthy. Maybe because he grins at his own jokes too much (if you’re going to skewer someone, I prefer deadpan). Maybe because he was going after cows that are sacred to me, I don’t remember details, just that I stopped watching well before halfway.
I’ve seen him on Graham Norton a few times, and have never liked what I saw there. If that is the real him vs. being his “work” then I don’t think much of him as a person, he seems very full of himself. If that is his “work” then again, mostly not funny. Compare that to Stephen Merchant. Perhaps I prefer self-deprecating to vicious.
I don’t think I have ever seen him when he wasn’t “on” so I can’t say if he is really kind and warm and sweet or whatever other qualities he is alleged to have.
In conclusion, I guess my jury is still out on his work, if something crossed in front of me I might watch it to find out more, but I’m not going out of my way to find it.
The first time I saw his Noah’s Ark bit, I laughed so hard I could hardly breathe.
I’m usually pretty well in sync with his sense of humor, but I can understand that he may not appeal to everybody. Which is fine. A comedian nobody dislikes is probably not a very good comedian.
New waver
So preferring newer stuff to older stuff makes one a grandpa?
Right.
That seems strange to me, being “full of himself” seems absolutely to be an act.
The central theme of “Extras” was a ordinary guy who gets a big break, starts to act like the big man and alienates his friends before coming to his senses. I don’t think you write something like that without at least a degree of self-awareness. Heck, in the series he got David Bowie to seranade him with a song that mocks him and his lust for fame. To be honest, all the celebrity appearances in Extras hinge upon them playing exaggerated and piss-taking versions of themselves, playing up their idiocy and often their self-importance. That seems to be be clearly what Gervais does to himself as well.
I confess it surprises me when others don’t see that.
Reported.
Reported