# Shut the fuck up, Ricky Gervais. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 16, 2015, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shut-the-fuck-up-ricky-gervais/717851 "2015-04-16T18:17:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shut-the-fuck-up-ricky-gervais/717851/61 "2015-04-16T20:26:12Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > …when the local slaughterhouses start showing pictures of their workers lying next to dead cows giving the thumbs up and smiles that will also be the last day I buy meat from those slaughterhouses. > > I mean, all those photos of US troops smiling and posing over the dead bodies of Iraqis was all good and fine correct? Because those Iraqi’s were dead, and they weren’t killed by you, so why show them any respect? First --ironic user name/thread subject combination. Second: repeat after me: there is a difference between human life and animal life. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shut-the-fuck-up-ricky-gervais/717851/62 "2015-04-16T20:27:27Z")
I think Ricky Gervais probably should have kept his opinions to himself. That said, just as a point of clarification… [quote=“Doctor\_Why\_Bother, post:1, topic:717851”] [li] Giraffes are not an endangered species.[/li][/QUOTE] This is true, technically speaking. However it appears the population has dropped precipitously in the [last decade or so](http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/2014/11/24/giraffes-under-threat/). There are a lot fewer giraffes than there are African Elephants. I wouldn’t be that sanguine about their long-term prospects and although I have nothing against hunting per se, even sport hunting, I personally wouldn’t shoot a giraffe. Stick to shooting something like introduced wild pigs in CA - probably taste better anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shut-the-fuck-up-ricky-gervais/717851/63 "2015-04-16T20:28:22Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > …when the local slaughterhouses start showing pictures of their workers lying next to dead cows giving the thumbs up and smiles that will also be the last day I buy meat from those slaughterhouses. > > I mean, all those photos of US troops smiling and posing over the dead bodies of Iraqis was all good and fine correct? Because those Iraqi’s were dead, and they weren’t killed by you, so why show them any respect? Right. Because murdering humans is _exactly the same thing_ as hunting animals. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shut-the-fuck-up-ricky-gervais/717851/64 "2015-04-16T20:28:58Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > As noted, the giraffe was obviously not absent the companionship of other giraffes. So her story already doesn’t seem to match up to reality. Kicked out of the HERD. One other giraffe does not make a HERD. See, HERD animals can be cruel. They kick out aged, infirm, and weak-minded herd members. I know this is shocking to your refined sensibilities, especially as you seem concerned about his prospects for – snort – companionship. Because if you don’t have a buddy to tell you to play the black seven on the red six, why, life as a savannah giraffe just ain’t worth living. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shut-the-fuck-up-ricky-gervais/717851/65 "2015-04-16T20:32:27Z")
Hey, maybe they were BOTH kicked out of the herd! He’s a nearly-dead abandoned giraffe who could be used as a means of survival for villagers. She’s a young filly who goes by her own rules, even if it means the contempt of her parents for hanging out with exiled elders! _Together, they fight crime!_ Well, I mean they used to… ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shut-the-fuck-up-ricky-gervais/717851/66 "2015-04-16T20:40:58Z")
The internet, more than anything, hates anyone who hurts animals, especially if they’re cute or majestic. This isn’t the first time a hunter’s gotten flamed for posting their trophy pics. ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shut-the-fuck-up-ricky-gervais/717851/67 "2015-04-16T20:43:55Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Kicked out of the HERD. > > One other giraffe does not make a HERD. > > **See, HERD animals can be cruel**. They kick out aged, infirm, and weak-minded herd members. > > I know this is shocking to your refined sensibilities, especially as you seem concerned about his prospects for – snort – companionship. Because if you don’t have a buddy to tell you to play the black seven on the red six, why, life as a savannah giraffe just ain’t worth living. (bolding mine) No they can’t. That’s an athropomorfication as snortworthy as suggesting the animal had any concept of companionship. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shut-the-fuck-up-ricky-gervais/717851/68 "2015-04-16T20:45:40Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > Wait, what? > > There’s a pretty big fucking difference between eating meat and being happy about animals dying. Nobody is smiling and snapping selfies next to animals as they’re led into the slaughter house. Or if they are, they’re also some twisted sickos. Sure. And as I devour my tasty hamburger with bacon I ask everyone at the table to take 30 seconds of silence, 15 for the cow and 15 for the pig, before I get back to my completely voluntary action of eating the meat that I paid someone to kill and prepare for me. :rolleyes: I get having moral questions/feelings about killing other animals. I don’t get how a person who eats meat (pays to have animals killed for ones own pleasure) can take a self-righteous high ground on how happy or not other people are about killing an animal. Really, what’s the difference between smiling next to a cow with a bullet through its head and smiling next to the grill holding up a sizzling steak? ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shut-the-fuck-up-ricky-gervais/717851/69 "2015-04-16T20:46:15Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Second: repeat after me: there is a difference between human life and animal life. …well duhhhhh. What an incredibly stupid thing to say. Humans and animals are different everybody! Thanks for point that out! Where would we be without your sage knowledge? Of course, that has nothing to do with my point. [QUOTE=Miller] Right. Because murdering humans is exactly the same thing as hunting animals. [/QUOTE] And you appear to be as thick as Bricker. Those humans weren’t “murdered.” They were killed in the middle of a war, killed by troops who did the killing on your behalf, paid for by your tax dollars. Thats not murder, thats just soldiers doing the job they get paid to do. Respect is a subjective thing. There is nothing hypocritical at all in both being able to enjoy a hamburger and to think posing in silly poses with dead animals is disrespectful. I have no problem with soldiers killing other soldiers in a warzone but there is no need to turn death into a celebration. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shut-the-fuck-up-ricky-gervais/717851/70 "2015-04-16T20:48:29Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I’m not a hunter, but I am an enthusiastic carnivore. I take great pleasure from the death of animals - I can’t have a steak if a cow doesn’t die first. I can’t enjoy the leather seats in my car unless ditto. I’ve got goose down pillows, and I’m pretty sure the geese who supplied them didn’t survive the experience. There’s a hundred other ways my life is enriched by the slaughter of animals. But I’ve never killed anything bigger than a fly with my own hands. With all the ways I’ve enjoyed myself at the expense of some animals life, if I then turned to a hunter and acted like I’m somehow a better person, because I don’t enjoy killing them… well, that’d make me a hypocrite of the first water. I like to go fishing, and when I catch myself a nice big striped bass destined for my grill, I smile. And I won’t even use the bones! Even when sportfishing for things I know I won’t eat (largemouth bass taste awful), I smile when I catch and release a nice one. I’ve been hunting twice (back as a teenager) with a bow I could barely use, and I think I made a rabbit laugh at me. I take pleasure in the…fish…? I took pleasure in the hunt - not as much as my friends who, though they also went home empty, weren’t as pathetic at it as I was and figuratively stood there next to Bugs laughing at me. Regarding [goose down](http://gentleworld.org/how-down-feathers-are-collected/): > [@](#): > > 1. Post mortem (after slaughter): > > For this method, feathers are removed from the birds’ bodies after they are killed for their flesh and/or internal organs (foie gras). The process usually involves scalding the birds’ bodies in hot water for one to three minutes so the feathers are easier to pull out. The body feathers can then be plucked (often by hand), after which the down is removed by hand or machine. > > 1. Live Plucking > > Live plucking is exactly what it sounds like: a goose or duck is held down by their neck or wings as the “targeted feathers” are torn from their skin. When the skin rips during this process it is sewn up with a straight needle (no analgesic or sterilization used) and the bird is left to recover before the next “harvest of feathers.” This process is repeated every 6-7 weeks before the bird’s eventual slaughter (or death from the trauma of the plucking process itself). In videos\* I watched of the live plucking process, the ducks and geese struggled against their captors, honking and squawking throughout the plucking. After their chest was stripped of feathers, the birds were simply tossed to the floor where they struggled to stumble away, some with freshly sewn skin. \*Plucked Alive: the Torture Behind Down and Goose Down Practices Called Animal Cruelty – CBS5 (There are a number of other videos out there as well.) Still not going to chastise anyone for wearing it or sleeping on it, just like I’m still going to eat veal and lamb, and go fishing for food and for sport (actually it’s always for sport, but it’s nice when I get a few meals out of it). ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shut-the-fuck-up-ricky-gervais/717851/71 "2015-04-16T20:50:41Z")
Hunting is fun and deeply satisfying. Gervais is an inexplicably famous menstrual clot. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shut-the-fuck-up-ricky-gervais/717851/72 "2015-04-16T20:52:24Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Who eats bears? Lots of people. Me, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shut-the-fuck-up-ricky-gervais/717851/73 "2015-04-16T20:58:55Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Kicked out of the HERD. > > One other giraffe does not make a HERD. > > See, HERD animals can be cruel. They kick out aged, infirm, and weak-minded herd members. Thanks, animal behavior expert **Bricker**! You know all about giraffe herds and how they kick members out because you, ah… Huh. It looks like other experts on giraffes disagree with you, [saying that herds do not kick out members](http://www.animalcorner.co.uk/wildlife/giraffes/giraffe_about.html), [they have no bull leader](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3599642/#S1), and [adult males spend 70% of their time alone](https://books.google.com/books?id=7Qd-AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA45&lpg=PA45&dq=However,+given+that+giraffe+bulls+are+solitary+nearly+70%25+of&source=bl&ots=_n74b1W_OS&sig=eU4w6F5EKY08Ho41d9UEXQv3MHQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=MyIwVa7sNaHLsASuj4G4Aw&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=However%2C%20given%20that%20giraffe%20bulls%20are%20solitary%20nearly%2070%25%20of&f=false), but that in no way is a harbinger of their death. You might want to contact those other people and correct them. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shut-the-fuck-up-ricky-gervais/717851/74 "2015-04-16T20:58:59Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > And if I found out the guy who slaughtered the cow that went into the burger I ate today posted pics of himself giving a thumbs-up next to the bloody carcass, I’d think he was a creepy asshole too. But you would still hork down the burger without thinking worse of yourself, right? ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shut-the-fuck-up-ricky-gervais/717851/75 "2015-04-16T21:01:57Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > They kick out aged, infirm, and weak-minded herd members. Definitive proof that the GOP isn’t a herd. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shut-the-fuck-up-ricky-gervais/717851/76 "2015-04-16T21:05:52Z")
You’re all missing the point: How old is she and can I give her that same smile while doing her on top of the giraffe?? Hell, make it TWO giraffes. Fucking hot! ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shut-the-fuck-up-ricky-gervais/717851/77 "2015-04-16T21:07:07Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Hunting is fun and deeply satisfying. Gervais is an inexplicably famous menstrual clot. Thank you, at least you acknowledge it’s fun and not because of a pure _but we feed the children!_ motive. Now, what must have happened to you in your life, you monster? ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shut-the-fuck-up-ricky-gervais/717851/78 "2015-04-16T21:08:55Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > But you would still hork down the burger without thinking worse of yourself, right? Already ate it. Did feel a bit bad about it, actually. Gotta hit the gym after work. But if you can dig up a photo of the slaughterhouse worker’s Instagram, I promise to feel bad about the upcoming bowel movement. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shut-the-fuck-up-ricky-gervais/717851/79 "2015-04-16T21:12:19Z")
Nothing “happened” to me. I simply enjoy every step of the process from hunt to kill to cook to eat. I don’t need to make excuses or justify any part of that to scabrous taints like Gervais or prissy hypocites on the SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shut-the-fuck-up-ricky-gervais/717851/80 "2015-04-16T21:13:03Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > …well duhhhhh. > > What an incredibly stupid thing to say. Humans and animals are different everybody! Thanks for point that out! Where would we be without your sage knowledge? > > Of course, that has nothing to do with my point. You’ll have to excuse us if we have some trouble sifting your “point” from that wreckage of a post you try to pass off as an argument. > [@](#): > > And you appear to be as thick as Bricker. Those humans weren’t “murdered.” They were killed in the middle of a war, killed by troops who did the killing on your behalf, paid for by your tax dollars. Thats not murder, thats just soldiers doing the job they get paid to do. Yeah, stupid me, not being able to divine exactly what sort of pictures you were talking about. I figures you were talking about Abu Ghraib, or something similar, because if you’re going to bring up wholly irrelevant subjects in a pathetic attempt to score some sort of emotional cheap shot, you’d want to go as big as possible. If you’re talking about soldiers who have just survived a legitimate military engagement, yeah, fucking smile away. But thanks for the clarification, because when I first read that post, I thought, “How could this person get any stupider?” That question has now been answered. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shut-the-fuck-up-ricky-gervais/717851.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shut-the-fuck-up-ricky-gervais/717851.md?page=5)