Television Ricky Gervais- SuperNature

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I've seen enough of the online talk around this to know it'd be a complete waste of time for me to watch it.

What did you like about it?
 

SilentWitness

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I'm really surprised that another edgy comedian has decided to use trans people as the butt of their jokes.
 

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There goes Ricky Gervais. Is there anything that man can’t do?
 

Solius

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Saw a clip of the trans thing and yeah, nah.
 

sullydnl

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*insert James Acaster clip*

But honestly nah, aside from anything else his early shows put me off him as it was pretty clear at that point that his success in TV had seen him overpromoted relative to his skill as an actual stand-up. He seemed to be a relative novice doing fairly rudimentary stand-up to artificially bigger audiences. Not sure if he's gotten better in the years since.
 

Berbasbullet

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Used to love Rick, but hes disappeared so far up his arse. Sick of the religious, poo pooing paranormal, trans rubbish.

Also pretending to try and be cancelled whilst not even being that edgy.

Podcast stuff will always make me laugh and the office.
 

Nico87

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Used to love Rick, but hes disappeared so far up his arse. Sick of the religious, poo pooing paranormal, trans rubbish.

Also pretending to try and be cancelled whilst not even being that edgy.

Podcast stuff will always make me laugh and the office.
Pretty much my exact thoughts on him, I like some of his old stand up but his new stuff there is probably 5 or 10 mins in the hour that is mildly amusing. It’s not even that it’s too offensive, it’s just not funny.
 

Pexbo

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It’s really weird, he’s always been a bit of an activist but he’s another lefty that starts to flirt with libertarianism as they age and start to feel like the progressive youth are in some way critical of their established beliefs and behaviours.

It’s like people grow up thinking they have got everything right, that their form of progressivism is the right one and it becomes immutable so when the world moves on and the next generation of progressives starts to move the dial and introduce new ideas that they find it hard to understand or subscribe to, they kick into defensive mode and start lashing out… “it’s not me it’s them!”
 

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*insert James Acaster clip*

But honestly nah, aside from anything else his early shows put me off him as it was pretty clear at that point that his success in TV had seen him overpromoted relative to his skill as an actual stand-up. He seemed to be a relative novice doing fairly rudimentary stand-up to artificially bigger audiences. Not sure if he's gotten better in the years since.
Hislop had him pegged from the start.


(Also this self deprecating Gervais almost feels like another person entirely…)
 

Berbasbullet

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Hislop had him pegged from the start.


(Also this self deprecating Gervais almost feels like another person entirely…)
Now he blocks people on twitter who think afterlife is terrible :lol:
 

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It’s like people grow up thinking they have got everything right, that their form of progressivism is the right one and it becomes immutable so when the world moves on and the next generation of progressives starts to move the dial and introduce new ideas that they find it hard to understand or subscribe to, they kick into defensive mode and start lashing out… “it’s not me it’s them!”
Relatable.
 

Solius

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Now he blocks people on twitter who think afterlife is terrible :lol:
He was alright at one point but I had to unfollow him because all he does is retweet praise of Afterlife. It’s relentless. Or he replies saying “thanks” but as quote tweet so everyone can see it.
 

Bosws87

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Thought it was pretty funny in parts, was pretty tame compared to Jimmy Carr's.

If jokes that women can't have penises terribly offends you, i wouldn't watch
 

b82REZ

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I've always felt Gervais needs Merchant more than Merchant needs Gervais.

It appears that Merchant is able to reign in Gervais and his "controversial" takes. Gervais often comes across as a hyperactive toddler who thinks his views are gospel. That's why I tend to avoid his stand ups because I find them too preachy.
 

SilentWitness

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Thought it was pretty funny in parts, was pretty tame compared to Jimmy Carr's.

If jokes that women can't have penises terribly offends you, i wouldn't watch
It's not just that it's offensive to trans people but it's such lazy shite 'humour' that you'd expect from an old man at the pub, not an established comedian.
 

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It's not just that it's offensive to trans people but it's such lazy shite 'humour' that you'd expect from an old man at the pub, not an established comedian.
i'm genuinely wondering why it's offensive to trans people at all. Is it that any joke about a trans person is automatically offensive? Because the jokes seemed very mild.
 

Chairman Steve

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I’m the same as some people in here. Used to like Gervais but slowly began to hate him post-Extras. Disappeared up his ass, Obnoxious on Twitter, Doesn’t make stuff that’s as good anymore.

2002 XFM Gervais would have punched present day Gervais in the face, after mocking him relentlessly.
 

Oranges038

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I never really found him that funny at all, didn't like the office, no idea how anyone could watch it. Some of his other stuff is ok.

But, in the first ten minutes alone he makes jokes about trans people, disabled toddlers, god, reincarnation, ghost hunters and dead babies. Yet, everyone is going mad about this little bit, it's basically just free advertising for him.

Where are all the complaints from the offended believers in god and reincarnation, ghost hunters, disabled toddlers and people who've buried babies? I laughed at the dead baby joke, it didn't offend me, because I did laugh at my babies funeral, I know it can happen.
 

Berbasbullet

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I’m the same as some people in here. Used to like Gervais but slowly began to hate him post-Extras. Disappeared up his ass, Obnoxious on Twitter, Doesn’t make stuff that’s as good anymore.

2002 XFM Gervais would have punched present day Gervais in the face, after mocking him relentlessly.
He still uses material from the podcast (or more accurately, from Karl) to this day.
 

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"like a man in silk pyjamas shooting pigeons
Hislop had him pegged from the start.


(Also this self deprecating Gervais almost feels like another person entirely…)
See stuff like that (or clips from the office) remind me that he was a genuinely original and funny comic actor and I wasn’t being a tit for finding his podcasts absolutely hilarious. Comedy is like music, I suppose. The fame and acclaim that comes with success can curdle the secret sauce that made them special in the first place.
 

Chairman Steve

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He still uses material from the podcast (or more accurately, from Karl) to this day.
I’m not surprised I must say. Thing is though I’ve got all those old XFM shows and I’m pretty sure Gervais on those XFM shows said that those conversations ended up making up a considerable amount of his early standup shows, when he was doing tongue in cheek self promotion gags.

I guarantee he’s saying it‘s completely new stuff these days and if you say ‘wait isn’t that a Karl bit you did on XFM 20 years ago?’, he’ll block you, or he sets his rabid fanboys on you.
 

sullydnl

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It's not just that it's offensive to trans people but it's such lazy shite 'humour' that you'd expect from an old man at the pub, not an established comedian.
Indeed.

It may well be different for people who are actually trans or from whatever other background but I don't think I've ever actually been offended by any comedy in my life.

The issue for me is that it's hack. If you were to do a parody of an unfunny, out-of-touch, middle-aged, male millionaire comedian doing lame stand-up it would immediately involve trans and cancel culture jokes. There's a meme of the word "Triggered" being added to stock photos of smug looking white guys to create Netflix comedy special thumbnails and Gervais is basically that in real life.
 

lsd

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The fact both Nish and James were able to do routines in the past that completely predict what Gervais is doing now proves just how lame Gervais is now surely.

I've never gotten how people rate Gervais as a stand up when he is so unfunny without Stephen Merchant writing his material and just tries to come off as shocking by repeating things other people have already done
 

SilentWitness

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i'm genuinely wondering why it's offensive to trans people at all. Is it that any joke about a trans person is automatically offensive? Because the jokes seemed very mild.
It depends on the joke and the context of the joke. If you have a trans comedian making jokes about themselves or their community depending on what the joke is about it would likely be okay because they have an understanding and nuance of the topic that allows them to make jokes that aren't going to be 'offensive'. What Gervais is doing in his material isn't clever or nuanced. It's the exact same dross that has been flying about twitter and the anti-trans culture for years that isn't funny and is an easy 'joke'. It's not funny, it's not clever and it's doing the opposite of what he'd tell you all he's trying to do.
 

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XFM era Gervais would rip the piss out of him in his current guise. He’d now be one of the people he mocked for getting a shout out from Tom O’Connor at the Radio and Television awards. “Table 45, Ricky Gervais!”
 

Brophs

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I suspect the rush to cancel which he tells us is out there is based more on the complete lack of wit, nuance or genuine humour in his work, rather than him sailing too close to the wind with his material.
 

hobbers

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I've always felt Gervais needs Merchant more than Merchant needs Gervais.

It appears that Merchant is able to reign in Gervais and his "controversial" takes. Gervais often comes across as a hyperactive toddler who thinks his views are gospel. That's why I tend to avoid his stand ups because I find them too preachy.
Don't think the XFM show and podcasts would have been listenable without Merchant there. He's like the perfect conversation emulsifier.
 

LDUred

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I am not here to praise or denounce Ricky Gervais but all he has done here is parrot gender ideology for laughs.

A committed gender ideologue would not disagree with anything Gervais has said.

I don't get the furore over this and people are reacting exactly as the producers (and indeed, Gervais) would want. He hasn't said anything controversial while inciting controversy. It's genius, in a way.