Ricky Gervais

[+Gringo]

It seems Ricky Gervais has won an Emmy award. I really don't find this guy funny at all and many of my work colleagues feel the same way. Does anyone really find him funny?  :symbol_question:

[beachcomber]

I'm with you there Senor Gringo

Never found him funny in anything he's done, just downright annoying. If he comes on the box I switch over.

He popped up in a cracking family film, Night at the Museum, with Ben Stiller, Steve Coogan, Mickey Rooney, **** van Dyke and Robin Williams which aptly demonstrated how sh1te he is compared with those guys.

[SMEE]

I think he is good. Its very subtle comedy. But very clever stuff. I rate him

[Guest Glen Mhor]

El Gringo is right. Ricky Gervais is not funny, vastly overrated and even more vastly over-hyped by London-based media luvvies. Mitchell & Webb - far funnier and original too.

:011:

[+Gringo]

He kind of shot to fame through the sit-com The Office. I saw just one of these episodes and never found it funny or entertaining and never watched any more of them.  I also saw a few clips from a stand up event (it just happened to be on at the time I switched the TV on) and again, he never appealed to my sense of humour.

[beachcomber]

I think he is good. Its very subtle comedy. But very clever stuff. I rate him

oooooooooh, meaning.....

  :016:

[Kingsmills]

I tend to agree with the other old farts. I suspect it's a generational thing.

[SMEE]

El Gringo is right. Ricky Gervais is not funny, vastly overrated and even more vastly over-hyped by London-based media luvvies. Mitchell & Webb - far funnier and original too.

:011:

Now..........thats a pile of steaming horse ****!! They just do the same boring crap all the time...the snooker commentators and the Number wang EVERY WEEK :020:

[Mee]

He is a comedy GOD, far far funnier than anyone else on telly (so thats NOT counting Gerry Sadowitz) and makes me laugh out loud on a regular basis.

He's an acquired taste though, first couple of times I watched the Office it just made me cringe and I didn't get it at all - watch series 2 of Extras, it'll have you  :rotflmao:   :003:

[The Mantis]

I think as a guy he would get on my tits. Seeing the extra bits on the DVDs makes him look a real puerile tawt. If you see him wrapping this guy up on 2 separate discs it is emarrassing and should have been left off.

But his work is quality. The Office and Extras are absolutely brilliant.

[CaleyD]

Not someone I go out of my way to watch as I think his work and gags are far too predictable.  I also don't think his "jokes" are that unique either, it's got that feeling that you've seen it all before and it's just a collection of funnies pulled from 1001 other office based comedy sketches from over the years.

I think it has a certain appeal based on the fact that when you watch it (The Office) you can see certain character traits that you can attach to people you may have worked with and I agree with what Mee says about it being an "acquired taste".  Much of it will sail right over your head if your not familiar with the characters.

The thing that really stands out about Gervais though is that he doesn't seem to have any grasp on where the TV ends and real life begins.  Having watched interviews etc he seems to try and live in that one character 24/7, he's very one dimensional in that respect and you can get bored of him very quickly.

[Heilandee]

"one dimensional" .....that's the description that keeeps coming into my head thinking of Rikky Gervais,I do think he's good at what he does but as you say it gets a bit predictable. I did however feel his pain in Extras,when Bowie started singing "funny lttle man" in the bar,qaulity stuff.

[Scotty]

I never like "the office" when I was in Inverness, but after moving over here, I started watching it on BBC Canada and started enjoying it. However, I am not so sure that RG is that funny ... cringeworthy is an apt description for me and the comedy seems to come from the fact - as CaleyD mentioned - that we see character traits in there from former bosses or work colleagues so in that respect it is either genius or luck on his part to tap into that.

To call him a one dimensional sitcom comedian seems about right and in that respect I would far rather watch comedians like Matt Lucas & David Walliams, or the 3 black women in "3 non blondes" who go for the shock value in their sketches to make it funny. One of the cleverest and funniest sitcoms I have watched recently was "coupling" and its no surprise that the Americans tried to copy it but couldnt make the complex comedy work, whereas their version of the (one dimensional and simple) office was a smash hit ... says it all really !!!

However, none of them surpass my comedy god ..... a man that makes me fall off my chair laughing or laugh so hard I have tears coming down my cheeks and that man is Billy Connolly. I was watching his "30 years erect" video at the weekend and could not stop laughing, and then went on youtube to find a few more clips and loved the Ibiza joke !

[Johnboy]

Ricky Gervais doesn't do much for this boring old fart either...

Have to agree with Scotty on Billy Connolly.... He is pure comic genius... :015: :022:

What do all you boring young farts think of him..?

[Joonya]

I certainly don't rate him, so its not a generation thing!

I have tried to watch the office, extra and his stand up 'comedies' but find all of it boring. It's like watching the worst student in drama class at school try and act our a scene from Phantom of the Opera!!!

[The Mantis]

As somebody who pissed himself laughing at things like The Crucifixion about 1975, then Riotous Assembly, Cop Yer Whack and so on, and saw him live about 1980, I think Billy Connolly has long sold out, become a luvvie and disappeared up his own ersehole. No 1 son likes him though, last time I checked....

[CaleyD]

I had an argument with someone not so long ago about Billy Connolly.  They claimed he was a comedy genius and I was in total disagreement.......for me, he is a comedy natural, and that's why he stands out head and shoulders above ever other comedian on the planet (past and present).

Might be some truth in what you say Mantis, but the fact he wouldn't give a feck about what you or anyone else thinks is part of the appeal IMO.

[Guest TinCanFan]

Al Murray's pretty good as is the Big Yin but RG is a bit hit or miss.

[The Mantis]

Oh I'm well aware that I'm exactly the type of parochial, narrow-minded, backward looking Scot he despises  :015: :015: :015: :015:

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

I have a phottie of me and Ricky down the local

And I always recall him telling me - ?When people say to me: would you rather be thought of as a funny man or a great boss? My answer?s always the same, to me, they?re not mutually exclusive.?

Or did I say that to him?

[Mee]

Heilandee totally gets him in the Bowie sketch in Extras when he says he feels his pain - thats what Gervais does best, he makes you laugh at his pain, its the undercurrent to all the other stuff, and he does it brilliantly. I think being "young" enough to appreciate the Smiths in a previous decade helps  :001:  :001:  :001:

[Heilandee]

Eh mind having these dicussions/arguments with my old man who thought Chic Murray and Tommy Cooper were the funniest men on the planet and Billy Connelly was a foul mouthed weegie welder.Comedy,like music is down to personal taste and changes as you mature,I remember years ago,crying with laughter at the Young Ones ,but seeing old episodes now i think it's absolute pish,some stuff like Fawlty towers and Fools and horses bridge all generations and tastes but for most one size disnae fit all,end of the day, if it maks you laugh it's funny ,eh?

[KingBeastie]

He's about as funny as cancer

[Guest TinCanFan]

I thought Extras was quite good but the epidode of the Simpsons he wrote was quite poor.

[Hamish]

I think he's very good and a bit of a ground-breaker too. There's so much comedy now that lends very heavily from The Office style. And if you watch his stand-up shows you'd realise that he's not one dimensional. I'd guess that a lot of people who don't find him funny find Bernard Manning or Chubby Brown (not Gordon!) funny  :001: And I think he makes a lot of good social comments in some of his work too, possibly a bit subtle for some though...