Was Ricky Gervais Ever Funny?
I had the misfortune the other weekend of catching about 20 minutes of the Ricky Gervais “comedy” film Ghost Town. To say I wasn’t amused would be a massive understatement. In fact, the segment I saw seemed to be completely devoid of jokes, barring a jarring rant from Gervais about how the Chinese are weird. It lead me to conclude that Gervais is past his prime; that he’s gone off the boil. But then I started to wonder whether Gervais ever really had a prime.
Let’s look at his career to date. His stand-up simply seems to consist of saying politically incorrect things and then laughing uproariously at his own naughtiness. He resembles a teenager doing a bit of verbal flashing; unfortunately, he lacks the mitigating factor of relative youth. A fat, middle-aged man trying to be controversial isn’t stand-up – it is more the behaviour of pretty much any patron of any pub any night of the week.
Being on television seems to bring some discipline to Gervais – mercifully. Extras certainly had its funny moments – the sight of celebrities demeaning themselves is always welcome. Yet in terms of tone, Extras is all over the place. It seems to want to be an excruciating comedy of manners, yet also includes ludicrous characters like the agent. It wants to be Curb Your Enthusiasm, but it doesn’t quite seem capable of achieving that. And by the end of the series it has become an unfocussed rant against the nature of celebrity – which is ironic, given how much Gervais seems to relish his celebrity status.
And then we have The Office. To diss The Office is seen by some as a sort of sacrilege. And certainly, there are some moments of absolute genius within that series, although I’d argue that the American version of The Office is superior to the original (which is a post for another day). But watching The Office - and the documentaries on the DVD – lead to the conclusion that Ricky Gervais played David Brent so well because he is, to a massive extent, David Brent anyway. Which is why Gervais will probably always struggle to make his mark in anything other than The Office. He’s a one-trick pony, and he ended the series containing his best performance years ago.
posted by The Nameless Libertarian @ 4:04 pm
3 Comments
3 Comments:
I contend that he was never funny - not even in "The Office".
He's just an unfunny big headed cunt. The sort of guy you would never get tired of hitting.
I find it sad that people think he's so talented. He reminds me of some quite funny project managers I've worked with, only they also had better wit. Really, if you're not as funny as people who aren't paid to be funny then you're in trouble.
I suspect that much of his career was boosted by the fact that The Office represented precisely the sort of people that BBC types like to sneer at: provincial, lower-middle class types not involved in "creative" work.
But maybe people will realise how much they got suckered in and how he's the Emperor's New Clothes.
And yes, from Christopher Guest to Garry Shandling to Larry David, they all do this stuff a lot better than him. In fact, I was initially put off Curb Your Enthusiasm because of people comparing it to Ricky Gervais.
I'm not a fan of "stand up" comedy - it tends to be some bloke or woman boring us all with their social observations and trying to be funny by throwing rudeness into the mix. Anyway, I had the misfortune of listening to a couple of Gervais's podcasts. Awful! Two chaps in the discussion would talk about a topical subject, then the third man in the room would throw in some bizarre comment relating to the chosen subject and this would then escalate into a really boring not-so-funny discussion, with built in laughter.
Gervais, you don't tell jokes, you are a joke!
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home