Post An Unpopular Opinion

[SuperBacon]

Ricky Gervais has provided me with some of my favourite, most cherished TV moments in my life: The whole of The Office, the Extras Christmas special...in fact, lots of Extras to be honest. I quite enjoyed his podcasts which got turned into The Ricky Gervais Show, and I enjoyed An Idiot Abroad. Derek was OK, I even liked some of Animals and Politics, and his Golden Globe presentations.

But he is massivelu up his own arse, and doesn't seem to know that he has become a parody of himself.

The Garry Shandling (big up another Garry, there are very few of us) incident is unwatchable, it's so toe curling.

[Sphinx]

Yeah, loved The Office and liked Extras a lot. I watched his latest stand up though and thought it was dog. I don't care for him as a person but loved those first two. His acting as Brent, in the series and not the film, is brilliant especially for someone who'd never really acted before.

Bit of an aside, but I recently saw an episode of something he did on Channel 4 where he's a corporate boss who dresses as Bowie. It was shit - crazy how he can go from that to Brent in a couple of years.

[Mr_Danger]

He's in the same bracket as Peter Kay for me in that his sitcom output is far better than his stand up and award show stuff. Derek is dog shit though.

I've just watched a couple of Shandling clips and one where Shandling says there was a mix up between doing the doc and his extra for his DVD so he just played it out for excruciatingly awkwardness to see what would happen. He actually speaks quite favourably of Gervais.

[HarmonicGenerator]

3 hours ago, Chest Rockwell said:

I think the unpopular opinion would be to say that he's great. I'll not be saying that, though, as I think he's a cunt and a one trick pony.

I'm sure he has featured on the ukff twatlist more than once.

Yep, he just cracked the top 30 in the second list, and was top 3 in the fourth list.

[chokeout]

4 minutes ago, Mr_Danger said:

He's in the same bracket as Peter Kay for me in that his sitcom output is far better than his stand up and award show stuff. Derek is dog shit though.

I've just watched a couple of Shandling clips and one where Shandling says there was a mix up between doing the doc and his extra for his DVD so he just played it out for excruciatingly awkwardness to see what would happen. He actually speaks quite favourably of Gervais.

Both great examples of someone who is far better when filtered through other writers. Phoenix Nights was just as much the work of Spikey and Fitzmaurice and the characters dropped off a cliff when he wrote Max and paddy without them, Similar to Gervais and his non Stephen Merchant stuff. 

[ColinBollocks]

They bring up the Shandling incident in the excellent Shandling documentary directed by Judd Apatow. According to the doc, Shandling was supposedly pissed off because they were supposed to do his project first, then after that Gervais would get to interview him. Of course, he turns up and they had set up all the cameras in his house and decided to do the Gervais interview.
That and he was supposedly trying to teach Gervais "how to be in the moment", or something.

I used to be a massive Gervais fan boy, but as his projects get worse his solipsism gets worse. The way he labours a sentence as if he's spouting something profound and important makes me want to punch a wall. Oh and he's not bothered if you like him or not, or so he keeps telling us all the time because he doesn't care, right.

My favourite Gervais clanger is when he earnestly said "it could be a Bruce (Springsteen) song" about one of the tunes he wrote for the terrible Life On The Road, while on Jim Norton's radio show. No laugh, no comedic inflection on the voice, just that laboured stutter.

[Hannibal Scorch]

24 minutes ago, chokeout said:

Both great examples of someone who is far better when filtered through other writers. Phoenix Nights was just as much the work of Spikey and Fitzmaurice and the characters dropped off a cliff when he wrote Max and paddy without them, Similar to Gervais and his non Stephen Merchant stuff. 

So are we saying Ricky Gervais is Vinny Ru to Stephen Merchant's Vince McMahon?

[Chest Rockwell]

That sounds like a documentary I definitely want to watch, Mr Bollocks.

[Hannibal Scorch]

18 minutes ago, Chest Rockwell said:

That sounds like a documentary I definitely want to watch, Mr Bollocks.

I believe it was on HBO so will be on Sky Atlantic I imagine soon

[SuperBacon]

50 minutes ago, Chest Rockwell said:

That sounds like a documentary I definitely want to watch, Mr Bollocks.

Already been on Atlantic. Well worth seeking out.

[Carbomb]

Foo-Fighters are extremely boring and middle-of-the-road rock.

[Keith Houchen]

They don't have the cutting edge brilliance of Ocean Colour Scene, that's for sure.

[Carbomb]

2 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

They don't have the cutting edge brilliance of Ocean Colour Scene, that's for sure.

The Riverboat Song > Learn To Fly

[SpursRiot2012]

I don't think Gervais is a good standup at all. But he has a built in audience that means he can fill venues anyone else with his level of talent for standup wouldn't be able to. Honestly, he's middling at best.

[Chest Rockwell]

51 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

Foo-Fighters are extremely boring and middle-of-the-road rock.

The first album is still really good and has stood the test of time well. I do find the rest of their stuff pretty boring, but they're decent live.

13 minutes ago, SpursRiot2012 said:

I don't think Gervais is a good standup at all. But  has a built in audience that means he can fill venues anyone else with his level of talent for standup wouldn't be able to. Honestly, he's middling at best.

I've accidentally quoted this and can't delete it on my phone. Uhh. Spurs is jelly of Ricky.

Edited July 30, 2018 by Chest Rockwell