Stewart Lee

I saw his most recent show a few months ago when it was at its try-out stage (I've seen him a few times and I like him normally). He did indeed have a go at Ricky Gervais specifically for transphobia - he said something sarcastic like, "Because trans people really aren't getting enough of a kicking."

The weird thing is that a couple of months later I saw James Acaster's latest show (the cold lasagna one) and he opened his set by having a go at Gervais in almost exactly the same terms, ie about trans people having it too easy. I very much doubt that they copied each other. I think they both thought Gervais was an easy target and came up with the same lazy joke.

I was more disappointed in Acaster in a way. He's been so funny when I've seen him before - very surreal and quite endearing. Now he just sounds like any other woke comedian, full of swearing and political correctness.

I generally love Stewart Lee. I'd actually love to pick his brains about all this as the nature of offence has been a running theme in his shows for as long as I can remember.

He is very much not for everyone. I think if you like and "get" him, you like him, but i can see why many wouldn't. Despite being a big fan I've been to one or two of his shows that didn't do it for me (mainly the "Joe Pasquale in the garden" routine), but he usually makes me think, at least.

As others have said, he is perhaps an acquired taste, but he has a brilliant, inquiring mind so I wouldn't be at all surprised if he comes out as gender critical.

I feel as though anyone who has only watched him briefly may be missing out, so if anyone is undecided about him then I would strongly recommend watching more of his shows.

I used to love him, went to see his live tour a couple of years ago and it was boring and drawn out and just meh, so I'm not surprised he's not on the right side

The smugness is part of the act though, no?

Well yes. But I always feel that someone’s stand up persona is rather like being drunk. You don’t do or say things you wouldn’t do otherwise but rather they are amplified.

I think that's kind of the point isn't it? seeing someone you like and respect espousing and defending views that are clearly nonsense, and moreover, anti women

He’s married to Bridget Christie

you learn something new everyday. I really like her. Like the OP, I want to stick my fingers in my ears if she's been taken in by the 'most oppressed ever' rhetoric. it would make me v sad

The smugness is part of the act though, no? A reviewer recently described it as faux self-regard.
Bridget Christie won the fringe award for A Bic For Her. I didn't see it but I read the book and it was decent, not sure why she would be rebuked/maligned unless people thought she was somehow cashing in espousing feminist views

Dh loves him. I like him and have seen him live a couple of time but I find him live rather smug. It’s all about being rude and running the audience down.
He’s married to Bridget Christie. I don’t know her views.

He's an acquired taste stretching out a set up as far as he possibly can whilst 'in character' as the embittered comedian SL as opposed to Herring who I think probably is a bit bitter deep down that they used to be on tele decades ago and it tests my patience tbh. It can have my nerves screaming with the tedium, I usually can't take it.
but his slow build of Bojo Critique in cumulative Guardian articles which has now led up to: Boris Piccaninny Watermelon Letterbox Cake Bumboys Vampires Haircut Wall-Spaffer Spunk-Burster Fuck-Business Fuck-the-Families Get-Off-My-Fucking-Laptop Girly-Swot Big-Girl’s-Blouse Chicken-Frit Hulk-Smash Noseringed-Crusties Death-Humbug Technology-Lessons Surrender-Bullshit French-Turds Dog-Whistle Get-Stuffed FactcheckUK@CCHQ 88%-lies Get-Brexit-Done Johnson....does make me wonder whether the long term aim is to have his whole word count based on one sentence with the aforementioned in it.

As for Gervais SL compares him with Boris and Jeremy Clarkson as examples of people whose ''careers have flourished by exploiting the notion that they are lone voices of sanity against a politically correct snowflake cabal intent on silencing normal blokes like them...'' and he refers to the golden globes, RG ''saying the things that he is apparently not allowed to say, on a variety of global media platforms, for millions of dollars, with the full co-operation and approval of the legal representatives of the institutions on which, and about which, he says the things he is not allowed to say''.
He goes on:
''In the Wokefinder General’s case, it’s often downwards, towards transgender people, for example, and the disabled, or “mongs” as the Wokefinder General once said.
In the Wokefinder General’s mawkish sitcom After Life, the Wokefinder General’s character considers suicide because his wife dies of a terminal illness. But in real life, the Wokefinder General has been praised by Sarah Vine, which is worse than losing a loved one prematurely, and so the Wokefinder General should do the decent thing, not prevaricate like his cowardly sitcom character, and kill himself immediately.''

Some of that is fairly on the money tbf.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/12/ricky-gervais-and-jeremy-clarkson-are-no-laughing-matter

I really love Stewart Lee.
Ricky G and transphobia was literally half a sentence. The show was great, overall.

Half his show is about people not finding him funny. He knows he's not for everyone. I doubt there's a single comedian who everyone finds funny.

He’s always been over rated.

And also a perfect example of a woke bro with seething, suppressed misogyny.

I love Stewart lee and saw his latest show live during its test stage

There was one offensive joke but to be honest the rest of what he says resonates with me

It’s hard to agree with one person in every aspect

I also dislike a lot of Ricky gervais comments but others I am 100% behind

I remember ages ago he did a whole TV show about that scene in Only Fools and Horses where Del Boy falls through the opening in the bar.

It had recently been voted the funniest scene in TV history of something. So he spent half an hour slagging it off and slagging the people who voted for it off. Very slowly. TbH, he wasn’t witty or clever enough to pull it off and it just became very boring.

Then at the end, he showed the clip and it was far funnier than anything Stuart Lee had said.

It put me right off him, the smug arse.

Oh no, hang on, actually that sounds like a rally

I didn't laugh, but I agreed the fuck out of it

well that sounds like a brilliant comedy show. where can I get tickets?

I didn't laugh, but I agreed the fuck out of it.

I've seen him live twice and have tickets for this tour too. shrugs I like him and find him funny

Spoilers below!

I have seen this show and some bits of it left me feeling very uncomfortable. He does have a go at several comedians for various reasons. With Gervais he does a section on him "saying the unsayable", pointing out that it must be sayable if he's said it. I don't think he mentioned transphobia specifically. He talked about Jimmy Carr doing rape jokes.

Parts of the show were brilliant but I didn't laugh at a section about James Bond raping women then getting a micro penis and raping small animals. Obviously it's surreal humour but I'd rather watch an openly sexist James Bond film than have him say the word rape about 20 times for laughs.

He also did a joke about keeping your woman in a car, but be careful to make sure she has food and leave the window open so she doesn't overheat. It was very much like Ricky Gervais making sexist jokes ironically. Either way you end up with a man making sexist jokes.

so much of it is about wrong footing and discomfiting the audience, then showing them how cleverly he’s led us by the nose to demonstrate his point. Because he’s just so clever!

yes, this is what I was inarticulately trying to say, and why he attempted to get the audience I was part of to applaud the IRA. I was very pleased that we were all having none of it, and he just made himself look like a twat

it's just possible that he's not quite as much smarter than everyone else as he thinks he is.....

That’s Richard Herring that does that, isabelle

Ah, sorry. I always get them mixed up!

EndoplasmicReticulum Thanks for explaining. I like Stewart Lee’s bits about immigrants and emigrants (“massive prawns, Stu!”), I didn’t know his stuff to that level of detail to get that reference.

I saw this show a couple of months ago. His dig at Ricky Gervais was over-long and far too laboured, but (the show I saw, anyway) didn't speak directly to Gervais's trans stance.

The 'joke' was more about Gervais claiming to be muzzled by PC sorts and therefore unable to say anything coherent. Cue several very long minutes of Lee ambling around the stage speaking nonsense words.

It's just his usual thing about satirically taking the piss out of supposedly more successful comedians.

That show wasn't his best, to be honest.

LittleRa - one of Stewart Lee's stand ups had him reading out a load of insults people had written about him in reviews or on social media and that's where Horse got the quote from.

www.stewartlee.co.uk/online-critiques/