I know not everyone likes Ricky Gervais but some of this I liked - Old fashioned women

Not only does the transcript above miss the knowing wink in RG’s eyes when he’s talking about dinosaurs - it also misses the long pauses when he’s waiting for the audience to stop pissing themselves laughing.

I’ve never watched a live show of his before, I laughed a lot at this.

um - Louis CK wasn’t ‘cancelled by the woke mob’. He admitted to sexual misconduct after his tendency to get his dick out and masturbate in front of his female colleagues came to light.

You may know about comedy but you need to read up on satire - of course you won’t understand why this is funny if you don’t understand the concept of satire.

Wasn't Ricky Gervais always like this though? I feel as though he's seen where David Chapelle has got to with this and jumped on the band wagon.

I loved it. Absolutely superb. Well done Ricky!

Good on Ricky for defending another brilliant comedian cancelled by the woke mob, you've just reminded me to hunt out his latest special.

Louie CK is a repugnant man with a history of sexually abusing women, he wasn't 'cancelled' for his comedy.

I watched the RG special because of hearing about it on MN. I decided to watch it on my own since my OH and I aren't on exactly the same page. He keeps saying we just can't know what is like to be trans and we need to be sympathetic and understanding. Absolutely. To a point. That segment posted above is so brilliantly scripted to emphasise the idiocy of how, unchecked, that position becomes. So I recounted it to my partner.

We often discuss the topic, ever since he came home from his woke work place a few years back excitedly saying "they're changing the definition of woman!" And I said "who are THEY?" and we had an argument. He's now got to the position of understanding trans rights are human rights AND women's rights, such as they are, have to be protected, but he's so grappling his way through the arguments.

What RG does brilliantly in this special is to follow that segment with a bit about men's biological health. It drives the point home. Anyway, I mentioned that bit about the old and new women to my OH and he said he wanted to watch it, so I've now seen it twice in the same number of days.

I think it's so intelligently irreverent and respectful, and I think it helped my OH to get the issue a bit better. It's an educative piece.

IMHO I don't think RG is necessarily coming out as someone who is wholeheartedly in agreement with one side or another.

I think he's definitely GC, he thanked Helen Joyce and Debbie Hayton for their support on twitter.

Also, are you saying @GoodJanetBadJanet that there's no place for comedy in this whole debate? Must we all be very serious about it? Or is just the type of comedy you object to? You're just like the TRAs who are claiming it to be transphobic.

IMHO I don't think RG is necessarily coming out as someone who is wholeheartedly in agreement with one side or another. He's shining a light on some of the more ridiculous arguments. But in another clip he talks about how he'll take one side or another in political debates to find the funniest jokes.

Surely you know that an enormous amount of information comes through vocal delivery. That's how words like 'wicked' and 'sick' came to mean 'great'. Through ironic vocal delivery. Don't you ever play with language? Say the opposite of what you mean in a tone of voice that implies the true meaning?

It's funny.

When he recites phrases used by TRAs in all seriousness, the utter ridiculousness- and offensiveness- of what they say is highlighted.

For some reason, TRAs think they can accuse women of being 'bigoted, whore dinosaurs' for objecting to phrases like 'her penis'.
They think they can say things like that in all seriousness, and it is neither hilarious nor extremely offensive.

When Ricky says it, it's clearly both.

Janet doesn't need to watch stand up to appreciate it. She can just read the jokes at home and have a right old laugh.

Good on Ricky for defending another brilliant comedian cancelled by the woke mob, you've just reminded me to hunt out his latest special.

Thanks.

How does it magically become funny if you hear it said and not just written?
It's still the same "joke."

ummm intonation, sarcasm, stress on certain words, context, delivery…

I didn't even know about the Lammy quote but I still found it funny because it's obviously ironic. He's not calling women dinosaurs for shock value. He's doing it because of the irony and the whole fake conversation he goes on to roleplay.

But that’s what the trans activists have been calling GC women! That’s why it’s so funny. Why do you think so many women have a picture of a dinosaur next to their name on Twitter?

Well, Jan, you must be horrified by some of the things TRAs say about women then.

Absolutely superb. He nailed it when he said that you can take the piss out of anyone... except the trans community. You might not believe any of the jokes you say about anyone... except the trans community.

The bit about you won’t find a 10 year old tweet saying women have penises was brilliant. He talked a lot about cancel culture and why it’s wrong. I loved the whole show.

He's holding a mirror up to the ridiculousness of it all and he does it brilliantly. His focus is NOT specifically about the rights of trans.......its about the fading rights of women.

I thought it was brilliant!
The bit about how in 10 years time we don’t know what will offensive. How we couldn’t have predicted saying ‘women don’t have penises’ would be the thing we can’t say.

‘Oh, they want to use our toilets.’ ‘Why shouldn’t they use your toilets?’ ‘For ladies!’ ‘They are ladies — look at their pronouns! What about this person isn’t a lady?’ ‘Well, his penis.’ HER penis, you fucking bigot!’ ‘What if he rapes me?’ ‘What if she rapes you, you fucking TERF whore?'”

Absolutely brilliant!

But he thinks trans people should be treated equally. That's why he included them

In Ricky's show he makes jokes about Trans-women, muslims, women, people with disabilities, even dead babies!!!!

He covers a lot of offensive ground

Everyone is outraged about the trans bit though

Brilliant!!! Best laugh I've had for ages.