Ricky Gervais standup *potentially sensitive

[notonyournoddle]

Just been introduced to Ricky Gervais standup tonight. I've never been interested before as (apart from his interest I animal welfare) I can't stand the guy, but was gobsmacked at his 'farting at a baby's funeral' theme. Am I missing something or is this in hideously bad taste? I'm amazed no one has kicked off about it?

I am not fan of his comedy shows. However, I do agree with his statements around atheism (I am not an atheist), animal welfare and the fact that you have no right to never be offended.

I can’t say I spend a lot of time watching interviews with him or anything. But what I have seen, he doesn’t bother me.

I think he's great. A lot of what he said about in his last show was what a lot of us are thinking.

I don't understand this sentence.

My favourite line from his last stand up was from the uncle at the funeral who had aged since he last saw him. 'Is there any point you going home?'

He's funny.

This.

We all have soft spots that can inadvertently be touched on when watching stand up comedians and the like. But you have to take a look at yourself and think, well I've just been laughing at other peoples situations or misfortunes so I'll let this one wash over me. We really should be encouraging resilience, not just gagging comedians so they won't offend anyone.

I do think it takes more intelligence to make people laugh without being offensive.

I don't see any correlation.

Michael McIntyre is completely inoffensive but could harldly be described as intelligent humour whereas some of Gervais' jokes are very cleverly constructed, uncluding the most offensive to some.

I don't understand this sentence.

Some people seem to think their being offended means the offender is bad, or even should be banned. What PP is saying is that there is no Right to freedom from offence in the UK.

The idea that speech should be restricted to prevent offence is only held by a
some ultra conservatives and pseudo left wing anti-liberals. Thus OP's statement that RG is offensive to her (with the presumption that something should be done about that) would be met by the liberal majority of the UK with a shrug.

That said, I think PP is a little bit wrong and punishments for causing offence have started to creep in UK law and civil society.

If people didn't like him he'd not sell out his live shows, so I think enough people find him funny.
I don't like his humour so much, so I wouldn't watch him by choice/pay for a ticket, same with a couple of others. Obviously a lot of people do enjoy it though.

I was a bit meh until I watched the routine that ends in the bit about his parent's funeral where they gave the priest a made up obituary to read out just to try to make everyone laugh at such a horrible time. And he loves his cat. And her penis - I'm a convert.

Ricky is one of the best out right now.

If you want safe boring lefty pandering "comedy"
Try Russel Howard maybe

Yes he is, because every fucker else is getting “cancelled”

Russel Howard is a pro porn misogynistic prat.

Just shows there's a hierarchy for being cancelled and misogyny doesn't register.

At my mum’s humanist funeral the man taking the service had a Manchester accent and said ’th’ as ‘f’, so ‘thought’ and ‘thoughts’ came out as ‘fart’ and ‘farts’

‘ ..you will be sharing your farts later.. ‘

I laughed

Being deliberately and provocatively offensive is his characteristic stand-up career and has been almost all throughout his live shows. Whether it's about the Bible or religion, the poor and disabled, victims of crime, it's standard fare for him. I admit that I do laugh at a lot of what he says (though I often feel guilty about it). I've seen him live a few times and only seen a few people walk out (more walked in a Frank Skinner gig which was far less offensive and there was a positive exodus at a Borat thing which, again, I found less objectionable).

However, during Gervais' live show "Science" he did a spiel on how it was possible, easy and worry/consequence-free to rape an elderly woman with Alzheimers. I was genuinely appalled by that and haven't bought tickets or watched anything by him since then.

I'd pick him over Jim Davidson any day. But Ricky Gervais is well known for the nature of his live shows, and is open about his opinions, rather than trying to mask a persona based almost entirely in racism, misogyny and hate in the guise of a friendly "family entertainer".

He's brilliant. His or for animals is what drew me to him in the first place but I love his comedy. He just doesn't give a shit what people say and he offends everyone equally. That's why he gets away with it, no one can claim they are being victimised because they really really are not.

His LOVE for animals is what I meant!

This. After Life is just fantastic. My friend and I were openly sobbing by the end of it, but it's also very funny.

Is this an ad for the show😁

This!

Russell Howard is so bloody vanilla! Ricky is fantastic.

I've not any of his material for years . What has he said that's misogynistic?

I hope he doesn’t read this thread, because if he realises he isn’t making at least 75% of Mumsnet clutch their pearls in horror, then he’ll probably need a lot of new material.

DH and I tried watching this. We found it so boring. Not everyone is the same and that's fine

Thanks for the replies, I do understand that everyone has a different sense of humour! I guess he's just not my bag. I never found The Office funny either. I am old enough to remember 70's humour, some of which I would call intelligent without having to rely on the shock factor as some pp's have said. Then again, I don't rate Tarantino either-- which sets me apart too! Purple world, green me

I don’t like death jokes or kid jokes really but I find him funny