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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Ricky Gervaise Armageddon yay or nay?

209 replies

pandosadick · 30/12/2023 23:53

I'm stunned and not in a good way. Watched for a bit but found it too offensive. Apparently when he's on stage and making these 'jokes,' he's in character, like an actor playing a role how? He's gervaise doing what he does. Saying what he says… the fact that he regards anyone who disagrees with him as fucking idiots is laughable. His humour isn't nuanced or sophisticated and I'm pretty certain that the live audience who laughed aloud his jokes about disabled children weren't there for the nuances either.

OP posts:
NotBadConsidering · 31/12/2023 10:36

crumblingschools · 31/12/2023 10:33

Is there a reason he uses the word retarded in his show?

As part of a joke.

Whatineed · 31/12/2023 10:40

MrJollyLivesNextDoor · 31/12/2023 00:17

I saw him live on this tour and the laughter was very real

I did too, and yes, a lot of laughter.

ElaineMBenes · 31/12/2023 10:41

We switched it off.
I really liked his previous stuff but this was just a step too far for us.

I get what he was trying to do but it just wasn't funny.

Pocketfullofdogtreats · 31/12/2023 10:45

Nay. Have only seen a short clip but I don't find him funny at all. I think people have paid such a lot for tickets and travel that they are determined to have a good time and not find fault that they big up something that if they saw it on TV and didn't know the comedian they would switch channels. I remember the old days when there were comedians like Tommy Copper who had me nearly unable to breathe from laughing, because he was clever. Not offensive. All this edgy stuff - no thanks. I like witty and clever.

crumblingschools · 31/12/2023 10:47

What was the joke @NotBadConsidering?

notanothernana · 31/12/2023 10:48

I watched this yesterday. I didn't laugh once. Just not funny and the way he seemed to be trying to please his woke-hating audience was just cringey. He seems to be courting the Jim Davidson crowd. And that's not my people.

I find Frankie Boyle and Jerry Sadowitz funny so it's not the close to the bone stuff i don't like.

I find Jimmy Carr unfunny too. I just think both Ricky and Jimmy are unlikeable, seem misogynistic and hate-filled.

AlwaysWearSPF · 31/12/2023 10:53

PlasticHeart · 31/12/2023 01:24

You've asked for peoples opinions on the show and you've blasted every person who has said they've enjoyed it. You obviously have a clear motive🙄also, why the obsession of his skin colour OP?

Edited

I knew that was going to be mentioned so predictable..."White middle class man." I could name many great comedians from all backgrounds telling obscene and offensive jokes...yea that's right a joke you know that thing that makes people laugh. Again it's all down to taste and clearly RG is not your cup of tea big deal move on, don't need to get all Will Smith about it.

SerendipityJane · 31/12/2023 10:57

Quite enjoyed it, but nothing that Stewart Lee wasn't doing 10-15 years ago.

BeadedBubbles · 31/12/2023 10:58

Started watching it the other day. I don't have an issue with him being offensive and used to find him very funny. But after half an hour I realised I hadn't laughed once. In fact the corner of my mouth hadn't even twitched once. I just found it boring so turned it off.

So it's a Nay from me.

crumblingschools · 31/12/2023 11:01

@AlwaysWearSPF can you always excuse anything offensive by saying it is a joke, even if the person it is said to finds it offensive? I wouldn’t go to a RG show as I know I wouldn’t find it funny.

But I work with schools where there is a huge issue with misogyny amongst the male students, who will excuse it as ‘banter’. Do the female students have to just accept this as the boys are just having a laugh and a joke?

orchiddottyback · 31/12/2023 11:05

Pocketfullofdogtreats · 31/12/2023 10:45

Nay. Have only seen a short clip but I don't find him funny at all. I think people have paid such a lot for tickets and travel that they are determined to have a good time and not find fault that they big up something that if they saw it on TV and didn't know the comedian they would switch channels. I remember the old days when there were comedians like Tommy Copper who had me nearly unable to breathe from laughing, because he was clever. Not offensive. All this edgy stuff - no thanks. I like witty and clever.

Your reply made me laugh as some one who has never seen RG live and only watched it as I came across it on Christmas day by accident on Netflix proves your thought process is completely wrong --->"I think people have paid such a lot for tickets and travel that they are determined to have a good time and not find fault that they big up something that if they saw it on TV and didn't know the comedian they would switch channels" .

I pay for Netflix any way watching this was an unexpected bonus thanks, so no i did not have to justify any thing liking it.

I think his entire show just 100% proved a perfect point about the OP and all the other naysayers especially those whom have not watched it and still slating it, as others have already said.

NotBadConsidering · 31/12/2023 11:06

crumblingschools · 31/12/2023 10:47

What was the joke @NotBadConsidering?

I could explain it, but without the context and the qualifiers he adds afterwards it will be hard to do it justice. You could, you know, watch it yourself?

Imnotadentist · 31/12/2023 11:06

This was the first RG show I have watched. I thought parts were very funny and other jokes less so. I think what he does is test where your boundaries are. It’s like he starts a joke with something you might find amusing and then ramps it up until you find it too close to the bone. It makes you question what is or isn’t acceptable, which I found quite interesting.
btw So the joke about the children and what they wanted for Christmas and how they non disabled kid got overlooked was funny. But when he started shouting at the disabled child for being racist etc, that felt very uncomfortable to me, which again I think was deliberate as it mimicked a twitter pile on.
It reminded me a bit of Ben Elton early stand up. Some of his jokes got more of a gasp than a laugh from the audience.

Jacfrost · 31/12/2023 11:07

OP children with cancer aren't the butt of his jokes. YOU are.

PlasticHeart · 31/12/2023 11:08

AlwaysWearSPF · 31/12/2023 10:53

I knew that was going to be mentioned so predictable..."White middle class man." I could name many great comedians from all backgrounds telling obscene and offensive jokes...yea that's right a joke you know that thing that makes people laugh. Again it's all down to taste and clearly RG is not your cup of tea big deal move on, don't need to get all Will Smith about it.

Exactly, it's the default go to these days. IMAGINE saying such things about a person of any other ethnicity, it's diabolical..OP called RG a "fat white man living in an ivory tower" 😑. RG grew up on a Reading council estate, one of which was the most deprived areas at the time. He did not start to make serious money until his 30s, he has also donated nearly £2 million to animal charities! Wtf have you done OP?

Imnotadentist · 31/12/2023 11:08

What’s with all the comments about him being fat/ has bad teeth/ I want to pin him down so someone can break his legs?

From posters who claim RG is offensive….

SerendipityJane · 31/12/2023 11:11

So the joke about the children and what they wanted for Christmas and how they non disabled kid got overlooked was funny. But when he started shouting at the disabled child for being racist etc,

As he points out (to a great whoosh it seems) this kid doesn't exist. They aren't real. You will never meet them. They will never have hope, or dreams, or ambitions. They won't struggle to achieve their potential. They will never fall in love. They will never hold their child.

I won't be so crass as to comment on the hysteria that non existent people can cause at Christmas except to say it does have a dimension in the irony universe.

The well worn adage about analysing humour and frog vivisection still seems to apply.

Jacfrost · 31/12/2023 11:12

Imnotadentist · 31/12/2023 11:08

What’s with all the comments about him being fat/ has bad teeth/ I want to pin him down so someone can break his legs?

From posters who claim RG is offensive….

They're just not very bright. Nobody has to actively like RG but if they cannot at least understand the point of his act, they're just not very bright.

SerendipityJane · 31/12/2023 11:16

Drifting OT, but with a point .... in his latest show, Kevin Bridges makes a perfect analogy of "Twitter being the VAR of jokes these days". You can tell a joke. It crashes the room. And then a 5 second snip ends up in Twitter and it's disallowed.

Imagine if we treated Shakespeare like we did comedians ? Throw away the plot, the narrative, the themes and context. Just look at individual lines. Makes Hamlet a totally different read. And Wuthering Heights descends into an over long advert for double glazing.

SerendipityJane · 31/12/2023 11:17

I also find Reginald D Hunter very funny, for extreme comparison.

Southislandsea · 31/12/2023 11:17

Excuse me...!
I am bright actually.
And his teeth are vampirish.
My observational humour.
And if he can't take it, he shouldn't dish it.
Tommy Cooper is the way to go!
And Frank Spencer

NotBadConsidering · 31/12/2023 11:20

The joke about the disabled child being racist was actually a joke about how there are people in this world who justify abusing people they deem have failed in their purity spiral. It’s ok, in these people’s minds, to shout at a disabled child if that - imaginary- child is racist, misogynist and a homophobe.

Last year a woman who worked for a Labour MP shouted at a man holding a baby, in the face of the baby, that he was “fucking fascist” “raising a child to believe in this filth!”

That’s who RG is mocking. People like that.

Snowflakecookie1989 · 31/12/2023 11:21

NotBadConsidering · 31/12/2023 10:36

As part of a joke.

Oh 🤨Ha bloody ha! 🥱🤦‍♀️🙄

Snowflakecookie1989 · 31/12/2023 11:24

Imnotadentist · 31/12/2023 11:08

What’s with all the comments about him being fat/ has bad teeth/ I want to pin him down so someone can break his legs?

From posters who claim RG is offensive….

Well if he can rip the piss out of babies with aids or cancer,you know... surely it's ok to rip the pee out of his teeth and man boobs? It's only a joke right? 🙄

AlwaysWearSPF · 31/12/2023 11:25

crumblingschools · 31/12/2023 11:01

@AlwaysWearSPF can you always excuse anything offensive by saying it is a joke, even if the person it is said to finds it offensive? I wouldn’t go to a RG show as I know I wouldn’t find it funny.

But I work with schools where there is a huge issue with misogyny amongst the male students, who will excuse it as ‘banter’. Do the female students have to just accept this as the boys are just having a laugh and a joke?

F can you always excuse anything offensive by saying it is a joke, even if the person it is said to finds it offensive? I wouldn’t go to a RG show as I know I wouldn’t find it funny.

But I work with schools where there is a huge issue with misogyny amongst the male students, who will excuse it as ‘banter’. Do the female students have to just accept this as the boys are just having a laugh and a joke?

Can you always excuse anything offensive by saying it's a joke? It's a comedy show which people have paid to go and see. The name says it all really comedy, it's not offensive to me and I have a daughter who has a very serious disability and she found it very funny. She found it quite light and didn't take offence, actually she liked having the break from all the seriousness surrounding her disability. Again all down to taste RG is not for everyone.

Furthermore in regards to your comment on misogyny within the schools that you work in that's something that you may have witnessed again down to prospective on what you find offensive nothing at all to do with comedy.