Entertainment For Lively Minds
Is Ricky Gervais the Bono of comedy?
Posted by Simon Ford on 14 December 2008 - 5:38pm.
Did anyone hear Gervais on the Simon Mayo show last week? They spoke at some length about Hepworth's column in Word, but apart from that I found the whole thing rather strange. Gervais seems very keen to shove his atheism down everyone's throats at the moment and I find his brand of evangelical aetheism as annoying as anything else evangelical. He's even doing a show with Richard Dawkins. He also asked listeners to send him questions on science and the universe as if he is the font of all knowledge. It might be an idea if somebody told him to just stick to the comedy.
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Sounds like
my kind of gig! Where can I get tickets?
He is so far up his own arse these days
he can look out of his own mouth.
I think I might become a Christian
Simon Pegg on Gervais
PS Apologies for the fact that RTE haven't yet discovered volume mixing
They leurve each other really...
"Simon is not only one of my favourite British comic actors but he is also quite astute, as according to my last medical, I am approximately 22lb over my ideal weight."
"So apparently I have “slammed” Ricky Gervais in the press as being a “fat idiot”. Oh dear. Ricky’s comments about the British film industry were definitely a little unfair but whatever I said on Heart FM was intended in the spirit of mutual teasing that myself Ricky have always indulged in."
What's interesting
isn't the PR patch up job afterwards.
To be fair to Gervais...
his put down of Pegg IS quite funny (from today's Observer)
"Well, let's see. It is not, in truth, a huge belly, certainly not for a man in his mid-forties. But it is on the chubby side . And – as his blog reveals – it did provoke Shaun of the Dead's Simon Pegg to call him 'a fat idiot'. (His official response, issued to the press? 'Simon is not only one of my favourite British comic actors but he is also quite astute, as according to my last medical, I am approximately 22lb over my ideal weight.')"
As far as I'm concerned...
he can do whatever he likes, just so long as it doesn't involve doing that dance yet again.
To be fair…
… he only actually did it once - didn't he?
Nope...
He did it in front of the world at the Wembley Stadium Live 8 show - and it was a HORRIBLE moment.
Seems to have been excised from Youtube as well - I'm sure it was shown on the TV coverage
Oh…
… dear
Am not sure that 'Sticking to comedy'
is the best recommendation for this saddo. For someone who gets off on taking the piss out of others is it any surprise that he doesnt like a dose of his own medicine? The Office was funny but out stayed its welcome. Extras had some great bits amongst some dross but since then nothing. Not sure about his preaching about the virtues of atheism. Will anyone listen to him? Doubt it.
Will anyone listen to him?
They ought to: you see, Ricky Gervais knows things. According to Word Mag's little interview (this is from memory but it stuck in my mind, or was it craw, so correct me if I'm misquoting) he knows, for instance, that the solar system is 4.5 billion years old. That means that he's either mistaking knowledge for uncritical acceptance of something purely because it's stated in a book, or he's the wisest most intelligent man in the history of the world ever, rivalled only by God Himself. As any scientist will tell you, such information is a best-guess based on assumptions made from existing data, but Gervais obviously knows better so ignore what he has to say at your peril. As for that nonsense about "they never found Jesus' blood", what the Hell is that about? Frankly if RG wants to take the stage as some kind of atheist sage, blissfully unaware of his own ignorance and pomposity, I for one will take great delight in watching him get his fat arse handed to him on a platter both in matters of science and theology.
I really liked Extras though.
Gah! First post and it's a rant. Soz
Ipsie
Not sure why you think his claims are particularly remarkable
It's fairly elementary science.
The age of the Earth is about 4.6 bn years (there is some margin +/-), and yes, he can be reasonably confident in saying so - independent radiometric dating tests on a variety of materials confirm the result.
Given that different radioactive materials decay at different rates, there is no way that measurements could all agree by accident. Since it's possible to re-run these tests (and they have been, many times) and they always return pretty much the same result there's little reason to doubt the measurements *given the evidence we have at the current time*.
Add to that radiometric dating on meteorites that gives a date not dissimilar (slightly longer, as expected) and what we know about nuclear fussion and the mass and brightness of the sun compared to other stars (which also agrees) and you've got a pretty strong place to argue from.
To argue that Gervais is being arrogant for repeating well-established facts that are accepted by pretty much everyone seems a little churlish to me.
(Welcome, by the way!)
Oh go and live in America if its so blood marvellous
I'm really dissapointed in Dawkins. And I don't think Gervais's notoriously iffy stand up sets are going to be improved by his presence. Why can't Gervais, instead of diminishing the status of reason by supporting it, stick to what he does best? Insulting minorities and people in wheelchairs in his Mike Leigh for kids/soap opera comedy formats.