When did we, as a society, outgrow Ricky Gervais? For me it was circa 2016, maybe earlier. 2016 was the year where Gervais went from “that guy is nowhere near as funny or intellectual as he thinks he is” to “Wow, he’s a completely deplorable person.” He hosted the 2016 Golden Globes and he made transphobic jokes about Caitlyn Jenner, then threw a huge public tantrum when people were like “wow, Ricky Gervais wasn’t even funny.” That seemed to be the inflection point for Gervais – he threw himself into “offending” people, because he’s just so witty and intellectual. He’s not “woke,” you see. He has to show us that he’s not woke. He has to show everyone that he thinks transgender people are weird and deserving of mockery. It’s high-minded, he swears!
Anyway, all of this to say that Netflix is really leaning into their transphobic programming. They gave Gervais another stand-up special called SuperNature. It became available on Netflix this week. As soon as people started streaming it, they got on Twitter to warn people about Gervais’s f–king awful “comedy.” You know what? I’m not even going to include the part of this Variety story which transcribes some of Ricky’s “jokes”:
Ricky Gervais’ Netflix comedy special “SuperNature” has only been released on the streamer for a few hours, but it has already drawn criticism for a string of graphic and hurtful transphobic jokes. Four minutes into the special, Gervais dives into material about the trans community seemingly calculated to draw controversy.
A few minutes later, when discussing Kevin Hart removing himself from hosting the Oscars in 2018 for past homophobic tweets, Gervais continued joking about the trans community.
“You can’t predict what will be offensive in the future,” Gervais said. “You don’t know who the dominant mob will be. Like, the worst thing you can say today, get you cancelled on Twitter, death threats, the worst thing you can say today is, ‘Women don’t have penises,’ right? Now, no one saw that coming. You won’t find a ten year old tweet saying ‘Women don’t have penises.’ You know why? We didn’t think we f–king had to!”
Toward the end of the special, Gervais offers his reasoning for trans jokes, saying, “Full disclosure: In real life of course I support trans rights. I support all human rights, and trans rights are human rights. Live your best life. Use your preferred pronouns. Be the gender that you feel you are. But meet me halfway, ladies. Lose the c–k. That’s all I’m saying.”
[From Variety]
I genuinely want to know why comedians like Gervais and Dave Chappelle can’t let it go. Why they are stomping their feet and wailing about their absolute RIGHT to punch down on marginalized communities, communities with too little visibility as it is. And the thing is, no one is f–king disagreeing with the idea that any given comedian has the right to make whatever jokes they want. Gervais has that right. He can be as offensive, bigoted, racist, misogynistic and triggering as he wants to be. But we get to respond and react to it. We get to tell them they’re hateful losers and bigoted hacks. We get to tell Netflix that they should have buried this sh-t as soon as they saw it. There’s no “right to a Netflix special.” Until comedians are financially punished for this sh-t, nothing will change. Right now, Netflix is rewarding comedians for their hate.
nothing to say about ricky gervais that james acaster hasn’t already said https://t.co/ahsnteVfSy pic.twitter.com/nJhasyWrU9
— ruth (@ruth_walshe) May 24, 2022
Ricky Gervais has a new stand up show out on Netflix today.
5 minutes in and he’s making jokes about trans women attacking & raping people in public bathrooms. To him we exist only as a punchline, a threat, something less than human.
— Esme (@discount_Ripley) May 24, 2022
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Chiefly, they (Gervais and Chapelle) are just not funny—all they do is whine and complain and act like a$$holes. No one wants to watch that.
i’m going to get a whole lot of hate but…Americans just don’t understand satire or irony in the way Australians and British people do. Gervais is a compassionate lefty and I think it just goes over some people’s heads – he’s being sarcastic to make a point. UK and Australian stand up comedians have to change their shows so Americans will understand, Gervais just doesn’t pander to that. Watch Hannah Gadsby’s “Douglas” where she talks about this.
Yeah, here’s the thing: trans people are saying it hurts them. This isn’t an American humor problem. No one has an inalienable right to dictate to others what they should and shouldn’t find funny. If a group of people says ‘hey, this is hurtful. This is doing us harm,’ the response isn’t ‘grow up, you just don’t get my humor. I’m actually on your side and you are just being a t**t.’ You can’t hide behind your personal politics when people are telling you that you are hurting them.
Is this sarcasm or…?
I have to agree. I don’t always enjoy Gervais’ comedy. I think some of it is lazy and relies on this affected snarky personality he’s been rocking for decades now. But that’s his performance and his persona on stage. And it’s very British and specific. Who he is offline is very different.
I haven’t watched it, probably won’t, so will reserve judgement, but his style is quite different to someone like Chappelle who was just ranting about trans women and lesbians because he was pissed he got caught out on it.
Also, and I’ll get flamed for saying this, but not every art form is going to be neat and pleasant and comfortable. Comedy exists to throw a different lens on a situation. As I said, I could watch this and completely backtrack on my thinking, but I’m concerned we’re heading into territory where people can’t create freely. It’s not always going to be pleasant, and it’s down to you whether you give it oxygen or not. There are many comedians who offend me, but they have a right to do what they want on stage. We need to allow that creative freedom whilst also having our own freedom not to buy into it.
You are, because it’s not true. Gervais consigned what Chapelle said and even said he’d be saying similar things on any stage (not just Netflix). If he’d denounced transphobia before and said differently in his special, I’d believe the “irony” argument.
From The Guardian:
“In the show Gervais, a longtime controversialist, opens with a caveat that many of his jokes will be ironic, explaining: “That’s when I say something I don’t really mean, for comic effect, and you, as an audience, you laugh at the wrong thing because you know what the right thing is. It’s a way of satirising attitudes.”
The Independent is not American. They seem to not “get it” either?
For years his personal tagline has been “Just because you’re offended, doesn’t mean you’re right.” He warned us he would do this. He told us he would continue to offend. Now, on the one hand, art and comedy should offend. But in an intelligent way. Not relying on punching down, coming for the most vulnerable groups in society. Good comedians with a legacy that’s still respected to this day knew this or rather just somehow understood. Maybe they were so smart that it didn’t occurr to them to punch down like this. You can watch Lenny Bruce and his material is still relevant. That’s art. Ricky Gervais is not.
Perhaps Americans can send their “thoughts and prayers” that Gervais changes his comedy?
Precisely. He’s an astute observer of human absurdity and skewers all aspects of the zeitgeist. That rape joke was more about making fun of the hysterical people who spew nonsense about trans women assaulting girls in public restrooms. But he does it in a way that also acknowledges how some of these conversations have gone off the rails. I think a lot of people have a hard time understanding comedy as anything other than punching up or down at specific groups, mistaking irony and satire for mocking.
^Pretty much everything that Enormouscoat said.
@bonnie van der boom/Bonnie Van Der Book
If you so xenophobic why are you on this American blog . I’m sure the Daily fail will be a better place for you.
@Juniper – In what way can the rape joke be understood as going after the people who panic about trans women in bathrooms, and not trans women themselves? He is mocking the notion that a person with a penis might ask for she/her pronouns. He uses an extreme example, but the criticism is directed at trans women, as in How dare they?
Troll!
Nope 👎 but thanks for commenting Ricky! I’m sorry that after Stephen Merchant was known as the brain child behind the first office you’ve been floundering ever since
i hate this intellectual snobbism. we can understand that he’s going for satire or irony and still not find any of it funny or enjoyable. satire doesn’t work if it doesn’t hit, and there are too many people out there tired of seeing trans people (amongst our most vulnerable communities) getting hurt to find any of this humorous. personally, i think that people who laugh at this and ‘get’ it are more liable to be ready to laugh at trans people anyway, regardless of the intended irony.
just because we don’t laugh at a joke doesn’t mean it goes over our heads or that we don’t get it.
I’m with Coco. If we’re so horribly stupid and beneath you, maybe these smarter than everyone in the US comics shouldn’t come for our dollars.
I agree with you…we are living through interesting times. I am a liberal feminist yogi with a big compassionate heart that feels everyone deserves love, respect, and equal rights. I am fully pro-trans. However, I am also a fan of comedy – and what I am starting to see is that we are veering toward a culture in which we can’t joke or poke fun at ourselves…and that is precisely what Chappelle and Gervais are saying. Whether their attempts and delivery are effective or not is up for debate. Like someone said, I know Ricky Gervais is a good, intelligent and liberal-minded human – his show Afterlife is beautiful in its exploration of life, love and loss. He also happens to believe in the value of honest social commentary, free speech, and a sense of humor – all which need to include speech that might offend some people from time to time. Sorry if this offends any one ;( I guarantee he said a lot of other interesting and insightful things in his special but the headlines are just about this topic…we have to get to a place where we can have more nuanced and open conversation than “he said something offensive – burn him!”
Love Hannah! Her shows are really well written and extremely funny. And even though I’m an American I am entirely comfortable with both satire and sarcasm. Watch Grevais and Chapelle’s latest Netflix specials—they are not funny, just phoning it in for a quick payday—lazy, aimless and boring.
I haven’t seen this yet but as an American I tend to agree with this comment. Americans and Brits have different humor. We’ve become obsessed with censoring and if someone doesn’t say or have the exact opinion we have then it’s awful and offensive. Americans are becoming a parody of ourselves.
@Claudia
Nether Chappelle or Gervais are apart of the trans community, so no the are not making fun of themselves they are making fun of other people. These people who are vocable and killed on site in some countries.
@ Luna17
As Emmi said the Independent it’s a is not American it’s a British paper, but please go on and make it seem like it only American people that have a problem with it.
I think I get irony and sarcasm as comedic tools, but at the same time:
1. constantly using the same marginalized group of people to demonstrate irony and sarcasm on dehumanizes them and makes it pretty clear to us that you see them as other , because why do you continue to use that group when there are many, many, many topics to demonstrate the flawed thinking of religious nutjobs?
2. not everyone in your audience is coming from the same angle. Some people really enjoy you putting down the trans people and sticking it to the ‘lib snowflakes’.
Is it that Americans don’t understand it or that we don’t enjoy it? It’s possible for us to get what a comedian is going for and just not enjoy it. Sarcastic / ironic humor does not amuse me generally, and I have even less tolerance for it when the topic is a marginalized community.
No. Australian here. I switched off after the first few minutes. It was hateful. And I have loved some Ricky Gervais stuff (Afterlife and some other standup), but this was hateful.
Cannot agree more.
Yeah, hell no.
I’m an Aussie who loves irony, sarcasm, dark humor and I adore Hannah Gadsby. I grew up on British and Australian comedy and loved the original The Office, back in the day.
The road Ricky’s traveling down is gross and hateful. Full stop.
As a fellow Aussie I agree! We grew up on BBC shows like Dad’s Army and Are you Being Served and the humour is the same. I think Gervais is hilarious.
I watched “Douglas”. I don’t remember any part where Gadsby said it was OK/cool/edgy to make fun of transgender people.
Absolutely!!
I’m British and I hate Gervais, my husband does too.
He’s a racist transphobe and there are no excuses for it.
British humour my a**e!!
I’m a transman. Do not tell me this man is compassionate or a lefty. This alone completely disqualifies him from those adjectives. He’s a vicious abuser who wraps his abuse in “oh but can’t you take a joke”? He’s frankly deranged, that’s some extremely borderline behavior.
This is not funny in any way no matter where you come from. Saying so is just as unempathetic and bigoted as he is.
This man is making a jokes about the essence of a group of people who are over four times more likely than cisgender people to experience violent victimization, including rape, sexual assault, and aggravated or simple assault, per the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law. Who as a whole report that 60% of trans people have been physically assaulted and 64% sexually assaulted. (Per NCTE’s U.S. Transgender Survey)
Last year was the deadliest year on record for trans people being murdered per Transgender Day of Remembrance. And keep in mind our murders are vastly underreported from family members refusing to validate our identities in death too.
He makes me feel subhuman and like it doesn’t matter if I exist or not, because my existence is a total joke for people like Ricky Gervais am man with an immense public platform that will undoubtedly influences thousands of bigots with evil intentions. Making us into jokes while all ready under literal assault in every single facet of life?!
There’s nothing compassionate about him to able to even just “play act” public “satire” of “ew, trans people! dirty women with men cocks!!!”. There’s nothing even there to take the piss out of trans people for, we’re already beaten to a literal bloody pulp.
And frankly this is the exact the type of thing that emboldens real life anti-trans harassers or assaulters. They think a celebrity’s is on their side, they must be right. “Ricky, Trump, JK, etc. are just the ones brave enough to tell the truth!” “So let’s go beat the shit out of a trans person we corner at Walmart, let’s go after that trans woman we find them on the train and harass them, follow them home, and begin stalking them.” (The first example has happened to me, the second happened to a friend a few nights ago- a trans woman who has already been raped once because “if you want to pretend to be a girl, I’ll (the assaulter) show you how girls are treated”. She’s 18 and was just riding the train home from college when a man stalked her to find where she lives. But yeah, Ricky’s SO COMPASSIONATE to us.)
His show AfterLife was so good and thoughtful (about love and dealing with grief), it’s really annoying that he has to pull this crap. WTF Ricky
Also his stance on animal cruelty. This is a real shame.
luckily for me i never thought he was funny, and no ive never watched the office english or american. but in the same way i dont think david chappelle is funny , people have been trying to convince me for years and still i wasnt convinced.
I think he’s funny 🤷🏼♀️
Oh geez.
No cure for transphobia
I think he is funny too and liked the show. I have a gay sister who laughed out loud too. If you don’t like him don’t watch. Don’t watch Chapelle either. Comedy has often been vulgar and we do not all have to agree on what s or is not comedy.
I don’t think he’s funny and I haven’t for years. I think he’s mean and whiny baby. But people seem to like that, so he will continue to have a platform for his schtick.
I’ve been struggling with all this for a while—what comedians can and cannot say. Or, better said, can say but face backlash for. I always give comedians a lot a lot of latitude. We are all supposed to laugh at ourselves and I was ticked when Taylor Swift went after Tina Fey and Amy Poehler for joking that she was the problem in her relationships. Like, lighten up.
But here is something that dawned on me when it comes to trans jokes: they’re not our/others’ jokes to tell. I constantly watch reruns of Seinfeld and they made the perfect point: Jerry is offended because he thinks Tim Whatley converted to Judaism for the jokes. And Jerry wasn’t offended as a Jew, but rather as a comedian. Tim Whatley, he thought, wanted total joke telling immunity, and would probably claim to be Polish too. (Remember Polish jokes, and how they went out of fashion because they were stereotypical, lazy, and hurt the people they targeted?) Anyway, the underlying context is: you can’t tell the joke if you’re not part of the community. They’re not your jokes to tell. So keep your thoughts to yourself and make fun of yourself, your “own people,” or punch up at the rich and the establishment, nothing more. Full stop!!!
A joke is always funnier when it’s told from the perspective of someone from that community for sure. There’s a knowing and a winking aspect to it. I suspect he’s targeted the Trans community because of the level of controversy around the Netflix/Chapelle special, and knowing it will bring eyes to it. It’s all about commerce at the end of the day. Do I find him offensive? Often. Do I think he shouldn’t be allowed to do this? No. There needs to be more nuance on the left, we’re really wasting a lot of energy getting worked up about art, whilst those on the right mobilise.
On the one hand, it’s true, you cannot predict what will be offensive in the future, and we shouldn’t hold people in the past to the values of today. However, he is making these jokes now, and complaining about being held accountable now. That is not the same thing.
Kat Williams really did say it perfectly – if you can’t change with the times and be funny without insulting people, maybe comedy isn’t your God given calling. Highly recommend looking up that clip if you haven’t seen it yet btw (Kat Williams on cancel culture)
Thank you for bringing up Kat! What a difference his new Netflix special is to Ricky’s. I enjoyed Kat’s so much. It was so well done. I loved how he kept adding a year to Biden’s age every time he mentioned him. 😂
Please don’t make excuses for Ricky Gervais. He sees that there is money to be made punching down on trans people and making fun of their bodies, so he went for it. Black Indigenous and Latinx trans women are murdered in record numbers every year, and trans children are being stolen from their affirming families. Please don’t make excuses. These are dangerous times.
“Why they are stomping their feet and wailing about their absolute RIGHT to punch down on marginalized communities, communities with too little visibility as it is?”
It’s phallocentrism. Their penises (and the mindset that because they have them, they’re special) is all they have. Their penis sets them apart from the rest of the non-privileged of the world, in their eyes – now they’re all scared that sexual reproductive organs aren’t a central organizing principle on our world anymore. Since they’re well aware that they have nothing to show for themselves that sets them apart from the rest of us APART from their penis, they freak out.
THIS.
Well said, completely agree!
Lenny Bruce went to jail for saying what was perceived as vulgar, abusive, and graphic. No one is immune to satire.
Comedians are not a protected class. I am sick of people saying we don’t get humor or it’s funny, etc. It’s not. He sucks. The end.
Because it’s not about others, no matter how much they try to couch their bigotry in outdated psychobabble or the usual boring talking points about the left being humorless snobs. The ‘right’ to punch down is the favorite toy of these man-children and equally hateful child-women, and anyone interrupting to make it about how their locker room talk harms others is taking that toy away from them. They go into tantrum mode, doubling and tripling down on the punches and projecting all of their traits onto everyone pointing out the fact that they are choosing to hurt people.
To everyone saying that Gervais is doing satire that people just don’t “get”: George Carlin, to take a leading example, did daring and satirical comedy for decades AND never punched down while doing so.
Carlin went after the people who actually wield power. And he was consistently funny.
Yeah, the “it’s just a joke” sentiment is gaslighting and emotional abuse in all other aspects than (Chappelle’s and Gervais’) comedy.
It’s entirely possible to make satire and comedy out of absolutely everything without emotionally abusing the ones you base your joke on.
Exactly. Carlin did not punch down on people hurting. He went after the bullies attacking them. Ricky does not. He repeats as jokes phrases that Fox news say all the time.
Hi, I’m trans. I have complex feelings about Chappelle and Gervais. Mainly because I agree that when they are on they are ON, and what I mean by that is when they philosophize about something they understand; when they use satire, and irony, and their personal experiences, their material comes from an honest place and it’s some of the best work out there. Their trans jokes, every single one of them, do not come close to the level we know them to be capable of. Those jokes come from a debilitating sense of fear of what gender variance means for them as men and it shows. It’s obvious and lazy. As someone who is judging their work based on my sincere adoration for them, my familiarity with their entire body of work, as well as my lived experience as a trans person, I can safely say I do not misunderstand them (or satire for that matter) when I witness the clear and evident distinction between their good work and their indisputably bad work. Anyone laughing along to the bias is showing their own. Perhaps they could learn from that instead of arguing with us about how shitty this feels.
Thank you so much for this amazing comment. I completely agree 👏
Your comment makes me wish this site had the upvote button – you would get 1000.
Thank you for bringing your perspective. As another fan of both men, they have disappointed me because they don’t seem to want to really understand, and I liked the way they crafted jokes. Chappelle and Gervais are being base and cruel.
A big thank you for such nuanced articulation.
I love a good satire and British humor. Ricky’s schtick today has morphed into permanent series of gasps and put down jokes, rather than wit. Or Satire. Wit and satire are hard to write because they require cleverness, nuance and a more deft delivery. Put down jokes OTOH are far easier for obvious reason.
I remember an interview Ricky gave about 10 years ago after he cliched comedian stardom. He had a bit of humility still, and gave a vibe of a comedian who understood how to deliver edginess with empathy at the same time. Today there’s no edginess or empathy.
Instead the audience gets spewing controversial jokes to create controversy and calling it cutting edge. This is Ricky giving it to the establishment? The early Ricky two decades ago would be skewering the sell-out Ricky of today. What we get from Ricky today is the ranting, angry curmudgeon schtick, with a a bunch of disclaimers telling us if we don’t find his jokes funny, we are the guilty ones for being too sensitive and lacking humor.
Somewhere along the way on his path to success, it’s not his fans who lost their sense of humor. It’s Ricky himself.
The biggest fail a celebrity (of any kind) can do, is starting to believe their own hype.
@Anon
Thank you for articulating much of what I couldn’t quite get clear on. I also find them funny when they are on and unpalatable when they aren’t. In order to pull off satire, it must actually be irony or exaggeration used to expose the ridiculous. They are using irony as an excuse to continue old, tired ideas as jokes. But as you said, they are clearly not comfortable and conflicted themselves, which is very evident and why the “jokes” are a complete fail.
I find it sad how many old school comedians are plain lazy or unable to adjust. Comedy is interesting because comedians do a lot of mental gymnastics, break things down, look at them in new/interesting ways, make those views funny. Now it seems like the general public is doing more intellectual/emotional work and evolving faster than comedians like Chappell and Gervais. Their sets are mostly tired and toxic and, at this point, feel more like temper tantrums. They think they are taking some kind of stand, but they are only showing their inability to remain relevant
Thanks for this.
Cancel Netflix. They laid off a large group of people who were responsible for programming focused on LGBQTI+ and Minorities. I don’t know why… whoever is in charge is clearly right-wing and they will keep putting out this programming. Unless people walk away completely…. they’ll keep doing it. Let them burn.
So many randos crawl out from under their rocks whenever Kaiser calls out transphobia. Ricky hasn’t been funny in a long time. Joking about trans women raping people isn’t funny. It wasn’t funny when people said lesbians were dangerous to heterosexual women, or when straight guys fretted about gay men hitting on them. What Ricky says is lazy & cruel because in addition to glossing over the fact that trans women are especially vulnerable to sexual assault, this rhetoric normalizes law against trans people. Many states are passing laws that don’t allow trans people to get healthcare. Make no mistake, they want to legislate trans people out of existence. And once they stir up hate against trans people, they target gay people. And they target women’s rights.
If anyone thinks there’s not a direct line between rigidly enforced gender norms, attacks on gay rights & forced pregnancy, you’ve got another thing coming. So forgive me if I can’t get on board with lazy comedians getting paid millions to punch down at people who just want to f*cking live. But I guess the “satire” is just lost on me, a mere American woman.
Also during pre pandemic Ricky would often go on Twitter to troll a lot of trans women Twitter accounts. I’ve know a few ppl I’ve followed who’d just be living their lives and poof Ricky Gervais would show up in their mentions and sick his followers on them for having the audacity to be trans and living their lives.
I do find parts of Gervais and more of Chappelle’s acts as funny. Now the parts I find funny do they outweigh the crap that’s not and as said here goes after marginalized people? To me it’s the degree. Now Gervais is and has been making a living off of his schtick, he considers the Hollywood elite are just so out of touch with everyone else and this is how society really thinks. Not acknowledging he’s part of that elite, a bit Trump-ie here if you ask me, or that on a basic human level it’s just mean. It’s really all of Gervais act and it’s an old act. Chapelle it’s not all of his act.
Do I wish a comedian would acknowledge it when they go over a line and say sorry. Yes I do. I wish more thought that all of these people would stop beating people up for apologizing. There’s the crowd who say you shouldn’t apologize it was a joke or there’s too many apologies. So that means you can be offensive and not say sorry? The other side where apologies are insincere and mean nothing. No they acknowledge the person did something worth apologizing for, even if their sincerity is in question. An apology should be given if you hurt someone. It’s sad how it works now.
My nearly 23 year old, fave eldest, has come out as trans. I too feel there is a connection between the assault on women’s rights and anti lgbtqia+ ideals and legislation. I’m not going to support anyone spouting this kind of crap. My heart has no room for transphobia. Thank you very much for this post.
Fave eldest graduates university 2nd week of June, majoring in Philosophy & double minors, History and Biology!!! I’m so happy for my girl and her journey. I’ve been having the most fun shopping for her, also. A few of the cool finds: I ordered a gorgeous black and silver striped jumpsuit from Torrid she loves and says makes her feel very girly; then thinking of the traditional white graduation wardrobe I found a gorgeous, one shouldered, wide leg jumpsuit WITH POCKETS brand new with tags at the red, white and blue thrift store, AND a beautifully cut cobalt blue duster by Nine West, all in the correct sizes! And my girl is so happy about my attempts. I apologize if this is a thread Jack comment. This post really hit close to home with me. I’ve chosen to release a few very intimate and important relationships with people that don’t support transgender folks, and it’s been hard. I am very grateful to read this post and the supportive comments. Thank you all.
Nicegirl: You ARE a nicegirl. And I bet your fave eldest is a nicegirl, too. (Love the phrase, ‘fave eldest’!)
❤️ I agree with BeanieBean, love to hear it, Nicegirl.
What an amazing and uplifting story on a very sad day. One of my closest friends has a 12 year old daughter who recently came out as lesbian. She asked her BFF to the school prom as her date and they had a fabulous time. Her mother and all of their family and friends have been proud as punch and given her the strength and confidence she’ll need to deal with buttheads like Gervais and Chappelle who will undoubtedly give her a hard time, but in the end they only show what crude and cruel people they are.
Thank you for sharing your experiences! I am so happy for you and your child, that you are there for each other during this time. It’s truly a beautiful thing. Big hugs to you and your girl.
Saw that special on Netflix last night and I generally like Ricky Gervais and his animal rights stuff really appeals to me… was just praying he didn’t touch on trans stuff so as a mom of a trans kid we could just have a break for a second from all this. Folding in unnecessary trans comments just to whip people up just feels lazy and heartless to me, I wish comedians would move on.
Are you me? I could have written this verbatim 🤗
There are clips on YouTube of an old interview Gervais attempted to do of Garry Shandling. If you want to see Gervais be treated with utter contempt, check it out.
Can someone turn the tables and make a comedy show on people like Gervais, Chappelle and Jk Rowling? The trans-phobes are surely a minority that needs to be punched down on, right? Since we’re supposed to be okay with that sort of thing, I mean.
The very PURPOSE of comedy that calls out a group or entity is to hold truth to power (other comedy can be observational comedy on shared human experiences). There is no point to ‘comedy’ that riffs, ironically or otherwise, on a group that’s already struggling for a seat at the table. What is the purpose of this? Why not direct it toward the NRA, the GOP, Putin, SM disinformation? Pick on Elon Musk fgs, or Hollywood idiocies, or Real Housewives or whatever. Oh but wait, once you’re part of the $$$$ entertainment establishment, you can’t really call out your own.
And miss me with the cultural explanation. If you have to explain your cultural bias to prove that your comedy is funny, it’s already failed.
People who make dick jokes usually have issues with their own dicks.
I’m glad you included the James Acaster brave little cis boy routine cause that’s what I immediately thought of when I read the headline.
And for people who are saying Americans are too dumb to understand RG’s comedy, James Acaster (from the clip above) is a British comedian and plenty of other British comedians as well as brits retweeted the clip
i love that the Jamese Acaster tweet blew up. HE actually has a netflix special (it’s even on US netflix but i knew him from watching british panel shows on youtube) and it’s incredibly smart and funny.
All things Acaster all the time. He has another special on Netflix called Repertoire that is just genius. And a great podcast called Off Menu.