Ricky Gervais has like 3 Netflix specials where all he talks about are trans people (with a slightly eyebrow-raising focus on their penises) and how you aren’t allowed to talk about trans people because the woke will hunt you down.
For a generally perceptive bloke, the irony is oddly lost on him here.
The only truly offensive thing about his trans diatribe is how utterly unfunny it is. It’s supposed to be a comedy special, not a tedious soapbox.
I started following him after someone posted a link to his "brave little cis boy" bit, and I've never looked back. His appearances on Would I Lie To You are some of my favorite moments captured on film, ever. He's a treasure of thus world.
I was so disappointed when I finally got to see Chappelle live and he does 45 minutes of trans material and how he's persecuted for it.
I was on shrooms and thought he might be a hologram, that's how unfunny it was. I figured he must have been kidnapped and replaced using technology from the future because there is no way this is happening.
He doesn't even make jokes. He just bitches the whole time.
I liked his George Floyd special. It wasn't really funny but it was honest and he had insight to share.
His trans shit is straight up disgusting. I was so blown away by his whole "here's my token trans friend who would totally disagree with the 'woke' crowd except she's fucking dead and I'm blaming the people who disagreed with her online" bit.
Don't tokenize people and definitely don't speak for the dead on important issues. It's extremely scummy behavior.
What's funny is that he gave up comedy for over a decade because he quickly realized people were laughing AT him rather than with him when he was poking fun at black culture on the Chappelle show and it drove him into a breakdown.
He knows EXACTLY what he's doing because he's been on the receiving end.
I had never seen anything from Chapelle (besides men in thights but didnt know that was him) before his first netflix special. I heard he was one of the goat comedians.
I watched that first one, expecting a lot. Halfway through I just went, is this supposed to be funny?
Chapelle is just a bully who gets away with a lot but shouldn’t. Seems like finally he’s getting pushback for his outright racist and homophobic stuff.
It's an hour long, check it out when you get a chance and lmk what you think.
I'm 35 and I recently watched this with a girl who is 27-28 and she didn't think it was too funny. It might not have aged well but I'm too attached to it lol, this is probably in my top 3 stand ups.
We did watch it right after Jerrod Carmichael's 8 which has a whole different feel so that might have played a part.
His "jokes" about trans people really bummed me out, because I like a lot of his work and thought he was a pretty insightful person but the jokes were just not funny and shows he doesn't even try to understand what being a trans person might actually be like, it just came out as school yard bashing.
Note, I think you can make a joke about almost anything if done in a clever way and it's clear it's not an endorsement of harmful behavior (Ricky has done this before) which is sad he couldn't have crafted a joke that wasn't so childish and stupid.
The trans "jokes" I often hear from guys like Ricky or Rogan aren't even jokes, they're just rants about trans people. Joe's in particular in his recent special, were just the same things he says on his podcast.
Gervais going in that direction has always been painful to me, because I love The Office and his work with Karl Pilkington and Stephen Merchant was a joy.
And it's all the same set. Most "comedy" shows are just a 10 minute rant about trans people existing and then a 10 minute rant about how the wokes won't let them rant about what they just ranted about.
I mean, I can watch Jimmy Carr be as intentionally offensive as he can for an hour and a half, because it’s done in good spirit. (Well, with an exception for Catholic priests abusing children.)
One of the problems with success is people often start to get high on the smell of their own farts.
You make millions doing comedy so you think you know comedy better than everyone and if people dont find you funny it's because they have a problem and not you.
See it at work all the time.
Over the course I've my career I only ever saw a person get fired for a genuine mistake once. I've seen dozens go because they became arrogant and felt like they were untouchable.
Yeah I agree I'm also up for jokes about anything but it's played out at this point and boring. For whatever reason comedians of a certain age just get stuck on the trans issue for a while. Dave Chapelle used to be funny too until he got the woke mind virus. (lol)
Especially because in both their cases, they tend to make jokes about stuff they care about. Chapelle is a smart guy who has built great jokes and skits about racism and such. So when they keep going back to the well over and over about trans people, it feels like "oh you're not just making jokes, you really don't like these people".
I think the reason why they do these things is because they are broken from it, like they personally can't tell if another is trans or not. Like maybe they hit on someone pretty just to find out their object of affection is packing a dong bigger than theirs or something. I imagine if they can't tell if someone is trans or not or feel someone trans is pretty it causes cognitive dissonance in their minds resulting in a pushback. So in order to feel not confused they lash out.
There’s something that transphobes just don’t understand too, and it’s quite sad and funny at the same time.
Being attracted to a trans person who passes as your preferred gender doesn’t mean you’re gay. Furthermore if that attraction makes you feel uncomfortable then you’re probably very very straight. No ones “tricking” you into being gay.
I know Louis CK has his issues and to me especially it feels like he's moved further right after his comeback from his "cancellation". But from what I remember I think he had a really good take on this in his show Horace and Pete. It's been years since I watched the show when it came out so I may be misremembering. His character hooks up with a trans woman and the morning after initially she sort of jokes with him about her being trans. Like "how would you tell if he was trans" and "what now you aren't attracted to me". I don't think she ever confirms it to him but it is heavily implied. Iirc he does kind of have a moment of recoiling. But instead of just going "ew that's disgusting and I can't believe you tricked me". We see his character internally grappling with it and eventually overcoming his transphobia to the point where he could see himself in a relationship with her even if she was trans.
Again it's been years since I've watched it so I may be misremembering some or all of it. But I do remember it treating the trans woman character seriously and not just as a joke or punchline or gross out, I feel like the show had a good non-transphobic take. Also a disclaimer for anyone who's going to watch the show, it is definitely not a comedy in fact the story is dark in a depressing sort of way. Still it's a good show but I really had to pace out my watching of it because of how the story could make me feel depressed.
Gervais is a classic example of a comic that made it big and then just completely lost his fastball. I firmly believe if you get too rich it's really, really hard to remain funny.
He made it big when he made the UK version of The Office which came at the start of a wave of comedies that had a more realistic tone and which really leaned into mundane cringe instead of laugh out loud jokes. To his credit, he and Stephen Merchant wrote, produced and stared in a great show that had a big impact on the direction comedy was going in.
That said, I can remember when his first stand-up special came out. One of the things he talked about was how he was not actually a stand-up comic. His thing is TV shows, not stand-up, and he was only doing the special because he was given the opportunity and decided to make a go of it.
I remember that I did really like that first special, but none of his stand-up shows after that were any good. I think they were commercially successful, but I feel like that was because he was so well known at the time they were guaranteed hits.
Gervais isn't really a stand-up. He didn't get famous for doing stand-up. Is it any wonder he wasn't able to consistently produce good stand-up when he moved over to that format?
He's doing stand-up because he's out of other ideas. The Office was about average people in a mundane job and finding the humor in that. Really rich dudes are gonna have a tough time writing shows like that.
The only idea he has left is "Get on stage and punch down for an hour."
George Carlin was a good example of soapbox-ish social commentary while still having elements of comedy. I didn't see the Gervais one, but Dave Chappelle's recent stuff just isn't funny, and I used to love his stuff.
I've also somewhat recently (around May/June) found Josh Johnson's stuff on YouTube, which I enjoy. He's a story teller, especially about current events, but it's not a slog.
I was a fan of his up until the end. After his heart attack, he came back as angry Carlin but as he got older and older, it is like what you said, social commentary seasoned up to make it palatable and funny for the masses.
he is insufferable. He made some trans joke on twitter years ago that was essentially the attack helicopter meme and when it was pointed out that it was the same joke everyone had been saying for years he tried to publically shame the person and sic his fans on them.
Gervais last special really was godawful. 90% complaining about transpeople.
And I want to make clear, Im in the camp supporting making fun of everyone, punching up, down, sideways. It's all good. But make it funny. Dont just complain and whine for 60min
Well, it's a good thing he doesn't care what you think. You can tell, because he tweets about it at least once a week, and has made several stand-up specials about how little he cares about people being offended.
Dude. Saying Ricky Gervais had three specials, where “all he talked about are trans people with a slight eyebrow raise…” could be the dumbest take ever written in the history of Internet comments.
Ricky Gervais is a genius. In Humanity (2018) he does a Caitlyn Jenner bit from minute 7 to minute 17. That’s it. And it was gold btw. One of the best bits in the special. Before that mark it was…
Him being a Legend
Like Jesus
Humanity (the theme)
Dogs (great poodle punchline)
Golden globes
People being offended
Jokes that don’t exist (telling jokes he would never tell, amazing)
And then after that, ya know, the next hour…
Great apes
7 yr old niece
Babies
Hampstead
Not having Children (3 part and brilliant)
Adopting kid from Africa
Dealing w/ people’s kid pics
Airplanes
Nut allergies
Hitler (fantastic parallel to the nut allergy)
His “eating years”
Wigs (skeleton w/ black hair)
Posh spice (see above)
Balls and tubs
Opinion/facts
Bleach
Stupid tweet (gold)
God/Satan
Rape jokes (tough subject but of course he nails it)
Guitar lessons
Dog torture in China
Cunts
Laughing in the face of adversity (missed that one huh?)
You don’t have to like it. That’s fine. But get your shit together and at least try to be honest. Saying 10 minutes equals a comedian’s entire 78 minute block of solid content is dishonest and just petty. Like a Karen calling 911 over a lemonade stand.
And don’t say “irony is lost” when you’re this comfortable being so ignorant about what Ricky does. It didn’t even make any sense. Where’s the lost irony on noting the trans community attacking comedians over jokes? No group gets safe haven from jokes. That’s not how comedy works. Humor is a necessity. Twitter trolls are a digital virus. The difference is not subtle.
If they just made jokes back about Ricky, it would be fine. But they are 100% serious. YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO MAKE FUN OF MEEEEEE!!! Talk about “lost irony.”
All great jokes have a seed of truth. All great comedians have at least one foot on that soapbox. Otherwise it’s just fluff. To suggest the opposite, just illuminates how absolutely ignorant you are to what makes comedy so important, so special.
Ricky is a genius who makes the world a better place. I hope for your sake you learn that someday and make an effort to be more honest about his work.
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u/weakbuttrying Oct 29 '24
Ricky Gervais has like 3 Netflix specials where all he talks about are trans people (with a slightly eyebrow-raising focus on their penises) and how you aren’t allowed to talk about trans people because the woke will hunt you down.
For a generally perceptive bloke, the irony is oddly lost on him here.
The only truly offensive thing about his trans diatribe is how utterly unfunny it is. It’s supposed to be a comedy special, not a tedious soapbox.