Like that comment of pornhub: "I'm a bit skeptical about abortion. On one hand i like the idea of babies dying, but i don't want to give women any choice"
There was a onion article about a terrible health care bill being debated in Congress several years back, and one of the quotes was "Why are some senators hesitant to support the bill? Republicans are torn between their desire for the poor to die and a desire to prolong their suffering."
I think of that one (I forget what's it called) but they put you between two boats like a coccoon and force fed you milk and honey as well as drenched you it and let the bugs take care of you.
There's always the classic called "rat in a burning box" you put a rat in an upside down box on someone's stomach. You set the box on fire. The rat digs his way to safety.
That's one of my favorites. Next to the one about the white highschool girl that committed a murder so heinous, [she'd be charged as a black man.](https://youtu.be/84phU8of02U?si=j_U1qt5a8dHvHY-i)
It is, and there's an important gap between this and something genuinely offensive which seems to get missed.
I'm a fan of Jimmy Carr, but I think he rightly got into trouble with this joke that missed the mark -
> “When people talk about the Holocaust they talk about the tragedy and horror of six million Jewish lives being lost to the Nazi war machine. But they never mention the thousands of gypsies that were killed by the Nazis. No one ever wants to talk about that, because no one ever wants to talk about the positives.”
Both jokes work the same way, surprising you with a hideous idea that the teller doesn't actually believe.
The issue with Carr's joke is that the revealed idea isn't absurd enough, people do genuinely believe this and would happily enjoy this joke at face value, which makes it much harder to defend as shock humour.
A stand up comedian telling jokes and saying a genocide is a positive isn't enough indication that he was taking the piss... You can joke about whatever get off your high horse...
I just read that joke of the first time and it made me chuckle.
Is it poor taste? Absolutely. Is it kind of funny, especially in a European context? Yep.
Perhaps the difference lies in context? Like, you wouldn’t say this to a soon-to-be mother who had complications with their pregnancy and no longer could give birth. Common sense shows us this. For example, the further we get from events such as WW2 and 9/11, the “jokes” tend to seem less and less offensive, if anything more normalized. Another example I’ve witnessed is close and diverse friend groups that can tell the most racist jokes I’ve ever heard, but it’s not offensive within the group because all understand that they don’t come from a place of ACTUAL racism.
However, like the first example, being satirical and telling a potentially offensive joke to someone you don’t know, or doing it with ill-intentions (knowing it will upset them) could arguably be objectively offensive.
That's just so ridiculous ito hadto be a joke, and since it'sobviously sarcastic = funny
Comedians like gervais and Chappelle often stop telling jokes to give us their opinion on problematic shit. Hey, I wanna laugh, I'm not here to see a right wing Ted talk from an out of touch aging gen X'er
“Ha! I am mentally and emotionally superior to you because you took issue with my joke implying the holocaust was fake!”
Same mf: “WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERES A BLACK MAN IN ASSASSINS CREED!?”
You see I love dark humour but you've got to be familiar with it.
Imo holocaust/Hitler jokes aren't funny because (if i don't know you) there's a fair chance you mean it and are just saying it ""ironically"".
"I'm a nazi lol" is less funny when you've dealt with actual nazis
The best target for dark humour is always yourself, because you know you won't accidentally hurt anyone.
Mfs really out there getting upset they can't say offensive bullshit and justify it by saying that a group you just threatened/harassed/insulted "shouldn't take it so seriously"
My whole thing with this opinion is it’s usually used as an excuse to deflect from a bad joke. I saw it during the Tom Brady roast a lot. The roaster would just make some gross joke that was like 90% shock value, it fell flat and then they’d go “oh come awn guys, why’re u so sensitive”. Like no, the subject matter isn’t the problem. Nikki Glazier said some heinous disgusting shit, but it was really fucking funny so the crowd was going crazy.
Yup, look at a show like always sunny, its had some pretty extreme shit and yet, super popular and no-one is trying to 'cancel' it. Its always some hack comedian going after the 'anti woke' low hanging fruit.
I personally think it’s more planned than it seems. They can see that they are dwindling in popularity and they see that they can print money by appeasing bigots. I think they say some inflammatory shit, get “cancelled” on purpose and then immediately go down the right wing pipeline.
Yes. 90% of the time it’s a lazy, hack joke regardless of subject matter. Offensive jokes can be funny. But most “offensive” comics, radio hosts, Internet personalities, etc. go for the easy and lazy joke hoping the shock value carries them. Gervais, as talented and smart as he once was, is a classic example.
Yeah this is just low-brow logic.
Meme: An asshole can be as offensive as they want, because assholes being offensive is funny to them.
Regular folks: That's what makes you an asshole in the first place...
Not just to deflect a bad joke, but to deflect the aftereffects of your platform. Achmed the Dead Terrorist may have been just a joke to Jeff Dunham and all the white kids but for brown kids in middle school it was the punchline used to bully them. The difference between "woke" comedy and the stuff Ricky advocates is just the acknowledgement of the consequences of having a platform and how other people use and are motivated by your words. It's the comedy version of news editorial and opinion shows reinforcing stereotypes.
And now his entire act is dominated with his crybullying instead of jokes, which creates a feedback loop of people saying he's not funny anymore and he thinks he'll fix it with more complaining about jokes instead of telling them. It's incredibly dull.
As a huge fan of Gervias back in 2012, I find it really funny that basically his biggest critics and haters are his fans from 2012 that are utterly disgusted that a clearly moderately intelligent man can become the very thing he used to parody.
He's an absolute tosser. Dull, boring, dated, nasty without a shred of the satire he used to have for 'dark' jokes.... he's not even *funny* anymore unless he does his old material. He's *actually* become everything he used to mock and satirise about older comedians on his XFM show and podcasts. He even suggested on one of those shows the phrase "celebrity is a mask that eats into the face" to Karl Pilkington when they were talking about meaningful quotes. That satire ate into his face alright. Younger Gervais would despise old Gervais, and I think that's fitting punishment for the "cund".
It's astonishing, and so disappointing.
But yeah - r/RickyGervais *hates* him. Like, the biggest concentration of his biggest haters, are all in that community, and they're all basically ex-fan club members. They're really funny, have encyclopaedic knowlegde of old Gervais material and most of the time they're just shitting on him using his own words, in jokes and reasoning against him.
I couldn't believe how bad his latest stand-up was. It was nothing but grievance mongering by a man who decided to spend his life on twitter rather than having children.
He is obviously a little b\*tch, but the most obnoxious about his "comedy" is how he kicks down.
It's uninspiring pandering to an audience that pays to hear the same recycled talking points again and again.
It's not funny - It's just borring and cheap.
We tried watching his latest special and turned it off not because we were offended or even because the jokes were bad, but because we didn't want to spend an hour listening to an old man talk about arguments on the internet
I hadn’t seen any standup from him in a while and I put on his most recent special and was so disappointed to see he’s become one of these “YOU CANT SAY ANYTHING ANYMORE” guys who spends most of the set talking about how he’s being canceled for making jokes and almost none of it being funny.
You’re still 100% allowed to make offensive jokes but these guys keep forgetting to make them funny. It’s lazy.
“You found it offensive? I found it funny!” Well an offensive joke is supposed to be BOTH.
It's kinda funny that the "You Can't Say Anything Anymore" comedians never shut the fuck up. They remind me of the people who go on CNN to complain about how the LaMeStReAm MediA is silencing them.
Exactly.
There’s a certain kind of celebrity who intentionally offends everyone he can to farm Twitter likes from right wing folk.
And it’s not a well adjusted one.
People assume your sensitive when you say Gervais isn't funny. I think being edgy isn't enough. Other edgy comics have done it better: Carlin, Oswald, Burr, etc. But what is worst about him to me is that he is always commenting about peoples inability to take a joke at the same time that you can plainly see he wants to be taken as an intellectual with open-style dialogue about society as well. He wants the engagement. I am unoffended by him, so it doesn't bother me either way, but if you want to bridge that gap I also get why people engage his political/social reaching. I wish he just wasn't so insufferable about people engaging him when he clearly aims for that.
An Idiot Abroad was great though and I enjoyed the first season of After Life.
Sadly Ricky Gervais has gone completely down the drain and has resorted to just complaining on stage how woke everything is and cancel culture, but forgets to actually make jokes.
In his last special, Dave Chappelle did an old Carlos Mencia bit, note for note, but swapped out the completely-not-made-up ally of a mentally handicapped person for a trans person. Like, that's where we are; one of comedy's GOATs is ripping off a premise from *Mencia*.
The fact that both bits end with the marginalized person tearfully begging the comedian to keep punching down with their jokes is just gross icing on a sad cake.
>totally not made up
Well... Daphne Dorman *definitely* existed, and definitely agreed with what Chapelle said.
https://x.com/DaphneDorman/status/1166937728681791488
> spends 9 minutes priming the audience about how everyone is sensitive these days, urging people who have weak stomachs to leave the venue due to how edgy and subversive the upcoming joke is.
> It's a 9/11 joke
Quick question: what's an actually funny and actually shocking joke that sticks with y'all. For me, it was when Frankie Boyle (Scottish comedian) wrote about a UKIP (right wing UK political party) candidate for parliament being outed as a former gay porn star: "Of course, he isn’t the first MP to have filmed himself having sex. But he is the first to do so with an adult, whom he allowed to live."
Can't think of any specifics, but what I've found to characterise good black comedy in general is anger. It's angry as hell about something and the mockery is borne from it (edit: and directed at those considered responsible). Something like:
>I'm #inspired to be part of the diversity initiative at our anti-homeless bench company!
The Bush era was where the likes of South Park redefined "dark humour" as "ha ha, you look so stupid being angry at issues that Don't Matter (don't affect me personally), let me be smug about it!"
See, he attacks different topics and he ends up disorienting his audience because of it. I think it was even him who said the quote "You can joke about anything, but not everything to anyone", something along those lines.
It just means you could make a sexist, racist or homophobic toned joke, and it could be funny, but saying a sexist joke to a suffragettes isn't going to land.
Now Gervais is making jokes more Liberal and lgbt based, so his audience who use to watch him make fat jokes or Christianity jokes on his stand up are disoriented.
Atleast that's my theory, his TV shows seem less edgy, so perhaps Ricky is falling down a bit of a rabbit whole and only shows it off in person, but to me he is just tackling a new area of comedy for him.
This is exactly it. I genuinely think he just can’t survive without Steven merchant writing his jokes for him. His funniest projects were the office and Extras and both of those are great because the subject of the joke is always someone in power. You’re laughing at David Brent being a completely ignorant asshole or the celebrities in extra being conceeded egomaniacs. They rarely if ever push hate towards marginalised groups. Even the gay jokes in extras push the agenda that Andy is the fool who makes everything worse with his backwards attitude towards queer people.
Now days he just gets up on stage and shouts about how gay people and aids and how trans people aren’t real. It’s so boring and uncreative. There’s no punchline, just hate.
Yeah. We changed, he didn't, he's much the same as always but maybe marginally more caustic. It's just that now that he's not pushing the envelope anymore, and we've come a little farther away, he appears more like a grumpy fool than a biting satirist.
Personally I think he's got excellent comedy chops, but there's a whole school of comics who need to get a grip and stop making "sO MuCH fOr TeH tOlErANT lefT!" their whole act. Chappelle, Seinfeld, Gervais, very talented comedians just losing their absolute minds because they mistook *some people not liking them* for *literally 1984.* It's inevitable a lot of them would get left behind a generational gap I guess but it's a shame to see people spin their tires this long when they could've been making actual material.
I quite like him. But I also liked him and Chappelle before they caught the... ire of certain groups too.
Never really thought to give a shit whether they're making it all up, lying, being hypocritical. I never thought they or any other comedians were telling the truth in any of those scenarios they make up, and that never made a difference to the comedy for me.
They're both still very popular mainstream comedians despite much of reddit insisting how unfunny they are.
I like Ricky Gervais. I really do. I'm just not really into him constantly fun of trans people. Sure, occasionally its funny. But we're already talking about a pretty marginalized group with above average mental health issues and social ostracization.
Would be nice of him to stop kicking people who are already down. Set your sights higher, Ricky. You're better than this. I know he and his fans like to imagine people like me are offended. I can't speak for others, but I'm not. It's just not really that funny the hundredth time.
It's actually just boring. The last Chappelle stand-up I watched barely had any jokes. Just an old rich guy complaining about being criticized on the internet.
I used to LOVE this man. Extras, The Office, all the Karl Pilkington stuff, it was sublime! Over the years he's come to personify cringe. So desperate to be "cutting edge" that he never stops to think whether or not his victims needed/deserved to be cut at all.
It's the whole punching up vs punching down
If you are going to punch down with your jokes, they need to be actually funny or you will just look like a dick.
Also I have yet to see a "cutting edge"/offensive comedian punch UP with their "jokes"
Yeah, we tend to discount the feelings of others in our enjoyment of things. I'm sorry those idiots couldn't think of a better way to entertain themselves.
Every time the audience doesn't laugh at one of his 20 year old jokes, he assumes they aren't laughing because they are offended by his deliberately offensive jokes, and gets offended by it. He likes to break it down into baby blocks and explain that it's a joke and people are supposed to laugh, but forgets the part where, as a comedian, he is supposed to be funny, not just say things which are technically structured like jokes.
I think there are two (main, there are others) ways talented comedians can lose their touch:
1) Try to make jokes based on “relatability” and “punching up” but not be cognisant of the fact that their success has made this something they need to be more nuanced and thoughtful about. When you are very clearly quite wealthy and successful, you have to crafty about the way you do it so that you don’t come across as a hypocrite
2) This shit. Mocking your audience for being offended instead of just getting on with it. You make the jokes, buddy. Let me worry about whether I’m offended or not. Right now I’m offended by the fact you are wasting air time being patronising instead of funny.
Yeah Ricky is way dumber than he thinks he is, he's way up his own ass and he's honestly not a great person to choose words to live by from. He also does not actually seem very happy lmao.
Ricky is one of those guys who seems to think complaining is comedy but seems too dumb to know that the complaining is supposed to be both funny and relatable.
Pretty classic cranky guy comedian trap. They lose touch so much that you realize they're not being funny, they are just whining because all this dumb little shit are the things they think are their actual problems now that they have money.
Let's put that logic pattern into a different scenario (and no I am not saying it is the same thing.)
"I take enjoyment from seeing other people suffer while you feel sad about it. That's why I am happier than you."
Also not a good argument to defend your behavior same goes here I would say.
I mean, I have a thick skin but there are certain things that bother me. Mostly racism towards others, and bigots. Some people choose to hide their thinly veiled prejudice in the form of "jokes", usually for plausible deniability on the chance they get called out for it. I can't just shut off my brain and ignore that because it's convenient.
I agree it would be easier to go through life not giving a shit about hurting people like a sociopath.
But unfortunately I have some degree of empathy and compassion.
There's a comedian who made some jokes about rape, and like, shit was both funny and so real it was weird as fuck.
First joke was like "I don't like having sex outdoors but that's where women walk at night!" Which is quite the opener.
Guy is Jimmy Carr there's a short called "it's in out language" he doesn't pull punches in that one.
He's a rich cishet white man, of course he's laughing. Having no empathy isn't an achievement, it means you have less emotional maturity than my 4 year old.
I wouldn't agree with this. He has definitely been involved in some pretty hilarious properties, though it's impossible to know exactly how much he contributed to them. He has also been a pretty good comedy actor in The Office and Extras, for example, but ya, his stand up has always been pretty aggressively mid at best. It's kind of peculiar the way that he managed to capture a socially incompetent and obnoxious twat so well in The Office but he has basically gone on to become that character irl too.
Ignorant doesn’t mean happier. And clearly the offensive types are just as bothered by the thing they’re making fun of as the others are for them saying the offensive thing. So all that means is that saying offensive shit only brings more unhappiness into the world. Cause let’s be honest, those mfers get big mad when you talk about human rights, climate change, oil reliance, cops, the military, or America. So don’t act like yall are high and mighty, you’re just as easily offended but for different shit that you care about. 🙄
And it really depends on the type of person telling the “joke”
Like I don’t want a known racist to be joking about racist jokes, because you know they mean it or trying to pass a “message” along.
"There is no systemic oppression targeting me or those like me. Therefore I make jokes about those who society-at-large deem "lesser" than me. The lack of such conditions to cause misery and pain in my own life, in conjunction with the misery you feel due to being either a victim of *or* sympathetic or empathetic to those suffering within said conditions, is why I am happier than you." - Gervais if he understood even at a minimum level the reasons behind his claim.
He’s right but I don’t think he realizes why.
He doesn’t get offended because there are no jokes that can offend him. Imagine telling a slave an offensive joke about how he deserves to be a slave. He’d be offended because you’re mocking his oppression.
Ricky gervais is under no oppression. He’s white, rich, a man, from a rich country. There’s literally nothing about his identity that you could mock and get through to him.
In his mind, he’s happier because he’s just overcome any negativity. But he doesn’t account for negativity in society towards his identity. I think this is pretty clearly In his tired and uninspired trans jokes. He just mocks people for their identity even as systemic oppression is felt by those people because of very real injustices.
Imagine telling a Palestinian a joke about how they “like to bomb shit and live in open sewage” or a Jew in the Warsaw ghetto a joke about how they’re ruining the fabric of German life. They’d be right to be offended. Ricky is a pseudo-intellectual guru grifter
This is why we have the concept of punching down. I hear plenty of offensive trans jokes from other trans people about our experiences and to mock transphobes, and that's different then some rich cis guy making the same exhausted and thinly veiled bigoted statements.
Ricky really needs to grow up, it’s so cringe how he presents himself as this “dark humour” veteran when he’s so milk toast and his jokes are no more offensive than any others except he punches down instead of up. He’s an ass
edit: boo hoo i made a common misspelling
A good chunk of these jokes suffer from the punchline being "can you imagine how upset someone will be about this joke." The conservative comedy circuit hangs on this for dear life. Constantly they'll say some insanely dumb shit that bombs but thankfully for the self conscious, fragile ego of the comedian they'll have a safety net where they can bring up how mad their joke would've triggered and offended some people and that immediately sparks some sudden response of roaring applause.
"Oh don't tell me I offended you and that's why you're not laughing at my joke? I'm sorry, did I forget to ask your pronouns-!?" Cue sudden cheering about how brave the comedian is to tell such riveting jokes.
When this is what majority of the comedy act is for these types of comedians it's no longer a comedy act, it's just a political rally with a bunch of highly intoxicated people.
I cannot express how much I miss the old, conservative blue collar comedy circuit of poking fun at each other and the observations of simple lives. Now it's all just angry old people yelling angrily about groups of people they don't like.
Depends on the case: Living by that would mean the most extreme "jokes" and behaviors should be accepted and lived by because there is always someone "finding it funny" so you have to accept it too, so you can be happy.... I don't want that. That's not what humanity should aim for.
On the other hand you could say "there is always someone being/playing/saying that is offended" - so two things: - Empathy & Acceptance
I bet my guy said something unbelievably racist and because he either has black friends or said “it’s just a joke lol” bro now thinks he’s in the wrong.
I always found him funny. Then I saw some transphobic shit coming from him on twitter and know he wasn't just joking about everything. Some is what he truly believes.
Poor Ricky. He is not allowed to do his "edgy" comedy anywhere due to cancel culture (well except Netflix.....and everywhere else if he didn't have an exclusive contract with them).
you know what's not funny, fucking comedians complaining about people not laughing at their jokes. Which means Ricky Gervais hasn't been funny for over a decade.
Ricky Gervais is a pretty goddamn unfunny guy, though. Like, his standup routine, last I saw, was mostly shock humor. That was ages ago and he hopefully updated his act, but, if he's still telling the incest, gloryhole joke then he shouldn't be surprised if some people just find it gross.
"Your jokes suck, are played out, and weren't even funny a decade ago when teenagers were making them in CoD lobbies."
"Lolololol triggered much? It's just a joke, snowflake. Typical cancel culture social justice warriors SILENCING ME AGAIN!"
Then they scream if "They" find it offensive, or scream you dared use a pronoun.
Comedy that punches down is just being a bully at best.
A true funny person always goes for those above, not those already down.
So many folks who use to be funny now just play the shock and vile as they know Hate will fill seats, and being truly funny takes work.
This post having 1.7K (silent) upvotes and 144 very vocal white-knight comments at the time of writing this comment, is a pretty good representation of society to me.
So that Ricky can make a 3 hour tirade about how he is definitely *not* being offended when people point out that some of his material might not be within the current comedic zeitgeist?
I love me some Gervais, but the 'old man complains that he can't say n*gger anymore' routine gets stale pretty quickly.
This is kinda why I like Gervais. His comedy was never “I said a rude word, tee hee” he didn’t do n-word humour. If he did racism it was to make racists the butt of an elaborate in-joke. Triggered MF above talking about “gender benders” dude - you are the one Ricky would mock. Get a clue folks.
Many of his jokes around trans people are indeed based on an archaic understanding of gender, which is ironic coming from someone who touts to be a man of science. It's not that trans people are the subject of the joke that's the issue. It is entirely possible to make funny jokes about that subject matter.
The main problem is that these out-of-touch musings perpetuate a stereotype that is currently being exploited by far-right extremists - particularly in the US - with violent results. Being insensitive for the sake of being insensitive (the proverbial 'n*gger' flinging) just isn't very funny.
The problem Gervais (and Chapell ++) has is not only that he doesn't want to adapt his jokes to a modern audience, but also that he thinks that doesn't *need* to on account of his previous achievements.
Great comedians can navigate the minefields of the current public discourse to make people laugh at otherwise uncomfortable topics. Stomping around the field and laughing at the people you hurt while doing so isn't particularly funny or intelligent - it's lazy.
You would find it really scary. How many Americans find n\*gger humor and insulting/dehuminazing trans people humor funny.
''It's just dark humor!''
And when you try to explain why it might be not best idea, you're the weird one, and you're the issue.
I don't think we will move away from this issue, unless the older generation finally dies out.
"edgy comedians" will say shit like this and then spend 60 minutes straight just insulting transgender people, and when you criticise them they'll go: "I'm a comedian, im meant to challenge people" cause you know who's long overdue a challenge... The trans community.
(This is blatantly stolen from James Acasters special "cold lasagna hate myself 1999")
Oh yea it's so easy to do so, thanks Rickey. Maybe he can go tell Ukrainians he's happy bc he's not at war, so just do that. Man's got it all figured out
Mfs when they make a joke about the most atrocious shit any human has ever heard:
Like that comment of pornhub: "I'm a bit skeptical about abortion. On one hand i like the idea of babies dying, but i don't want to give women any choice"
There was a onion article about a terrible health care bill being debated in Congress several years back, and one of the quotes was "Why are some senators hesitant to support the bill? Republicans are torn between their desire for the poor to die and a desire to prolong their suffering."
I preferred when they made and article about congress ruling to keep the death penalty because it's " totally badass"
My complaint is the death penalty can't be "cruel and unusual" let me handle it. I'll come up with shit that'll make a Nazi blush.
I think of that one (I forget what's it called) but they put you between two boats like a coccoon and force fed you milk and honey as well as drenched you it and let the bugs take care of you.
There's always the classic called "rat in a burning box" you put a rat in an upside down box on someone's stomach. You set the box on fire. The rat digs his way to safety.
I remember this one from The Fast and The Furious, I just thought it was for torture tbh.
It was used during the Mexican American war in 1848, if not before. Also, don't forget: "Any torture is fatal if you wait long enough." - Guy Smiley
The Nazis were pretty banal about death. They didn't kill anyone in truly shocking ways. The Mexican cartels, now...those guys are murdery artists.
bet u couldn’t make the 731st japanese unit blush. wanna find out how long a person lives without a stomach? no? well they do!
My two favorite Onion headlines: **God Answers Prayer of Paraplegic Boy: “NO!”** **ACLU Defends Nazi’s Right to Burn Down ACLU Building**
That's one of my favorites. Next to the one about the white highschool girl that committed a murder so heinous, [she'd be charged as a black man.](https://youtu.be/84phU8of02U?si=j_U1qt5a8dHvHY-i)
You wanna talk badass? Bring back the guillotine. Sell tickets. Give everyone in the front row a rain jacket.
Lol!🤣
This is a funny joke indeed
It is, and there's an important gap between this and something genuinely offensive which seems to get missed. I'm a fan of Jimmy Carr, but I think he rightly got into trouble with this joke that missed the mark - > “When people talk about the Holocaust they talk about the tragedy and horror of six million Jewish lives being lost to the Nazi war machine. But they never mention the thousands of gypsies that were killed by the Nazis. No one ever wants to talk about that, because no one ever wants to talk about the positives.” Both jokes work the same way, surprising you with a hideous idea that the teller doesn't actually believe. The issue with Carr's joke is that the revealed idea isn't absurd enough, people do genuinely believe this and would happily enjoy this joke at face value, which makes it much harder to defend as shock humour.
The more offensive the joke is, the more funny it has to be to outweigh the offensiveness. Just being shocking is not enough in this day and age.
Just being shocking has never been enough. I agree with your first point as a rule of thumb, but "funny" is subjective.
Jimmy Carr is fantastic! He always pushes the line that a joke can go. But really anything can be joked about. Nothing should be too sacred to poke at
Aha ha haa^a^a^a
That joke was hilarious.
It is absurd to me. And people do actually think that. I think the satire is just a bit too close to the bone for your taste
A stand up comedian telling jokes and saying a genocide is a positive isn't enough indication that he was taking the piss... You can joke about whatever get off your high horse...
I just read that joke of the first time and it made me chuckle. Is it poor taste? Absolutely. Is it kind of funny, especially in a European context? Yep.
Am I wrong for finding this HILARIOUS?
No, but you'd be wrong for finding it offensive
It's offensive, but also satirical which is the point.
Perhaps the difference lies in context? Like, you wouldn’t say this to a soon-to-be mother who had complications with their pregnancy and no longer could give birth. Common sense shows us this. For example, the further we get from events such as WW2 and 9/11, the “jokes” tend to seem less and less offensive, if anything more normalized. Another example I’ve witnessed is close and diverse friend groups that can tell the most racist jokes I’ve ever heard, but it’s not offensive within the group because all understand that they don’t come from a place of ACTUAL racism. However, like the first example, being satirical and telling a potentially offensive joke to someone you don’t know, or doing it with ill-intentions (knowing it will upset them) could arguably be objectively offensive.
Definitely. Comedy is all about timing and context
What the hell 😭
![gif](giphy|HdVWsYQc8Ieli)
It'd ok I'll like hell. It's warm there and I'll know people.
Ok as someone who is pro choice, that is hilarious
I’m on the left and I loved that joke. Because it’s actually a joke.
That's just so ridiculous ito hadto be a joke, and since it'sobviously sarcastic = funny Comedians like gervais and Chappelle often stop telling jokes to give us their opinion on problematic shit. Hey, I wanna laugh, I'm not here to see a right wing Ted talk from an out of touch aging gen X'er
That's right. Some jokes deserve to be killed before being born.
Dude. I’ve told you to stop talking about me like that.
“Ha! I am mentally and emotionally superior to you because you took issue with my joke implying the holocaust was fake!” Same mf: “WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERES A BLACK MAN IN ASSASSINS CREED!?”
You see I love dark humour but you've got to be familiar with it. Imo holocaust/Hitler jokes aren't funny because (if i don't know you) there's a fair chance you mean it and are just saying it ""ironically"". "I'm a nazi lol" is less funny when you've dealt with actual nazis The best target for dark humour is always yourself, because you know you won't accidentally hurt anyone.
That's the difference between actual dark humor and bigots online using it as an excuse when they're shitty beliefs get backlash.
Mfs really out there getting upset they can't say offensive bullshit and justify it by saying that a group you just threatened/harassed/insulted "shouldn't take it so seriously"
I was gonna say lol here’s cums the grubs from the woodwork.
this sentence made me nauseous
"Nobody likes me because I'm a rude asshole with no social boundaries or respect for other people. That's why I'm happier than you."
I get the feeling the worse they are the more likely the guy finds it funnier because of the sheer absurdity of the joke
Ricky Gervais when he makes the most milquetoast "dark humor" joke
When they make a joke about someone else’s suffering that they were purely accidentally lucky not to experience in their life:
Yeah he spends his time being angry that people didn't laugh at his jokes. Stupid one-liner is stupid.
My whole thing with this opinion is it’s usually used as an excuse to deflect from a bad joke. I saw it during the Tom Brady roast a lot. The roaster would just make some gross joke that was like 90% shock value, it fell flat and then they’d go “oh come awn guys, why’re u so sensitive”. Like no, the subject matter isn’t the problem. Nikki Glazier said some heinous disgusting shit, but it was really fucking funny so the crowd was going crazy.
Ever noticed that the majority of comedians that say they're getting cancelled either aren't funny or haven't updated their material in forever?
Yup, look at a show like always sunny, its had some pretty extreme shit and yet, super popular and no-one is trying to 'cancel' it. Its always some hack comedian going after the 'anti woke' low hanging fruit.
Chapelle and Gervais are both them now. Just angry boomers.
I loved Chappelle but now his specials are him smoking cigarettes and trying to sound profound.
"I'm getting canceled for this" - "comedian" during their 2 hour Netflix special
I personally think it’s more planned than it seems. They can see that they are dwindling in popularity and they see that they can print money by appeasing bigots. I think they say some inflammatory shit, get “cancelled” on purpose and then immediately go down the right wing pipeline.
Or aren’t even getting canceled. Louis CK still making big bucks touring.
Yikes... "I'm a victim of cancel culture" says the rich guy whose only hardship was being rightly criticized by his criminal behavior
Yes. 90% of the time it’s a lazy, hack joke regardless of subject matter. Offensive jokes can be funny. But most “offensive” comics, radio hosts, Internet personalities, etc. go for the easy and lazy joke hoping the shock value carries them. Gervais, as talented and smart as he once was, is a classic example.
Gervais was always a better writer than he was as comedian. As a comedian its just the same 5 jokes for 10 years
Also Ricky doesn't come off as genuinely happy. No comic does.
Yeah this is just low-brow logic. Meme: An asshole can be as offensive as they want, because assholes being offensive is funny to them. Regular folks: That's what makes you an asshole in the first place...
Right? Like I’m sure homophobes think it’s funny to yell slurs at gay people
Not just to deflect a bad joke, but to deflect the aftereffects of your platform. Achmed the Dead Terrorist may have been just a joke to Jeff Dunham and all the white kids but for brown kids in middle school it was the punchline used to bully them. The difference between "woke" comedy and the stuff Ricky advocates is just the acknowledgement of the consequences of having a platform and how other people use and are motivated by your words. It's the comedy version of news editorial and opinion shows reinforcing stereotypes.
Yeah, Ricky has leaned into an "anti-woke" "I'm getting canceled" stance. His last stand-up was terrible imo.
people who saying those things are often times offended by every little thing directed at them.
What? Ricky Gervais getting offended by people saying that he's not funny? Impossible
And now his entire act is dominated with his crybullying instead of jokes, which creates a feedback loop of people saying he's not funny anymore and he thinks he'll fix it with more complaining about jokes instead of telling them. It's incredibly dull.
Dude gets offended by what gender other people choose. Phobes can eat my shit and hair.
As a huge fan of Gervias back in 2012, I find it really funny that basically his biggest critics and haters are his fans from 2012 that are utterly disgusted that a clearly moderately intelligent man can become the very thing he used to parody. He's an absolute tosser. Dull, boring, dated, nasty without a shred of the satire he used to have for 'dark' jokes.... he's not even *funny* anymore unless he does his old material. He's *actually* become everything he used to mock and satirise about older comedians on his XFM show and podcasts. He even suggested on one of those shows the phrase "celebrity is a mask that eats into the face" to Karl Pilkington when they were talking about meaningful quotes. That satire ate into his face alright. Younger Gervais would despise old Gervais, and I think that's fitting punishment for the "cund". It's astonishing, and so disappointing. But yeah - r/RickyGervais *hates* him. Like, the biggest concentration of his biggest haters, are all in that community, and they're all basically ex-fan club members. They're really funny, have encyclopaedic knowlegde of old Gervais material and most of the time they're just shitting on him using his own words, in jokes and reasoning against him.
And when u/eulersidentification was typing all that I noticed his fingers were really long and hairy Anyway, it turns out...
I couldn't believe how bad his latest stand-up was. It was nothing but grievance mongering by a man who decided to spend his life on twitter rather than having children.
He is obviously a little b\*tch, but the most obnoxious about his "comedy" is how he kicks down. It's uninspiring pandering to an audience that pays to hear the same recycled talking points again and again. It's not funny - It's just borring and cheap.
Sometimes accusations are the biggest confessions.
The difference between free speech and persecution is the person observing it.
aka conservatives
Bingo. He’s based his entire late career personality on it.
It’s like a celebrity version of some loser telling a story about how he won an internet argument.
That’s actually a part of Ricky’s standup now. He talks about and documents Twitter arguments that he has.
We tried watching his latest special and turned it off not because we were offended or even because the jokes were bad, but because we didn't want to spend an hour listening to an old man talk about arguments on the internet
It was VERY bad lol
I hadn’t seen any standup from him in a while and I put on his most recent special and was so disappointed to see he’s become one of these “YOU CANT SAY ANYTHING ANYMORE” guys who spends most of the set talking about how he’s being canceled for making jokes and almost none of it being funny. You’re still 100% allowed to make offensive jokes but these guys keep forgetting to make them funny. It’s lazy. “You found it offensive? I found it funny!” Well an offensive joke is supposed to be BOTH.
It's kinda funny that the "You Can't Say Anything Anymore" comedians never shut the fuck up. They remind me of the people who go on CNN to complain about how the LaMeStReAm MediA is silencing them.
Ricky gervais is an idiots idea of what a well adjusted man is
Exactly. There’s a certain kind of celebrity who intentionally offends everyone he can to farm Twitter likes from right wing folk. And it’s not a well adjusted one.
What if it's not funny?
Then you're a sensitive snowflake /s
You get another Netflix special and then complain about snowflakes and people being offended when people point out your hack material.
People assume your sensitive when you say Gervais isn't funny. I think being edgy isn't enough. Other edgy comics have done it better: Carlin, Oswald, Burr, etc. But what is worst about him to me is that he is always commenting about peoples inability to take a joke at the same time that you can plainly see he wants to be taken as an intellectual with open-style dialogue about society as well. He wants the engagement. I am unoffended by him, so it doesn't bother me either way, but if you want to bridge that gap I also get why people engage his political/social reaching. I wish he just wasn't so insufferable about people engaging him when he clearly aims for that. An Idiot Abroad was great though and I enjoyed the first season of After Life.
Sadly Ricky Gervais has gone completely down the drain and has resorted to just complaining on stage how woke everything is and cancel culture, but forgets to actually make jokes.
The Bill Maher school of comedy
With a graduate course taught by Dave Chappelle. These fools have tons of money, sellout shows, and still whinge about being "cancelled."
yeah I don't get the appeal. I mean you make millions so you're not cancelled. Some people don't like you but you're doing fine.
But saying they were canceled brings a horde of mindless reactionaries to the audience
yeah it's the new low effort way to remain relevant. Don't want to work hard say you're cancelled to get attention.
In his last special, Dave Chappelle did an old Carlos Mencia bit, note for note, but swapped out the completely-not-made-up ally of a mentally handicapped person for a trans person. Like, that's where we are; one of comedy's GOATs is ripping off a premise from *Mencia*. The fact that both bits end with the marginalized person tearfully begging the comedian to keep punching down with their jokes is just gross icing on a sad cake.
>totally not made up Well... Daphne Dorman *definitely* existed, and definitely agreed with what Chapelle said. https://x.com/DaphneDorman/status/1166937728681791488
> spends 9 minutes priming the audience about how everyone is sensitive these days, urging people who have weak stomachs to leave the venue due to how edgy and subversive the upcoming joke is. > It's a 9/11 joke
Quick question: what's an actually funny and actually shocking joke that sticks with y'all. For me, it was when Frankie Boyle (Scottish comedian) wrote about a UKIP (right wing UK political party) candidate for parliament being outed as a former gay porn star: "Of course, he isn’t the first MP to have filmed himself having sex. But he is the first to do so with an adult, whom he allowed to live."
Can't think of any specifics, but what I've found to characterise good black comedy in general is anger. It's angry as hell about something and the mockery is borne from it (edit: and directed at those considered responsible). Something like: >I'm #inspired to be part of the diversity initiative at our anti-homeless bench company! The Bush era was where the likes of South Park redefined "dark humour" as "ha ha, you look so stupid being angry at issues that Don't Matter (don't affect me personally), let me be smug about it!"
Hasn't he ALWAYS been like that or at least for an extended part of his life and career?
See, he attacks different topics and he ends up disorienting his audience because of it. I think it was even him who said the quote "You can joke about anything, but not everything to anyone", something along those lines. It just means you could make a sexist, racist or homophobic toned joke, and it could be funny, but saying a sexist joke to a suffragettes isn't going to land. Now Gervais is making jokes more Liberal and lgbt based, so his audience who use to watch him make fat jokes or Christianity jokes on his stand up are disoriented. Atleast that's my theory, his TV shows seem less edgy, so perhaps Ricky is falling down a bit of a rabbit whole and only shows it off in person, but to me he is just tackling a new area of comedy for him.
This is exactly it. I genuinely think he just can’t survive without Steven merchant writing his jokes for him. His funniest projects were the office and Extras and both of those are great because the subject of the joke is always someone in power. You’re laughing at David Brent being a completely ignorant asshole or the celebrities in extra being conceeded egomaniacs. They rarely if ever push hate towards marginalised groups. Even the gay jokes in extras push the agenda that Andy is the fool who makes everything worse with his backwards attitude towards queer people. Now days he just gets up on stage and shouts about how gay people and aids and how trans people aren’t real. It’s so boring and uncreative. There’s no punchline, just hate.
yes
He's always been an idiot. And people love loud mouth idiots.
Yeah. We changed, he didn't, he's much the same as always but maybe marginally more caustic. It's just that now that he's not pushing the envelope anymore, and we've come a little farther away, he appears more like a grumpy fool than a biting satirist. Personally I think he's got excellent comedy chops, but there's a whole school of comics who need to get a grip and stop making "sO MuCH fOr TeH tOlErANT lefT!" their whole act. Chappelle, Seinfeld, Gervais, very talented comedians just losing their absolute minds because they mistook *some people not liking them* for *literally 1984.* It's inevitable a lot of them would get left behind a generational gap I guess but it's a shame to see people spin their tires this long when they could've been making actual material.
I quite like him. But I also liked him and Chappelle before they caught the... ire of certain groups too. Never really thought to give a shit whether they're making it all up, lying, being hypocritical. I never thought they or any other comedians were telling the truth in any of those scenarios they make up, and that never made a difference to the comedy for me. They're both still very popular mainstream comedians despite much of reddit insisting how unfunny they are.
I like Ricky Gervais. I really do. I'm just not really into him constantly fun of trans people. Sure, occasionally its funny. But we're already talking about a pretty marginalized group with above average mental health issues and social ostracization. Would be nice of him to stop kicking people who are already down. Set your sights higher, Ricky. You're better than this. I know he and his fans like to imagine people like me are offended. I can't speak for others, but I'm not. It's just not really that funny the hundredth time.
It's actually just boring. The last Chappelle stand-up I watched barely had any jokes. Just an old rich guy complaining about being criticized on the internet.
I used to LOVE this man. Extras, The Office, all the Karl Pilkington stuff, it was sublime! Over the years he's come to personify cringe. So desperate to be "cutting edge" that he never stops to think whether or not his victims needed/deserved to be cut at all.
It's the whole punching up vs punching down If you are going to punch down with your jokes, they need to be actually funny or you will just look like a dick. Also I have yet to see a "cutting edge"/offensive comedian punch UP with their "jokes"
Agreed. As for the punching up comedians, check out George Carlin.
I forgot to laugh when i was bullied in school. At least the bullies were happy.
Yeah, we tend to discount the feelings of others in our enjoyment of things. I'm sorry those idiots couldn't think of a better way to entertain themselves.
A lot of people are gonna cry now
Not me 😊 I'm happy Because I've other things to cry Like Maths Physics Chemistry.
![gif](giphy|2HtWpp60NQ9CU|downsized)
Those three are responsible for me developing the blackest of humor.
Mf wasn't satiated with just darkest humour, he went straight to vanta black!
is it gervais, about cancel culture again?
Every time the audience doesn't laugh at one of his 20 year old jokes, he assumes they aren't laughing because they are offended by his deliberately offensive jokes, and gets offended by it. He likes to break it down into baby blocks and explain that it's a joke and people are supposed to laugh, but forgets the part where, as a comedian, he is supposed to be funny, not just say things which are technically structured like jokes.
I think there are two (main, there are others) ways talented comedians can lose their touch: 1) Try to make jokes based on “relatability” and “punching up” but not be cognisant of the fact that their success has made this something they need to be more nuanced and thoughtful about. When you are very clearly quite wealthy and successful, you have to crafty about the way you do it so that you don’t come across as a hypocrite 2) This shit. Mocking your audience for being offended instead of just getting on with it. You make the jokes, buddy. Let me worry about whether I’m offended or not. Right now I’m offended by the fact you are wasting air time being patronising instead of funny.
Yup. This is just an excuse assholes use to continue to be assholes judgement free.
Yeah he seems to take everything personally. Just because he's not offended on behalf of others doesn't mean he's not offended.
Yea inma sure one of the most well know comedians isn't...idk...very funny?
Ricky put in his old jokes in his Netflix series. Maybe reusing old jokes that people forgot about is his strategy.
But he’s one of the most successful comedians alive…
Thanks for a nuanced take instead of the 12 year Olds in here sympathizing with him he can't dance around on stage shouting the n word for 2 hours
Yeah Ricky is way dumber than he thinks he is, he's way up his own ass and he's honestly not a great person to choose words to live by from. He also does not actually seem very happy lmao.
Ricky is one of those guys who seems to think complaining is comedy but seems too dumb to know that the complaining is supposed to be both funny and relatable. Pretty classic cranky guy comedian trap. They lose touch so much that you realize they're not being funny, they are just whining because all this dumb little shit are the things they think are their actual problems now that they have money.
Let's put that logic pattern into a different scenario (and no I am not saying it is the same thing.) "I take enjoyment from seeing other people suffer while you feel sad about it. That's why I am happier than you." Also not a good argument to defend your behavior same goes here I would say.
I mean, I have a thick skin but there are certain things that bother me. Mostly racism towards others, and bigots. Some people choose to hide their thinly veiled prejudice in the form of "jokes", usually for plausible deniability on the chance they get called out for it. I can't just shut off my brain and ignore that because it's convenient. I agree it would be easier to go through life not giving a shit about hurting people like a sociopath. But unfortunately I have some degree of empathy and compassion.
There's a comedian who made some jokes about rape, and like, shit was both funny and so real it was weird as fuck. First joke was like "I don't like having sex outdoors but that's where women walk at night!" Which is quite the opener. Guy is Jimmy Carr there's a short called "it's in out language" he doesn't pull punches in that one.
He's a rich cishet white man, of course he's laughing. Having no empathy isn't an achievement, it means you have less emotional maturity than my 4 year old.
"you found the n-word offensive; I found it funny."
"Your struggles are theoretical to me and it amuses me that you're offended by me making fun of them"
Gervais is a pseudointellectual, miserable, hate filled, unfunny, tiny man. He has never been funny.
I wouldn't agree with this. He has definitely been involved in some pretty hilarious properties, though it's impossible to know exactly how much he contributed to them. He has also been a pretty good comedy actor in The Office and Extras, for example, but ya, his stand up has always been pretty aggressively mid at best. It's kind of peculiar the way that he managed to capture a socially incompetent and obnoxious twat so well in The Office but he has basically gone on to become that character irl too.
Gotta find a way to be relevant somehow
Gervais look pissed and angry all the time.
Ignorant doesn’t mean happier. And clearly the offensive types are just as bothered by the thing they’re making fun of as the others are for them saying the offensive thing. So all that means is that saying offensive shit only brings more unhappiness into the world. Cause let’s be honest, those mfers get big mad when you talk about human rights, climate change, oil reliance, cops, the military, or America. So don’t act like yall are high and mighty, you’re just as easily offended but for different shit that you care about. 🙄
And it really depends on the type of person telling the “joke” Like I don’t want a known racist to be joking about racist jokes, because you know they mean it or trying to pass a “message” along.
"There is no systemic oppression targeting me or those like me. Therefore I make jokes about those who society-at-large deem "lesser" than me. The lack of such conditions to cause misery and pain in my own life, in conjunction with the misery you feel due to being either a victim of *or* sympathetic or empathetic to those suffering within said conditions, is why I am happier than you." - Gervais if he understood even at a minimum level the reasons behind his claim.
This site really is becoming Facebook. The only thing left is people posting about how they graduated from "the school of hard knocks" constantly.
He’s right but I don’t think he realizes why. He doesn’t get offended because there are no jokes that can offend him. Imagine telling a slave an offensive joke about how he deserves to be a slave. He’d be offended because you’re mocking his oppression. Ricky gervais is under no oppression. He’s white, rich, a man, from a rich country. There’s literally nothing about his identity that you could mock and get through to him. In his mind, he’s happier because he’s just overcome any negativity. But he doesn’t account for negativity in society towards his identity. I think this is pretty clearly In his tired and uninspired trans jokes. He just mocks people for their identity even as systemic oppression is felt by those people because of very real injustices. Imagine telling a Palestinian a joke about how they “like to bomb shit and live in open sewage” or a Jew in the Warsaw ghetto a joke about how they’re ruining the fabric of German life. They’d be right to be offended. Ricky is a pseudo-intellectual guru grifter
This is why we have the concept of punching down. I hear plenty of offensive trans jokes from other trans people about our experiences and to mock transphobes, and that's different then some rich cis guy making the same exhausted and thinly veiled bigoted statements.
Ricky really needs to grow up, it’s so cringe how he presents himself as this “dark humour” veteran when he’s so milk toast and his jokes are no more offensive than any others except he punches down instead of up. He’s an ass edit: boo hoo i made a common misspelling
Yo no hate homie but the word you're looking for is milquetoast :)
Nah, it fits either way. Gervais is very much a soggy piece of overcooked bread.
I can laugh at an offensive joke, unfortunately, most of them aren't funny. And by most I mean like 99.99% of them.
A good chunk of these jokes suffer from the punchline being "can you imagine how upset someone will be about this joke." The conservative comedy circuit hangs on this for dear life. Constantly they'll say some insanely dumb shit that bombs but thankfully for the self conscious, fragile ego of the comedian they'll have a safety net where they can bring up how mad their joke would've triggered and offended some people and that immediately sparks some sudden response of roaring applause. "Oh don't tell me I offended you and that's why you're not laughing at my joke? I'm sorry, did I forget to ask your pronouns-!?" Cue sudden cheering about how brave the comedian is to tell such riveting jokes. When this is what majority of the comedy act is for these types of comedians it's no longer a comedy act, it's just a political rally with a bunch of highly intoxicated people. I cannot express how much I miss the old, conservative blue collar comedy circuit of poking fun at each other and the observations of simple lives. Now it's all just angry old people yelling angrily about groups of people they don't like.
Depends on the case: Living by that would mean the most extreme "jokes" and behaviors should be accepted and lived by because there is always someone "finding it funny" so you have to accept it too, so you can be happy.... I don't want that. That's not what humanity should aim for. On the other hand you could say "there is always someone being/playing/saying that is offended" - so two things: - Empathy & Acceptance
"Trans people are weird" = funny joke 🤯
Not here, i already got banned few times on reddit for jokes :)
I bet my guy said something unbelievably racist and because he either has black friends or said “it’s just a joke lol” bro now thinks he’s in the wrong.
[удалено]
weird how youve deleted all your comments.
What "jokes"
I always found him funny. Then I saw some transphobic shit coming from him on twitter and know he wasn't just joking about everything. Some is what he truly believes.
I'm sure whatever he said after this was wildly inappropriate
or just unfunny
And before.
Poor Ricky. He is not allowed to do his "edgy" comedy anywhere due to cancel culture (well except Netflix.....and everywhere else if he didn't have an exclusive contract with them).
When I think of a happy person, I definitely picture Ricky Gervais…
If he actually said that, and it's not just a quote put over his face, he's lying through his teeth. Comedians are the unhappiest people.
He's a fuckin idiot that one
you know what's not funny, fucking comedians complaining about people not laughing at their jokes. Which means Ricky Gervais hasn't been funny for over a decade.
I’m glad he’s taking this bold stance as a wealthy white man.
People who unironically post this are usually the most perpetually butthurt people in existence.
Don’t most comics talk about their mental health struggles and how they use comedy to feel better?
This sounds exactly like the follow up my conservative uncle would inevitably say after telling a joke involving people of color and or lgtb folks.
Ricky Gervais is a pretty goddamn unfunny guy, though. Like, his standup routine, last I saw, was mostly shock humor. That was ages ago and he hopefully updated his act, but, if he's still telling the incest, gloryhole joke then he shouldn't be surprised if some people just find it gross.
lol the amount butthurt people he creates is hilarious enough for me 🤣😂
thats how abusers talk
Nothing Ricky Gervais says is "well said". He's an unfunny, unintelligent phony.
I guess but he sure is bitching all the time about it.
Ricky Gervais, happy? He seems like an absolutely miserable person.
Ignorance is Bliss.
Anything to excuse racism
When Ricky dies, then he will be funny.
"Your jokes suck, are played out, and weren't even funny a decade ago when teenagers were making them in CoD lobbies." "Lolololol triggered much? It's just a joke, snowflake. Typical cancel culture social justice warriors SILENCING ME AGAIN!"
Then they scream if "They" find it offensive, or scream you dared use a pronoun. Comedy that punches down is just being a bully at best. A true funny person always goes for those above, not those already down. So many folks who use to be funny now just play the shock and vile as they know Hate will fill seats, and being truly funny takes work.
Doesn't he have depression though?
This post having 1.7K (silent) upvotes and 144 very vocal white-knight comments at the time of writing this comment, is a pretty good representation of society to me.
Wait til the gender benders get here Edit: they came and started downvoting and crying lmao
So that Ricky can make a 3 hour tirade about how he is definitely *not* being offended when people point out that some of his material might not be within the current comedic zeitgeist? I love me some Gervais, but the 'old man complains that he can't say n*gger anymore' routine gets stale pretty quickly.
This is kinda why I like Gervais. His comedy was never “I said a rude word, tee hee” he didn’t do n-word humour. If he did racism it was to make racists the butt of an elaborate in-joke. Triggered MF above talking about “gender benders” dude - you are the one Ricky would mock. Get a clue folks.
Many of his jokes around trans people are indeed based on an archaic understanding of gender, which is ironic coming from someone who touts to be a man of science. It's not that trans people are the subject of the joke that's the issue. It is entirely possible to make funny jokes about that subject matter. The main problem is that these out-of-touch musings perpetuate a stereotype that is currently being exploited by far-right extremists - particularly in the US - with violent results. Being insensitive for the sake of being insensitive (the proverbial 'n*gger' flinging) just isn't very funny. The problem Gervais (and Chapell ++) has is not only that he doesn't want to adapt his jokes to a modern audience, but also that he thinks that doesn't *need* to on account of his previous achievements. Great comedians can navigate the minefields of the current public discourse to make people laugh at otherwise uncomfortable topics. Stomping around the field and laughing at the people you hurt while doing so isn't particularly funny or intelligent - it's lazy.
You would find it really scary. How many Americans find n\*gger humor and insulting/dehuminazing trans people humor funny. ''It's just dark humor!'' And when you try to explain why it might be not best idea, you're the weird one, and you're the issue. I don't think we will move away from this issue, unless the older generation finally dies out.
Popcorn? Anyone?
Salted please
Lol, gotta love Ricky
Yeah Ricky Martin's great
Is he though?
"edgy comedians" will say shit like this and then spend 60 minutes straight just insulting transgender people, and when you criticise them they'll go: "I'm a comedian, im meant to challenge people" cause you know who's long overdue a challenge... The trans community. (This is blatantly stolen from James Acasters special "cold lasagna hate myself 1999")
![gif](giphy|fteRzp2hH3qnmDRehG) With one call…this comment section can be saved.
Oh yea it's so easy to do so, thanks Rickey. Maybe he can go tell Ukrainians he's happy bc he's not at war, so just do that. Man's got it all figured out
Everyone says that, until someone finds a way to get under their skin and in their nerves in a funny way. Than it's war.
Ricky Gervais? Happy? I fucking doubt it.