The Office

[polkablues]

i would never pay for listening the ricky gervais podcast. garam was right wrong about the show's format getting boring after a while.

fixed.

[pete]

THEY WROTE THINGS FOR KARL TO SAY?  what do you mean?  Like Karl's not real?

[grand theft sparrow]

And I just got my Pilkington Chimpanzees baseball shirt in the mail today!   

[cine]

The Gervais backlash hits stateside. The sooner you realise Gervais is a one-trick pony, the better.

i think with Extras alone he proved he wasnt a one-trick pony. unless you want to elaborate on this further.

i'm not sure what anyone here is talking about with the recycled office jokes. yes, he plays guitar and does crappy jokes and resembles the david brent character but thats the stuff gervais likes to play with. i think we should accept it as the Gervais Trademark of his characters: average people who crave attention and spotlight because they want to feel way above average.


oh yeah, and has anyone read Flanimals and More Flanimals? really good stuff.

[Gamblour.]

but Cinephile, to simply transfer that character the Simpsons is not the same as a broad group of archetypes or characters he likes to play with. all he really did was just bring David Brent to the Simpsons. I guess it just comes down to, does one want Gervais to write an episode of the simpsons with their humor or with his? And someone else, I think on AICN, said it best: "Next week, Dave Chappelle comes on the show as the funny black guy." Is there anything original in that?

[squints]

Alright, Ricky Gervais, then.
1999 - Ricky Gervais replaces Ali G on the 11 o'clock show. He pretends to be bigoted and he talks about how women and ethnic minorities shouldn't get any rights. Hahah...wait a minute. That's not funny in the slightest.

2000 - Gervais gets his own talk show, which is basically an extention of his 11 o clock show bits. Many un-PC comments are made with the hope that because they're un-PC, somehow they'll be funny.

Sounds like Carlos Mencia

[Gamblour.]

Sounds like Carlos Mencia

An offense like that is punishable by ban. Watch your tongue.

[grand theft sparrow]

Maybe this should be moved to the Office thread?

British comedy has so much more to offer than Ricky fucking Gervais.

True.  I don't understand what went wrong that Spaced never got any play in the US until the week that Shaun of the Dead came out.

The Office was hailed as groundbreaking when it was anything but.

I don't know a hell of a lot about British TV but for American TV audiences, it kind of was groundbreaking.  We're used to the mockumentary, thanks to Christopher Guest, but on TV, with such deadpan humor?  It was sort of the next logical step after Seinfeld and Frasier (which Friends decided to take a few steps back from).  As for Gervais, you have to realize that 99.9% of us know Gervais from The Office, Extras and the podcast... that's it.  We never got The 11 O'Clock Show.  We're just now getting wind of the crop of comedians that have been around in the UK for the last 10 years (Gervais, Simon Pegg, Steve Coogan, Sacha Baron Cohen, etc.) so we're not sick of them yet.  But say what you will about Gervais, he's certainly more groundbreaking in comedy than much of the recent crop of American comedians (Dave Chappelle, David Cross and a couple of others excluded, of course).  Thank God you don't have Larry the Cable Guy or, for that matter,

Carlos Mencia

[modage]

yeah, that says it about perfect.

[matt35mm]

Is everyone in America sick of Chappelle?

No.

[grand theft sparrow]

Now I think this is REALLY going to have to move to the Office thread...

Larry Sanders

Larry Sanders had a good run on HBO over here but since it was 15 years ago and HBO was in the early stages of being a force in original television programming, only the people who knew about it knew about it.  I seem to recall it having a syndicated run on broadcast TV but it didn't last very long and they cut it down and put commercials on it.  In any case, it wasn't as big of a deal here as it should have been.  It was the Curb of the early 90s.

Fair enough reply, but on the basis of Mr Show and the stand ups of both, I think Chappelle and Cross are more talented than Gervais.

Just to clarify, that's exactly what I said. 

I haven't seen series 2 of Chappelle's show, but I've heard it descends into catchphrase humour. Even so, Chappelle's show doesn't think of itself as anything other than a few silly sketches. Gervais seems to think he's really breaking new ground.

I think you're imprinting Gervais' fans' opinion of him on Gervais himself.  Admittedly, I haven't seen, heard or read a lot of interviews with him but when he's being serious, he seems to be very humble and self-deprecating; he seems to keep up the persona that he's amazed that he's working at all.  I never watched The Office specifically because it was purportedly "groundbreaking," I watched because I heard it funny and different from most of the sitcom garbage that has come out in the last few years (I'm thinking of Friends in particular, as well as just about every sitcom CBS has had since All in the Family went off the air). 

And as for Chappelle, the "I'm Rick James, bitch" catchphrase was one episode and the fans caught on to it (and ran it into the ground).  It's not like "I'm Rick James, bitch" was in every episode or something.  Even Chappelle is tired of hearing it. 

So in conclusion, I have more respect for Chappelle than Gervais, but this just may be the reversal situation. Is everyone in America sick of Chappelle?

No.  Why would you think that if I said Chappelle and Cross were exceptions?

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

I know it took me long enough, I've only seen bits and pieces of the Office here and there, but I finally watched all of Season 1, 2 and the Special (the BBC version).  With that in mind...

It's funny, but what's the big deal?  People are acting like it's the first exposure to dry humor ever... There were some funny parts, but most of the time (especially in the second season) it felt like they tried to ride that wave of humor into the ground.

[Ravi]

It's funny, but what's the big deal?  People are acting like it's the first exposure to dry humor ever... There were some funny parts, but most of the time (especially in the second season) it felt like they tried to ride that wave of humor into the ground.

The Office more than awkward pauses and dry humor.  David Brent is a strangely egotistical and delusional character who thinks (or likes to think) that everyone likes him, but at best they tolerate him because he's an easy boss.  He's emotionally needy, but at the same time he can be abrasive and insensitive.  Watching the decline of this character is simultaneously funny, fascinating, and sad.

The other characters also have interesting stories.  Dawn's an aspiring illustrator who has taken the receptionist job as a way to earn some money and is dating a guy who doesn't seem to like her as much as Tim does.  Tim just kind of wound up at his job and is ambivalent about it.  Gareth is also kind of a needy guy who tries to make himself look better in others' eyes.  He's almost a less nice David Brent in the making.

If it was just a bunch of funny office stuff, it would not have resonated as it has with people.

[modage]

watch the US version for further proof that the british version is a great show while the US is merely funny.

[grand theft sparrow]

Gervais Slams UK Entertainment Industry

British funnyman Ricky Gervais has hit out at his country's TV comedies and dramas, insisting they are lackluster and tired. The outspoken The Office creator is underwhelmed by UK television and believes it is created by a small group of conservative writers who look across the Atlantic for inspiration. He says, "It's different in America. They're ambitious, they're good, they're funny. They do stand-up, and by the time they're 31 they've got their own sitcom because they're good. You don't see many 40-year-old hack writers in America. They get fired if they're no good. It's like natural selection." Of US dramas, Gervais adds, "The Sopranos, 24, CSI, The Wire, bang! We've got nothing like that. Nothing! It's such a big gap. Comparing our celebrities to America is like comparing Blackpool to Las Vegas. It's division two."

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I think I can see the smugness that Garam was talking about not too long ago concerning Gervais.  You don't see many 40-year-old hack writers in America???  Is he nuts?  And again, the British comedy that we've picked up on in the US (Gervais included) is much funnier than most of the sitcoms here these days.  I guess that we send the good stuff over there and keep the crap to ourselves and they're doing the same.  I really doubt that How I Met Your Mother plays in the UK.