Is Ricky Gervais funny?

[Billys Boots]

I thought the original (podcast) 'interviews' with Karl Pilkington and Stephen Merchant were very, very funny in an original way. 

[ziggysego]

He was funny on XFM, The 11 O'Clock Show, The Office, Extras and his earlier podcast stuff.

He now believes his own hype he once parodied. Not funny in the slightest anymore.

[Tony Baloney]

These days he seems to work harder on head-line grabbing controversy than developing good broadcast material. A shame as The Office is a classic, but is is clear his powers have been diminishing since then with each show getting shittier.

Baiting guests at awards shows is common for most hosts but it is fairly cowardly too as the host and writers work these items up for weeks and the person on the receiving end rarely gets a right to reply.

[Soup an Samajiz]

his stand ups were great I thought. The spin off product of Karl Pilkington Idiot Abroad series was fantastic viewing - quite a bit of credit must be given to him here I'd say. Never actually got into The Office at the time and probably missed out. Think he plays on the atheist/God topic too much, he'd slogged the topic to death on many formats and then made a movie based on the hole thing which was a bit exhausting. But in comparison to many other comics, he's one I'd actually watch.

[leenie]

I think he is funny, and done a great job at the golden globes last nite , some great one liners

[Gabriel_Hurl]

I think he is funny, and done a great job at the golden globes last nite , some great one liners

I must have watched a different show - because outside of maybe 2 jokes - he was terrible

[stew]

Brutal.

[lenny]

Discuss.

Extras and the office were both brilliant

The Office was excellent and original. Extras was a complete rip off of The Larry sanders Show where real guests played themselves in a sitcom. Because The Larry Sanders show was so good and so much better than Extras I could only rate extras as average, although anyone I know who hasn't watched larry sanders thinks extras was good. gervais can be good especially if he comes up with original ideas. He once did a sketch on red nose day which was brilliant.

[Eamonnca1]

I find he can be a bit hit-and-miss. When he's playing an awkward character then he's great. When he's out of character there's still a lot of David Brent coming through, which makes it more uncomfortable than funny.

PS, anyone not interested in this thread is cordially invited to not read it.

PPS, if you have a problem with new threads, just keep reading the old ones.

[DuffleKing]

Not a fan but he has changed the culture of the Golden Globes to something watchable

[balladmaker]

Did he not die a death at some big gig in Wembley a few years back, remember watching it and it was excruciating, was one of those career ruining moments ... looks like no online clips of it now exist strangely enough.

[Itchy]

He's funny but he's no Tony Fearon

[Denn Forever]

Extras

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ05xMJMqUs

[seafoid]

He reminds me a bit of Ben Elton

Was interesting as an outsider but now he is in the Establishment

[johnneycool]

Did he not die a death at some big gig in Wembley a few years back, remember watching it and it was excruciating, was one of those career ruining moments ... looks like no online clips of it now exist strangely enough.

yes, I remember it.

He had to do a bit of filling in at Live 8 as some band was late coming out and he died, improv doesn't seem to be his thing.