Tag Archive: Ricky Gervais


Among the living. Existence, what does it matter?

Filed under: Atheism, Television — Leave a comment
March 11, 2019

AFTERLIFE written, directed by and starring Ricky Gervais

(A Netflix Original, 2019)

Screen shot 2019-03-11 at 18.59.48Yesterday, I blogged about Gus Van Sant’s flawed attempt to deal with complicated issues of guilt and grief in ‘The Sea of Trees’.

In that movie, the death of the lead character’s wife drives the leading male into a narcissistic flirtation with suicide until he finds some vague spiritual redemption. This kind of cop-out is all too often the way these stories go.

God’s reputation for moving in mysterious ways allows scriptwriters to sidestep the less palatable, but all too probable, conclusion that when this mortal coil is cut there is no heaven or hell, no all-knowing deity. …. nothing.

These too infrequently voiced non-beliefs are squarely addressed in the unlikely form of a new comedy vehicle for Ricky Gervais. Since Gervais has been outspoken advocate of atheism, it is with a knowing sense of irony that he should choose to call his six part series on Netflix ‘Afterlife’. Continue reading →

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RICKY GERVAIS AS DEREK

Filed under: Humour, Television — 1 Comment
April 19, 2012

Ricky Gevais’ pilot episode of Derek on Channel 4 is potentially controversial and potentially funny but ends up being neither.

A man with learning difficulties who works in an old people’s home doesn’t sound like a recipe for a hilarious comedy and, of course, it’s not.

In this Mockumentary he is one of the members of staff who are working with those who, not to put a fine point on it, are waiting to die.

It’s quite a brave topic and shows that Gervais is not interested in glitzy lives of the rich and famous. The difficulty is that Gervais is now rich and famous himself and it’s always harder for a somebody to play a nobody.  Karl Pilkington as the dour “I can’t see the point” caretaker Douglas doesn’t have this problem and  as a result his character is more believable.

It has something in common with the plays and monologues of Alan Bennett whose portraits of old folks always managed to find some funny-sad detail that made you want to laugh and cry at the same time.

I suspect this is the effect Gervais wants but,while I don’t doubt his compassion for the subject matter , he’s simply not such a gifted writer and his acting here is too mannered to make you forget you’re watching a successful comedy performer pretending to be loveable nerd who’s “not clever or good-looking but kind”.

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BACKTRACKING # 39 : We are DEVO!

Filed under: Music — Leave a comment
November 14, 2011

Part of an irregular series of bite-sized posts about 7″ singles I own – shameless nostalgia from the days of vinyl. (Search ‘Backtracking’ to collect the set!)

DEVO – Mongoloid b/w Jocko Homo (Booji Boy, 1977)

Q: Are we not men? A : We Are Devo!

The title and content of the A-side is quite topical in view of the recent controversy over Ricky Gervais’ casual use of the word ‘mong’ on Twitter. I actually always regarded Mongoloid as the flip-side as Jocko-Homo seemed a lot catchier. The synthetic panic pop in the style of Talking Heads seems deliberately designed as an irritant and, if so, it works a treat.

You can’t hear it without picturing the band with nerdy dance routines, yellow jump suits, silly glasses which made them look like a tacky Ohio version of Kraftwerk.

There is some pseudo sci-fi bullshit behind the whole band concept that doesn’t really merit close investigation.

The single has a novelty value but musically it’s a mess. It ended up in my collection because high profile connections with Neil Young, David Bowie and Brian Eno raised my expectations that this was more than just hype.

“Every man, woman and mutant shall know the truth about Devo” is a line from the promo video and the sad truth is this is a very crap record indeed. “We’re pinheads all!” was an all too apt rallying cry.

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WHEN THE TRUTH HURTS, LIE

Filed under: Atheism, Humour, Movies, Parenting — Leave a comment
October 21, 2010

“People need good lies. There are too many bad ones” – Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

One of the broad aims of this blog is to tell the truth as I see it  about art, music, politics, religion, whatever.

It seems only right ,therefore, to make a post reflecting on two recent movies on the subject of lying – The Invention of Lying and World’s Greatest Dad. Continue reading →

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