Ricky Gervais Finds Humor In People's Prejudice

NEW YORK - Ricky Gervais is more than an award-winning comedy superstar. With the academic approach he takes to his trade, Gervais is more like an emeritus professor at the University of Funny.

In advance of Tuesday's DVD release of his HBO stand-up special -- "Ricky Gervais: Out of England" -- Gervais visited The Associated Press. The interview felt more like a Comedy Theory 101 course than a promotional visit.

AP: In your stand-up, there's a lot less of the cringe-inducing awkwardness for which you're so renowned.

RG: Yeah, it doesn't work live because there's no one to react. The excruciating social faux pas -- that we do in 'The Office' or 'Extras' -- it works because there's witness within the setup. Whereas, this is straight from me to them. So who's going to be embarrassed? If I'm really awkward or embarrassed, it's really uncomfortable. No one wants to feel uncomfortable at a stand-up show. So I play a slightly different persona there. I play this sort of brash, more arrogant, more confident version of myself where there is no taboo. But, I don't go out there to shock.

The taboo subjects are to get me to a place, where the targets aren't what they seem. Targets aren't disability, famine, race. They're actually people's prejudice. And me. I'm the biggest butt of the joke because I'm in the wrong. So, it always comes down to me being totally out of touch, or saying the wrong thing -- with their blessing.

AP: In the special you go after a lot of the old standards of comedy -- obesity, autism, AIDS, cancer and the Holocaust...

RG: That's my set list! That's exactly what's written on my hand. On every stand up I ever do!

There's no point in having me go out there and go after corporate swines or fascism. We know that's wrong, so I pick soft, wrong targets. I have a go at Ghandi and Nelson Mandela. I always come down on the wrong side.

I'm sort of delivering this comedy in a Trojan horse. The audience thinks they're seeing something, but they're getting something else. But they know that it's coming from a good place, and I think that's the important thing with comedy. Comedy is about empathy.

AP: Who have you empathized with the most?

RG: My comedy heroes are Laurel and Hardy. They nailed it a hundred years ago, it doesn't get any better. It's about the relationship and it's about empathy. And it's about those two characters, the blind leading the blind. One wants to do well, he's got pretensions, he's a gent. And the other, he's blissfully happy in his stupidity, but he's not the one that ends up in the fish pond.

AP: So the joke is on the guy in the know?

RG: Groucho, he can do all the one-liners, but he's the one that's getting conned. Woody Allen, he's an intellectual, but he's not getting what he really wants. That's what's funny about these characters and that's why character elevates above everything else. It elevates above lines, story, everything.

If you've got a character, particularly on TV, you can watch him doing nothing if you like him. If you haven't got a great character, you could be delivering the greatest lines in the world, but who cares? There are stand-ups that just aren't likable. They can have the best lines in the world, but you go, (yawn) 'Yeah. Brilliant. Don't like you though.'

Whereas, someone shambles out and they're a putz and they get their hands dirty and they tell you what a bad day they've had, you want to hug them. They don't say anything funny, they are funny.

___

On the Net:

http://www.rickygervais.com

Comments

[partisanpolitico]

07:19 PM on 03/31/2009

Gervais is flat out brilliant.

Genuine.

[dengal]

07:19 PM on 03/31/2009

He's a genius - so funny. Id love to see Ricky and eddie izzard together

[IndyReader]

05:35 PM on 03/31/2009

I don't really like this performer, but I'm glad to see that he's taken advantage of the American dental system since he's lived here.

[theredqueen]

03:40 PM on 03/31/2009

I love this actor, his interview on The Actor's Studio was one of the best they have ever done. He has the ability to make me uncomforta­ble and laugh at the same time.

[Alvin4NY]

08:31 PM on 03/31/2009

I saw that too, and was very impressed.

[copelli21]

11:23 AM on 03/31/2009

I love Ricky Gervais. I just watched his movie Ghost Town and he was just funny. It's a shame it didn't do better at the box office. I absolutely loved Extras. In one episode, he had the funniest maybe 8 second rift of dialogue I have ever heard in my life. Every time I think about it, it makes me laugh.

Needless to say, I am a Ricky Gervais fan. The man is just talented and funny.

[Alvin4NY]

08:31 PM on 03/31/2009

Did you see Patrick Stewart on "extra's" ? Funny, funny episode.

[hopefull2008]

08:40 PM on 03/31/2009

What about the Kate Winslet one ? or Orlando Bloom ! ... brillant.

[PlaceboStudman]

09:25 AM on 03/31/2009

Gotta love a man who pulls no punches and takes no prisoners. As a disabled guy, I love it when able bodied people tell jokes about the disabled, because you can tell immediatel­y whether the person telling the joke has any real experience with the disabled, by determinin­g whether the comedian is laughing at us or with us. What people don't seem to realize, those of you who are overly sensitive and PCness obsessed is that often times, the people who are being what looks like laughed at and attacked often find the jokes funnier than anyone else, because we know the comedian is laughing WITH us, not AT us.

I can not tell you how funny it was to be sitting at a Dennis Leary concert in the early 90's, before he sold out and went soft, when he was doing his "No Cure for Cancer" bit. I was sitting in the disabled seating area, which happened to be in the front row, 5 feet from the stage, and Denis was cracking jokes about people with urostomy and colostomy bags, which doesn't sound at all like something funny to most people, but it didn't take me long (as a person who uses ostomy products) to realize the guy obviously knows someone who uses them, or did a whole heck of a lot of research, because the bits were hysterical­, but 100% honestly true to the experience

[TheKidd]

09:51 AM on 03/31/2009

exactly, i feel the same way with racial humour. A white guy can make racial humour and it can fly as long as it's funny and comes from a good and honest place. I don't know how to explain it but you can just "feel" if it's ok or not.