Ricky Gervais drops some nuggets of wisdom or comedic gold from time to time when he’s not got his obnoxious persona on. This isn’t one of those times. His usual thing of being “Ricky Gervais” can rub people the wrong way and boy did it get on Kumail Nanjiani, Kenan Thompson and Ramy Youssef’s nerves.
Speaking of comedy, the GOAT team talk to the duo behind the Inspired Unemployed on ‘It’s Been A Big Day For…’ below:
During the 2020 Hollywood Reporter ‘Comedy Actor Roundtable’, which featured Kumail Nanjiani, Ricky Gervais, Ramy Youssef, Kenan Thompson, and Dan Levy, things got slightly awkward whenever Ricky decided to chime in with attempts at giving advice.
Having watched the roundtable, he sort of comes of as that racist uncle you see at family gatherings who gets politely but firmly told off by his relatives. In fact, there were several moments where Kumail, Ramy and Kenan all individually called Ricky out on his bullshit.
There was an an exchange where Kenan was talking about his anxiety over getting fired from SNL and focusing more on his work, to which Ricky had some really unhelpful “advice.”
GERVAIS: No, you’ve got to try to get fired, that’s my advice.
NANJIANI: Ricky, that’s terrible advice. You can do that if you’re Ricky Gervais, but somebody else gets their first job, they take your advice and try to get fired and guess what?
THOMPSON: They get fuckin’ fired.
Then there was an exchange where Ramy was asked whether it’s a good idea to be making comedy during the COVID-19 pandemic (he says “maybe not”) while Ricky has the completely opposite view:
RAMY YOUSSEF Yeah, you could, but I think there is value in there not being a ton of distractions right now as we’re going to figure out what’s going on in our country. And look at the positives that are coming out of it. So you could, but it’s not really what’s on my mind right now.
GERVAIS: [It’s] the best time. When everyone’s on edge and sensitive, that’s the best time to be insensitive. My show was packed with jokes about AIDS, cancer, famine, the Holocaust. So, this is just going to top it off.
YOUSSEF: I’m glad this helps Ricky’s brand.
But perhaps the biggest call out was when Kumail suggests (politely) to Ricky that his style of comedy can be harmful and to perhaps think twice before making more dodgy jokes. Predictably, Ricky tried to wave it off with another joke but Kumail didn’t let him off the hook:
NANJIANI: Ricky, can I ask you something? You said sometimes you say jokes that obviously are not what you mean. How do you feel about audiences that might watch and think, “Oh that is how Ricky feels”?
GERVAIS: It’s an occupational hazard, because there’s only so much you can wink and let the audience know that you don’t mean it [before] you ruin the satire and the irony. That’s what satire and irony is. And to a certain extent, you’ve got to aim at people who get it. The fact is if I play to 15,000 people, there are going to be rapists, pedophiles, murderers …
NANJIANI: Who is coming to see your show, Ricky? What is your demo? (Laughter.)
GERVAIS: There comes a point where you go, “Listen, the joke is there, the joke is gettable, most people get it, if there is one person that doesn’t get it, I can live with that.” That someone might take you at face value doing an ironic joke or a satirical joke, well, yeah, some people try to inject themselves with bleach. There are stupid people in the world.
NANJIANI: But if you’re making some sort of joke where obviously you don’t believe it, but the point of view of the joke is that it’s good that these people are marginalized, I do think that can normalize ideas that would otherwise societally be considered harmful.
Despite how it all looks on paper, this Hollywood Reporter conversation was generally good-natured despite Ricky being his usual “Ricky Gervais” self and every comedian didn’t let his remarks derail the chat or make things overly awkward.
But as much as we enjoy some well-timed sass from Ricky Gervais, Kumail Nanjiani, Kenan Thompson and Ramy Youssef showed us on the Hollywood Reporter roundtable that sometimes it’s best if he just kept his mouth shut.
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