S01E09 Tribute: Ricky Gervais

The JK Around Podcast: Taking the Magic Out of Comedy

This podcast gets off to a great start with us reminding our students what we’re actually doing: taking the magic out of comedy. We take care to remind out listeners that we all could die every day and, most importantly, this year, so make the most of it!

We talk about what comedy is in a few rich metaphors from Lego to Music, citing Brian Wilson and his Sweet Vibrations being not unlike a good joke vibration: Rabbi walks into a bar, type joke.

That brings us to our tributee: Ricky Gervais! A chucklebucket!

We start by discussing how much he laughs constantly on his podcast and in other media. His podcast was so huge, which makes us wonder why our podcast hasn’t reached the Vatican in Rome?

This leads to a discussion about Ricky’s atheist philosophy. We discuss our views about absolutism and relativism and how closed minded Ricky is toward all the various religions, including science. Of course, we talk about the red frogs of the amazon which, Joel explains, may have actually been man-made and have nothing to do with science as seen in the documentary “Unnatural Histories” on the BBC.

We talk about Gervais’ great fame, even greater than He-Man currently.

Joel admits to being an Antagonist and Kevin explains that he’s an omni-theist, which is an expensive undertaking. We talk about the many religions in the Nation: Muslims, Jews, Christians, Children of Q, Children of Slew (based in the Hindu religion). These things are all important for stereotype jokes.

But could Ricky’s religion jokes just be a Sarah Silverman type rip-off which goes against what he even believes? Maybe he’s a subversive Christian. He just drinks, masking his pain and making fun of Karl Pilkington‘s round head.

Ricky Gervais is the Inspector Clouseau of comedy, the character written by Blake Edwards. Joel explains why, as Bugs Bunny says, he’s a maroon. His shows Extras, Derek, Life’s Too Short, stupid twitter pictures, saying stupid things about Mike Birbiglia… he’s a bumbling idiot.

On top of all my other ailments it now turns out I might have hypochondria too. Gutted. pic.twitter.com/AEIuFCi8it

— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) January 15, 2014

But he did do something good: The Office. It’s a story of David Scott working at Wornham Mufflin, selling paper. What a brilliant concept! Selling paper? Sticky Tack maybe, but PAPER!? Nobody buys paper. It was as brilliant as when ER came on the scene in the 90s. And there is another show in America which all takes place in a paper company with Steven Carrell.

Oh, and we compare him to the Inspector Gadget.

The conversation turns to Derek. A show that parodies Rosie O’Donnell‘s retard movie. Not Matilda or Harriet the Spy, but Riding the Bus with my Sister.

Rosie is like Nike pumps, never out of style, swinging on vines like Curious George. She had her own talk show and even on Curb Your Enthusiasm, with Larry David. She was also in Fatal Instinct.

They reveal the industry term they could’ve used in Tropic Thunder: “don’t go full Rosie” (instead of the line Robert Downy Jr. said). Or when the girl in Precious went fat black Rosie. Or What’s Eating Gilbert’s Grape where Leonardo DiCaprio went young white Rosie, with the mom character being Jabba the Hutt Rosie.

This week’s assignment: Write us a joke on Facebook that might be difficult to understand if you’re not IN on it.

And then we do “what if“: What if Ricky Gervais were a detective? Would we still have an Evan Almighty? Or Bruce Almighty for that matter? Or Anchorman 1 or 2? Or the Get Smart remake? This question leads to the whole WikiLeaks story because of bumbling American spies.

Should Julia Louis-Dreyfus be in Mary Almighty? Or should it be Jennifer Aniston? That’s just a final little quiz.

Remember Alan Alda said, “if it bends it’s funny, if it breaks it’s not funny, it’s maudlin“.

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Have a great week! Class dismissed.