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News
Street Roots • April 6-12, 2018
Street Roots • April 6-12, 2018
News
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‘I WAS HERE
When you’ve got a president
tweeting much worse things
than I say ironically, I can’t push
Ricky Gervais talks to street papers about his
propensity to come up with the most offensive jokes,
his new Netflix special ‘Humanity’, and why with
great tweeting power comes great responsibility
the boundaries enough.... It is a challenge to
be as arrogant and as stupid as the president
o f the United States, but I’m trying.’’
BY STEVEN MACKENZIE
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R ITE R
S.M.: You were above him in the list, so
surely it’s more embarrassing for him.
icky Gervais is sandwiched between
R. G.: But below Bieber! I think that says
Barack Obama and Bill Gates. Last
it all.
year, Brandwatch named him the
S. M.: How do you cope in a world where
seventh most influential man on TAvitter,
everyone says offensive things and is
keeping esteem ed company alongside great
simultaneously so quick to take offense?
fig u re s o f o u r tim e ( b u t ail tr u m p e d b y s o m e
popstars, a soccer player and, well, Trump).
R. G.: I probably do go over the top a little
Gervais changed the way we looked and
bit with the faux arrogance. I don’t know-if
laughed at ourselves with “The Office” and
it has the same impact since Trump. When
has relentlessly continued to tease and
you’ve got a president tweeting much worse
provoke societal conventions that have led
things than I say ironically, I can’t push the
us to this bizarre point in human history. He boundaries enough. People go, “Yeah that
regularly preaches a heady mix of politics,
was quite offensive, but not as bad as the
atheism and animal rights to his 13 million
leader of the free world - and he m eans it!”
followers, walking the line between
It is a challenge to be as arrogant and as
rudeness and righteous outrage. Speaking
stupid as the president of the United States,
to Street Roots’ U.K. sister paper, The Big
but I’m trying.
Issue, in his Hampstead office, he launches
S. M.: Kw have been very successful in
diatribes disrupted only by regular eruptions
multiple fields, but hasn’t Trump proved that
of guffaws and giggles. For every
with ego and a certain way on Twitter, you
exclamation point in the following interview,
could have ended up in a much higher office?
imagine his howling hyena laugh.
R
March marked a massive milestone as his
stand-up show “Humanity” debuted on
Netflix, part of the biggest deal any network
has ever paid a comedian. A new TV series
will follow, and, who knows, maybe next year
Gervais could climb even higher on the list
of influential tweeters. As if he cares.
S te p h e n M acK enzie: W A great Twitter
influence comes great responsibility?
Ricky G ervais: Being the seventh most
influential person on Twitter - I can’t think
of a terrible-enough metaphor. It’s like
saying you’ve got the seventh best fatal
disease. Whether it was an award to be
proud of or not, what’s nice is having a
platform. Everyone wants to think they’re
listened to. That’s why some people are
angry. That’s what a troll is. That’s what a
heckler is. They’re tired of people not
listening to them. Cavemen used to blow
paint over their hands on their cave wall to
say, “I was here.” That’s what everyone
wants, to go, “I was here.” But to start
taking myself seriously, I mean, to be put
next to Barack Obama, that’s embarrassing.
R. G.: I don’t know if it was him. Looking
back, I think it could have been anyone
because of the swell of alt-right and hatred
of liberals. It’s like one of those ’80s movies
when a few billionaires get together: “I bet
we can make America’s biggest moron
become president,” and someone says:
“You’re on, Hargreaves. See you in one
year!” Somebody somewhere is trying to
prove a point about humanity.
S. M.: Has humanity peaked?
R. G.: I don’t know that we are on a
downward slide. This is a blip. I think it’ll be
like scar tissue. Hopefully the world might
learn a lesson from i t But ever since there
was society, powerful people have confused
and bed. And the basic lie is making the
masses blame each other.
S. M.: Does a part of you enjoy offending
people who don't get the joke?
R.G.: No, it gets in the way and muddies
the issue. That’s not what I’m trying to do. I
don’t need to court controversy. I usually
explain my jokes. I actually want people to
TWITTER S MOST INFLUENTIAL IN 17
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bad as the bad thing; they’re not even
condoning the bad thing; they could be anti
the bad thing. But people get offended when
they mistake the subject of the joke for the
target, and they’re not necessarily the same
thing.
S.M.: Is it a defense mechanism for
someone to be offended by a joke but to ignore
the sometimes serious point of the joke?
S.M.: Christians often aren’t great fans of
yours. I f God really did exist, would the world
be better? .
R.G.: I remember Paul Hollywood was
slammed in every paper for going to a fancy
dress party as a Nazi. Right - bit clumsy, bit
crass, bit boring. I tweeted, OK, enough
now. T here are actual Nazis marching on
the s tre e t Let’s stop having a go at a
Scouse baker. That sort of thing makes
everything look trivial. You have to pick your
battles. I’m a fan of political correctness, but
it gets mugged and mistreated. However
unpopular or however unpleasant something
is, freedom of speech does trump
everything, no pun intended. You have to be
able to offend. You have the right to run
around being a complete fucking arsehole,
and everyone else has the right to call you
an arsehole, but just because you can be an
arsehole, you don’t have to be. Sometimes I
get lumped in. People see me tackling taboo
subjects, like race, and they think that m ust
be racist Jokes about bad things aren’t as
R. G.: It might be if he was all he’s
cracked up to be. If he was a really
omnipresent, all-powerful, loving God, then
sure. It makes me laugh when people say,
“God loves you and he gave you free will so
you can worship him or go to hell.” To me
that isn’t free will! I’m happy with us being
animals with however many years we’ve g o t
then our atoms return to the atmosphere,
float around and get dispersed. We’re all
going to return to the stars th at made us
one day.
S. M.: Something to look forward to. You’re
also passionate about animal rights. Should
hunting laws be changed so it’s legal to hunt
hunters?
R.G.: These rich American dentists who
want to go kill something, let them sort out
the poachers. I’m talking about cruel acts,
not about people who cleanly shoot a
1. Katy Perry
@justinbieber
@katyperry
2. Donald Trump
@realdonaldtrump
2. Shakira (Sshaklra
3. Justin Timberlake
@jtlmberlake
PHOTO BY REUTERS/PATRICK T. FALLON
know the point of a joke and what side I’m
on. Because I’m proud of i t I don’t go out
willy-nilly to offend people then say, “Oh, it’s
just a joke.” I’m not one of these comedians
who thinks comedy is conscience taking a
day off. My conscience never takes a day off.
Women
1. Justin Bieber
pheasant and eat it with their family. It’s
more the psychology of why people like to
kill. Imagine if a vet paid you to put your cat
down because he got off on it. And then
said, “Do you mind if I take a selfie? Do you
mind if I kill it with a bow and arrow today?”
Blood sports, bull fighting. Why is someone
torturing a bull in a ring for entertainment?
Sometimes the hull is bled first so they’re
weak, their horns are blunted, their tendons
cut
S.M.: Does humanity have anything going
for it?
R.G.: It’s amazing. Being alive is
amazing. Being alive is this multibilhon-to-
one sh o t A little blob of proteinaceous
spawn and after 3 and a half billion years of
evolution, we’ve come to these amazing
upright primates who invented a r t We’re
here, and then we’re gone. How arrogant to
expect two helpings of that. People say,
what’s the point of life? What they mean is
what’s the point if it’s going to be over
soon. That makes no sense to me. You don’t
eat a lovely meal going, “Oh, there’s no
point in eating this because I’ll be hungry
again soon.” You’re watching a film, go,
“Oh, I might as well stop watching because
it ends soon.” Enjoy it! ,
S.M.: Can you tell us about your next
piece o f art?
R. G.: The working title is “After Life.”
S. M.: Haven’t we just decided the afterlife is
not worth waiting for?
R. G.: It’s after life. I play a guy whose wife
has died. I’m devastated, and I nearly kill
myself, but I think, well, if I’m going to live,
I’m going to do what I want, say what I want
from now on. And when it gets all too much,
I can always end i t So it’s like a superpower.
But I can’t wait to do another stand-up show.
I could give everything else up.
S. M.: Is the desire to be on the road still
there?
R.G.: You say “on the road.” I’m not in
the back of a Transit van. It is the most
luxurious tour invented. I pick my places
and stay in castles, but I do it because I love
every minute. I think art is making a
connection with strangers. I’ve realized
what an absolute privilege it is to say what I
want to 10,000 people a night I suppose
that is my “I was here.”
Courtesy o f INSP.ngo / The B ig Issue UK
bigissue.com ,@BigIssue .................... ............
4. Cristiano Ronaldo
@cristiano
5. Jimmy Fallon
@jlmmyfa)lon
3. Jennifer Lopez
@jlo
4. Ellen Degeneres
@theellenshow
5. Demi Lovato
@ddlovato
6. Bill Gates @blllgates
6. Selena Gomez
@selenagomez
7. Ricky Gervais
@rickygervals
7. Haruka Nakagawa
@haruka_nkgw10
8. Barack Obama
@barackobama
8. Britney Spears
@brltneyspears
9. Niall Horan
@nlallofflcial
9. Oprah Winfrey
@oprah
10. Narendra Modi
@narendramodl
10. Alicia Keys
@aliclakeys
Source: Brandwatch Audiences,
www.brandwatchxom/blog/react-iniluential-men-and-women-2017/