Loving Gruber's commentary on this:
It’s great that the new Apple allows engineers talk about things like this publicly.
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comedy
Lindy West:
“I wish I could still listen to those podcasts. I wish I could still follow Ricky Gervais on Twitter. I wish I could bring myself watch Derek (kind of). I mourn that loss. But if there’s one thing I took away from the Office and Extras, it’s the importance of never losing sight of people’s humanity. Even David Brent, the irredeemable, is redeemed, and I always took that as a clarion call for empathy, a challenge to see people more deeply. I hold the media I consume to a higher standard now, because of Ricky Gervais.
”
It's a great article and pretty much sums up my feelings on Gervais.
People make terrible decisions and say awful things. I know I do, but I like to think I learn from them and apologise. When Gervais gets called out on these things (like the 'mong' business and the recent tweet about celebrity nudity referred to in the linked post) I think he knows he's messed up. He sees that he was wrong but like a child cannot admit it and ends up making him look even more like a dick.
Stuart Heritage, writing about the death of Rik Mayall for The Guardian:
According to an old story, Mayall once ended a typically explosive take on Blackadder by turning to the dumbfounded cast and crew and asking: “Have I won?” It had to be quietly explained to him that acting doesn’t really work like that. But the truth of the matter is that he did. Lord Flashheart burst in and out of Blackadder in an instant – kicking the doors in, thrusting his pelvis endlessly, roaring all his lines with impossible confidence and then exploding again as he made his exit. Upstaging an entire fleet of world-class comedians should have been impossible. Mayall made it look effortless.
The morning after this Blackadder episode, everyone at my school was talking about it and doing our Flashheart impressions.
You'll have your own favourite Mayall moment from the Young Ones through The New Statesman and beyond (I never heard my stepbrother laugh louder or longer than when watching Bottom), but this 3 minute scene is mine. The first time I saw it, a performance so unexpected and relentless in energy it made me laugh so much it hurt.
You need your kitchen.
