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Ricky Gervais review – anti-woke tittering over Liam Neeson and Louis CK

Bournemouth International Centre
Casting himself as a taboo breaker for his Netflix show Supernature, the cacklesome comic delivers a squarely liberal-baiting set

‘That’s not going in … That won’t make it in ... ” Ricky Gervais’s new standup set Supernature has already been bought by Netflix, we’re told in a characteristic bout of boasting at the start of the show. But will any of tonight’s material make it to the broadcast? Such is the line Gervais treads in this 70-minute standup set, now trumpeting his commercial credentials, now casting himself as a taboo breaker too hot for the mainstream to handle.

Well, perhaps – if by mainstream we are to exclude the countless newspapers, chatshows and middle-aged male standup sets in which Gervais’s retro perspective on paedophiles, fat people and female comedians would feel perfectly at home. Gervais’s comedy draws fuel from the idea that we’re “not allowed” to say certain things any more. That everyone has a hair trigger, just waiting to be offended. The vision he conjures of a Netflix censor looming over his every joke, scissors at the ready, makes us all feel naughty and complicit, and adds to the fun.

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from Culture | The Guardian http://bit.ly/30Rn9tj

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