Talk:Ricky Gervais

Learn more about this page

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Ricky Gervais article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1, 2: 2 months

This article is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.

If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page.

Biography: Actors and Filmmakers / Musicians

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
	This article is supported by WikiProject Actors and Filmmakers (assessed as Mid-importance).
	This article is supported by WikiProject Musicians (assessed as Low-importance).

Atheism Low‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Atheism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of atheism on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.AtheismWikipedia:WikiProject AtheismTemplate:WikiProject AtheismAtheism articles

Low

This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

For more information and how you can help, click the [Show] link opposite:

If you would like to participate, you can edit this article and visit the project page.

Quick help

Recent activity

To do

Join WikiProject atheism and be bold.

Add a userbox to your page ({{User WikiProject Atheism}} or {{User WPA2}}) and attract potential members.
Help with articles.
See this month's adopt-an-article.
Help out with this to-do list.

Be consistent

Use a "standard" layout for atheism-related articles (see layout style, "The perfect article" and Featured articles).
Add Atheism info box to all atheism related talk pages (use {{WikiProject Atheism}} or see info box)
Ensure atheism-related articles are members of Atheism by checking whether [[Category:Atheism]] has been added to atheism-related articles – and, where it hasn't, adding it.

Maintenance, etc.

Find sources for all positions of an article (see Citing sources and atheism references).
Try to expand stubs. Ideas and theories about life, however, are prone to generating neologisms, so some stubs may be suitable for deletion (see deletion process).
Watch the list of atheism-related articles and add to accordingly.
Always write for an encyclopedia.

Articles to improve

Agnosticism

Create

Articles on notable atheists

Expand

an atheism stub

Immediate attention

State atheism needs a reassessment of its Importance level, as it has little to do with atheism and is instead an article about anti-theist/anti-religious actions of governments.
False choice into False dilemma: discuss whether you are for or against this merge here
Clarify references in Atheism using footnotes.
Secular movement defines it as a being restricted to America in the 21st century.

Berkshire Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Berkshire, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles related to Berkshire on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.BerkshireWikipedia:WikiProject BerkshireTemplate:WikiProject BerkshireBerkshire articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Comedy High‑importance

	Comedy portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Comedy, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of comedy on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ComedyWikipedia:WikiProject ComedyTemplate:WikiProject ComedyComedy articles
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Television: British / The Office Low‑importance

	Television portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Television, a collaborative effort to develop and improve Wikipedia articles about television programs. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page where you can join the discussion. To improve this article, please refer to the style guidelines for the type of work.TelevisionWikipedia:WikiProject TelevisionTemplate:WikiProject Televisiontelevision articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by the British television task force (assessed as High-importance).
	This article is supported by The Office task force (assessed as Top-importance).

Veganism and Vegetarianism Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Veganism and Vegetarianism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of veganism and vegetarianism on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Veganism and VegetarianismWikipedia:WikiProject Veganism and VegetarianismTemplate:WikiProject Veganism and VegetarianismVeganism and Vegetarianism articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Animal rights Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Animal rights, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of animal rights on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Animal rightsWikipedia:WikiProject Animal rightsTemplate:WikiProject Animal rightsAnimal rights articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Order of Roles

Latest comment: 10 months ago5 comments5 people in discussion

Given the success of the office and relatively little success of his stand up, the order of his jobs feels wrong, is there a rule for the order that should be used?

IMO he's most famous for

1. writer 2. film producer 3. director 4. actor 5. Atheist 6. stand-up comedian 7. musician

And to be honest he's probably more famous for doing hot takes on stuff than any of his stand-up material

82.15.89.151 (talk) 15:44, 7 January 2020 (UTC)Reply

On the note of hot takes, I do wonder why there's no mention in his Personal Views, Social Media, or even at a long-shot his Political Activism section about his transphobic views? It just says that he's a "supporter of gay rights" without mentioning the notable view he has of another part of the LGBT community. 103.248.19.187 (talk) 07:56, 17 March 2022 (UTC)Reply

It would be difficult to justify entries about his allegedly transphobic views as there don't seem to be many reliable sources talking about it (reminder: Twitter isn't a reliable source). There are reliable sources talking about the various backlashes/defences of his jokes around transgender people (and maybe the article should have more of that), though all of the results my search turned up seemed to understand the difference between jokes and personal views.

Also, re: the initial point about the order Gervais' jobs are listed in. Firstly, I think the argument is deeply flawed. Gervais' stand-up comedy has earned him a lot of notoriety (often controversial) and the idea that it would be ranked below his role as a director or film producer, or the fact that he's an atheist, is a bit daft. There's also the fact that the media (and, as a result, Wikipedia) puts "comedian" upfront any time it's in their resume. Russel Brand, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Noel Fielding, Adam Carolla, Jim Carrey... all people not primarily known for being comedians, all have "comedian" mentioned 1st or 2nd on their Wiki ledes. That's just how the media refers to people. Along with inexplicably including everyone's age for no reason.

I suspect this suggestion wasn't actually a serious concern, but a troll-ish attempt to devalue Gervais' humour. It seems to have become increasingly important for people who don't like a particular comedian to argue that their comedy "isn't funny". In any case, the argument has very little merit whether you look at it from a Wiki policy/reliable sources standpoint or just the reality of his objectively notable stand-up career. John Bullock (talk) 22:11, 24 October 2022 (UTC)Reply

https://deadline.com/2022/05/ricky-gervais-supernature-netflix-special-criticism-trans-jokes-1235031385/

Gervais explicitly states that his controversial "jokes" are decrying so-called "trans ideology". This is a clear controversial thing about him that should be properly represented in the article, especially considering just how many times he's come under fire for transphobic bigotry and how it goes completely unmentioned here. 2600:4040:9DE1:CA00:6839:FECE:AF1A:F7C4 (talk) 18:19, 24 July 2023 (UTC)Reply

It's true that RG has become an increasingly controversial and polarising figure in the years after Derek. His recent Netflix special has received some scathing reviews, e.g. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/jan/03/dave-chappelle-the-dreamer-ricky-gervais-armageddon-netflix The article doesn't mention this at all, and reads more like a fan piece. --Ef80 (talk) 15:46, 4 January 2024 (UTC)Reply

Fat Slags

I've removed this film from his filmography. It's not listed on his IMDB page, nor is he listed on the film's IMDB page. I can also find no other reference online to him having appeared in the film. The full film is at the time of writing available to watch on Youtube and I skipped to the credits to check if he's there and he isn't. I suspect it may have been vandalism when it was added originally; if he was in the film it was uncredited, but (for obvious reasons) I'm unwilling to actually sit through the film to double check if he's definitely not in it.

Surname

Latest comment: 6 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion

When did he decide the s at the end was enunciated in his French name? I suppose he can ask people to say it however he wants, but is there a source for that? Or are we just being descriptivist about it? Elmeter (talk) 11:27, 16 November 2024 (UTC)Reply

Does the article say he decided that? Seasider53 (talk) 11:40, 16 November 2024 (UTC)Reply

Add topic