Ricky Gervais Live: Animals (2003)

You won't be disappointed!

Brilliant and touching

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Finally saw Ricky Gervais first stand-up special and despite a rocky start (not the hilarious video, I'm talking of the stand-up proper), only rocky because as an American, I didn't get all the name-dropping. But after that I've never laughed so hard at a stand-up special. Take that Eddie Izzard! Ricky stays mostly on the animal kingdom, but takes detours into the Bible, bestiality, Nazis, homosexuality, Stephen Hawkings, Anne Frank and the internet with great comic timing. Ever since "The Office" I actively try to seek out each and every thing Mr. Gervais has done, be it skits, stand-up, printed or TV interviews and I have yet to be disappointed. So if you have a chance to see this brilliance, please do.My Grade: A

The comparisons between Ricky Gervais and other comedians are endless. Billy Connoly swears a lot because it comes naturally to him whereas Gervais thinks that using a crude word now and again is somehow incredibly clever and funny. Billy Connoly says what he thinks - making fun of absolutely anyone - but Gevrias acts like someone who has just been given power to pick on and bully anyone he dislikes. No one, not even Anne Frank, can escape from his cruel comments that would make most caring people burn with anger. Lovely Bill Bailey muddles along with his observations on religion where Gervais pulls everything apart, despite the fact he doesn't know what he's talking about. He says the Bible is called the Gospel. It's not. The first four books of the New Testament are called the Gospel - get your facts right before you start criticising everything. Ricky Gervais is an absolute pig of a man, which makes me wonder why on earth he got laughs at this show. He's crude and his sense of humour is appalling.

I have watched many, many different UK comedians standup routines, both live and on recording. This is far and away the funniest. Ricky Gervais, together with Jimmy Carr and Steve Coogan urinate from great heights on the average comedy of such luminaries as Harry Hill, Peter Kay and Eddie Izzard. I last remember laughing a lot like this at things like Eddie Murphy's raw decades ago. When humour is sanitised by political correctness or tries so hard to be intellectual it simply isn't funny, it self defeats its very existence. Fortunately Gervais suffers from neither. He takes the risk, IS offensive (if your an uptight person who gets offended by comedy that is) and pulls it off. I wish more comedians would ignore P.C and be as offensive as they want. I recently watched a Roy Chubby Brown stand-up routine which was awful. The fact it was overtly racist wasn't the problem, it simply wasn't funny and so got boring, I turned it off after half an hour. Had it been funny it could have been as any-ist as it liked as far as I'm concerned - IT'S COMEDY!!!. There's too many people desperately looking to be offended enabling them to preach their high moral standards for kudos in their sanitised peer group's eyes. We live in an offensive world, deal with it.I have now watched this about 5 times and am still left with an aching belly. I had to rest 40 mins through on the first watch as it hurt so much from laughing I thought I was going to die. It's the casual don'gi'a'f*** mischievous schoolboy delivery and the excellent material that makes it a classic. If you don't pi55 yourself laughing then wonder 'how come someone hasn't noticed that you're dead?' Well done Ricky - a breath of fresh free air in an era of PC Stagnation - Thx

***SPOILERS***I am a huge fan of stand up comedy and, indeed, of Britains new comedy scene. I have bought and adored DVDs recently from Peter Kay, Bill Baily, Harry Hill, Lee Evans and Dave Spikey. I also developed an addiction for the local comedy scene and souped up as much as I could of it. Being 18 i watched many of these careers develop. I had high for Gervais after seeing the office. This DVD however is not very good at all.The main problem is that Ricky Gervais has no respect for the audience. He waffles and seem to tell jokes to satisfy himself rather than his listeners. Case in point - he talks of religion like he's talking of the Easter Bunny. Having spoken to a great deal of the audience, they can confirm that they checked out after this point. What kind of idiot stands on stage and mocks religion knowing that about half (or more) of his audience are believers. Even if a Christian went up on stage and started spouting about his beliefs then he would be seen as a preachy idiot. Ricky Gervais - how could you be so stupid.Some jokes are funny, however, I laughed at Anne Frank/Shark but the rest was dreadfull. His last joke generates but a murmur from the crowd. What an awful show. Admittedly, however, his commentary has funny elements ie. when he talks of his friend. The rest however, is the work of man who has success with the Office and now is unable to generate success anywhere else. His show is pretentious, self satisfing and a mockery to all those who do not agree with him.It doesnt take a lot of daring to be "extreme" in stand up comedy - it is just the easy way out of being intelligent. Sorry Gervais.