Ricky Gervais - Finding Leo

 

Gotta love the digital cameras of the early 2000s.

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant try to contact Leonardo DiCaprio to do a guest role on their HBO Show "Extras." The audio's a little rough and Ricky's had a few cocktails. I'd actually forgotten all about this - an absolute classic.

"New" XFM Audio Uncovered

 

I've listened to The Ricky Gervais show on XFM so many times, I pretty much have it memorized. But now someone's gone back and re-visited the original tapes(?) and uncovered previously deleted audio.

It's mostly stuff like throwing to commercial, but let's face it, how often are you going to get new XFM material?

Ricky Crashes the Monologue

Yesterday's monologue on Late Night saw a cameo by an unexpected star:

David Brent Cameo in The Office

Brief but alright.

Letterman-Postian Recursion

Letterman defended Ricky Gervais' performance hosting the Golden Globes on his show.

You can watch the video here.

The New York Post had printed a story about how the performance was so controversial. Letterman held up the story and said Gervais did a fantastic job, reading some of Ricky's jokes from the article. He then predicted that tomorrow's Post would have a story about what he had just done and print a picture of him holding up the Post. The next day he was proven correct as The New York Post did print a picture of Dave holding up the Post. So he held up the Post article which contained the picture of him holding the Post to see if they would publish a picture of that in the next day's edition.

He says his goal is to eventually get a photo printed in the newspaper that represents infinity.

MECHANT!

I'm a big Smerch fan so it was nice to see him on Late Night. He talks about "An Idiot Abroad", "The Ricky Gervais Show", the Golden Globes and even touches on his XFM (radio) days.

His walk on music was "6 Foot 7 Foot 8 Foot Bunch" which goes, uh, "Six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch" (so it's not just a clever name). Steve is 6 foot, 7. My prediction for the walk-on music was "Black or White" by Michael Jackson.

Ricky Gervais Show Season 2 Premieres; Is Free; Is On My Blog

The second season of the Ricky Gervais show premiered today. And not only that, it's viewable from hbo.com. And not only that, it's free.

Ricky Gervais Show 2-01:

Ep. 14: Clive Warren - Full Episode

And not only that, it's the show where Karl pitches his idea for a new movie starring Clive Warren and Rebecca De Mornay. It's one of the maddest ideas for a movie ever but I kind of get the suspicion that it'll be made some day. After all, Karl pitched the idea that humans should age backwards and they made "Benjamin Button".

I'm not sure of the business model - no commercials, available for free - but I'll take it. Perhaps this is only for the season premiere.

WEETABIX!

Conan - Episode #1

As you no doubt are already aware, the first episode of "Conan" aired last night. I was extremely impressed with how smooth and seamless it was. That's very rare for the first episode of a late night talk show (yes, even when the host is a seasoned veteran). The cold open was about 12 times better (approximate) than the cold open of the first "Tonight Show" episode (I think they may have learned from that one). Loved the Halloween mask, loved Ricky Gervais' piece and Andy Richter is in top form (as always).

Apparently it got higher ratings than Letterman/Chinbag which doesn't surprise me at all but it ought to be interesting where it comes in when the hubbub dies down. You've gotta weigh an 11 o'clock start vs. the basic cable factor. Plus, there's the question of fan loyalty. Will all those people who went to rallies, the tour, created petitions, clogged twitter, etc. watch faithfully or forget again? We shall see.

Here are my favorite highlights:

Cold open:

Ricky Gervais wishes Conan good luck:

Monkey News

As has been covered in the past, big fan of Ricky, Steve and Karl.... Radio show, podcast, TV shows, all the rest of it.

For the uninitiated, the "Monkey News" feature is always real, it's always factual, it's as hard-hitting and solid as the normal news. It's just with monkeys. So without further ado... OOOH, CHIMPANZEE THAT! MONKEY NEWS!

Historical Note: The "Monkey News" story that serves as the source material for this fan animation comes from the early days of "Monkey News". The monkey that drove to Spain would be a high water mark (low water mark) against which many "Monkey News" stories would be judged.

An Idiot Abroad Episode 0

The zeroeth episode of the new series "An Idiot Abroad" starring Karl Pilkington has been posted online. The show chronicles Karl Pilkington ("a shaved monkey") as he travels the globe and experiences the Seven Wonders of the World.

Sorry for the screen width cut off, just double click to watch it on youtube. Warning: NSFW.

Maybe We Ain't That Young Anymore

Cemetery Junction (2010)

The first film from writers/directors Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais, "Cemetery Junction" has been eagerly anticipated by me for a few years.

Set in England in the 1970's it's a slightly different type of "coming of age" film in which the characters are in their early to mid 20's and not teenagers. Drinking, getting into fights and still living in their home town, they suddenly realize that they're not young anymore and it's time to do something with their lives.

For Merchant/Gervais it's a slight departure in that it's not a straight forward comedy but focuses rather on drama, romance and relationships. It's also, as was already mentioned, not a typical coming of age film as it borrows from "Rebel Without a Cause", "The Apartment" or possibly "Swingers" more so than, say, "The Breakfast Club" but also with some "Saturday Night Fever" thrown in (or so I'm told). It's also a departure as neither Ricky or Steve plays one of the main characters though Ricky has a bit part, Steve has a small cameo and there is even a (brief) appearance by Karl Pilkington.

It's quite a good movie and although it took a while to get into, by the end I was quite into the characters and story. The soundtrack is a big factor - the climax of the movie feature's Led Zeppelin's "The Rain Song" played over the film in its entirety. Ralph Fiennes is quite good as usual and Emma Watson ("Punch-Drunk Love", "Equilibrium", "Synecdoche, New York") gives another understated but excellent performance.

Although it's better than 99% of everything that comes out of Hollywood I can sort of see why it wasn't released in the US and I've had to wait for this long for it to come out on DVD. The thick British accents get to be quite hard to understand at times and I, yes even I, was reduced to turning on the closed captioning. Still, it's a non-issue if you're used to reading subtitles on the occasional foreign film.

It's a little bit unfair to how good the movie is and how much work and effort it took to make but the movie itself is a little overshadowed by the Director's Commentary which is one of the funniest DVD commentaries I've ever heard. As a Gervais/Merchant fan it's probably to be expected but they are hilarious in their ridiculous banter. The only funnier commentary that comes to mind is the "This Is Spinal Tap" commentary where the band all discuss the movie in-character but that's a high standard to reach.

All in all, a 9 out of 5.

The Office... EXTRAS

Here are some Office DVD Extra Feature clips that I hadn't seen before that I thought were really good.

David Brent Goes for a Drive / Archbishop of Canterbury

"Ricky had had one of his great 'IDEAS', as I like to call them..."

If You Don't Know Me By Now (Bloopers)

I love how he clearly knows how ridiculous everything he's doing is. Because he's right.

David Brent Date #2 with Director's Commentary

"Desperate bloke up for it. Any chance?"

Ricky Gervais on The Tonight Show, New HBO Clip

It's always worth noting when Ricky Gervais appears on The Tonight Show as he's one of the funniest guests. Not one to pass up a good opportunity(or twelve), he is relentless with jokes about NBC and Conan's uncertain future.

A special, almost surreal, moment for me is when he and Conan talk about Karl Pilkington on national television. That's 'Worlds Colliding' for my life experience. He also showed a new promotional clip for the new HBO show "The Ricky Gervais Show" which features a classic Ricky and Steve Merchant improv bit.

There is no reason to divide this into 4 parts other than purely for commercials...

Part 1:

[Removed Broken Video Link]

Part 2:

[Removed Broken Video Link]

Part 3:

[Removed Broken Video Link]

Part 4:

[Removed Broken Video Link]

HBO Promo Clip:

[Removed Broken Video Link]

Ricky's on mainly to promote the fact that he's hosting Golden Globes which will be this Sunday.

Ricky Gervais on Letterman

Ricky Gervais was on the Late Show Friday. A very funny interview in which was premiered a clip of his forthcoming animated show on HBO. Although I'm really excited about it, nevertheless the clip is underwhelming. They've animated Karl Pilkington's new idea to modify the life cycle. It's like when you let the cows out after the winter...

Part 1:

[Broken Video Link Removed]

Part 2:
[Broken Video Link Removed]

Animated Clip:
[Broken Video Link Removed]

Forrest Gump

In the video PSA found here, Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant discuss the importance of hiring actors in Hollywood with physical handicaps.

Weighty issues discussed with sensitivity, wisdom and an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the subject.