Ricky Gervais Live 2: Politics

Ricky Gervais in my mind is quite a funny man so I was looking forward to watching this when it came out. And on the whole, I wasn't disappointed. This is a pretty good show that on the whole is pretty darned funny with weird and wonderful perspectives brought down by Mr Gervais himself, who seems in his element here walking around and talking about some of the ills in our society.

My main gripe with the show was its length. It came in at 70-odd minutes long, and while that in itself is short, it was further compounded by the fact that Ricky Gervais kept walking back and fourth for water, or notes, etc. Which leads to the second gripe of the show, which is the fact that while this was stand up comedy the show seemed incredibly...tame. I don't mean the jokes were bad, but the show seemed very structured and prepared so at times it seemed almost like a comic lecture rather than a stand up like Billy Connoly, Robin Williams or Ross Noble who will go off on tangents and keep the atmosphere loose.

I must admit though that some of the material was very good and there is no doubt that Ricky Gervais is a clever man. Politics is a show that is clever and funny and will remind you of the comic talent that Britain has to offer.

Starting out at the Houses of Parliament, Ricky Gervais shows how politics are all around us – even demonstrating on a passing disabled man. This trend continues once he is onstage and he covers all sorts of topics with a vague connection to politics and daily life. The connections are perhaps a little thin but Gervais certainly says the stuff that the rest of us are either too scared to say or just have the decency not to even think of saying.

And that is perhaps the main problem with this show – the material doesn't really have a flow to it because mostly Gervais is just out to shock and the laughs come mainly from the surprise of hearing what he has said rather than it being actually that clever or witty. Before he was famous for The Office, this was what Gervais did – a small section in the 11 o'clock show where he used to come on and be politically incorrect. On this show it worked because it was such a small part of the show and that was all he had to do. When he did The Office he scaled back the political incorrect content and made it into a person that many of us know and managed to be both funny and also painfully human. However for the majority of this film there is no real connection with character or reality; instead Gervais takes everything to extremes and, by doing so, he is quite funny but it doesn't really stay with you.

I laughed quite a bit during it but it isn't that clever or witty. The bits I did think were good were the clips in between where his warm-up Robin Ince and Gervais talk about their weird relationship. That was actually funny and interesting because it was clever and involved characters that were slightly exaggerated but still possible. If the main show had been as good as that then it would have been better. Its not helped by Gervais at the end acting shocked as he relates the words of his non-PC producer – why shocked? Isn't it just the sort of stuff he had been saying for the past hour? Overall Gervais fans and people who enjoy going "can't believe he said that" will enjoy this and it does have enough laughs to just about justify watching, but really it is pretty unimaginative stuff that relies on soft shock value to get laughs rather than real wit or invention.

By far the funniest man i've seen. After watching Animals, i thought it would be difficult to do better, and he would if Politics was longer. The holocaust joke was absolutely hilarious. Its about time someone used subjects that are original and funny. If someone cant see the funny side of that, then there's just no hope. The Stephen Hawking skit had me in stitches, crying with laughter. "From Kent and speaks with an American accent". And the impresson tops it off to perfection.

Would recommend and have recommended it to anyone, who isn't afraid of actually laughing at something rather than laughing at what everyone else is laughing at.

I couldn't disagree more with the comments made above. His latest stand up performance 'Politics' is his funniest yet. I broke down in tears at some points. Though some of his jokes were distasteful, they were jokes, and shouldn't be taken seriously. He certainly did not spend 'Most of the show is ridiculing the disabled and homosexuals' and his humour is by no means 'sick'. He obviously doesn't mean to cause any offence. In fact i was offended when, in the comments box above, he was compared to Jim Davidson! I recommend this to everyone (well over 18 of course), even the extras on the DVD were funny,and i cannot wait for more material from Gervais, brilliant!

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

This surprisingly short follow-up to Gervais's excellent Animals stand-up show has a fair bit to write home about but is also notable as a bit of a wasted opportunity. Ricky is his typical cynical, warmly sarcastic self and he plays this to typically great effect. Highlights of the show include a running joke about Humpty Dumpty that gets funnier and funnier the more it goes along simply for how absurd it becomes as well as a gag about a leaflet some uni friends made during his years there about alternatives to anal sex. But for a show about politics, Gervais wonders off topic quite a lot. It's amazing how he doesn't do any gags involving current events or Tony Blair, which, if done right, could have brought the house down. And, as it is, this can only be seen as a wasted opportunity in many ways. ***