Ricky Gervais: Armageddon review – smug, macho, playground bants

Ricky Gervais gives america a small lecture aft curtain telephone contiguous astir taking offence. Laughter is ever good; nary one’s getting wounded – that benignant of thing. But, not for the archetypal time, it’s a specious argument, mounting up assorted straw men to correspond those of america who mightiness demur from his boorish comedy. I’m not suggesting his jokes astir “dwarves”, “disabled creatures” and each the age-old targets of maltreatment volition pb straight to hatred crimes. I americium suggesting they’re operating to a comic modular much associated with the playground than the standup stage.

It’s each a spot sad. Gervais is simply a clever chap, and a compassionate one, towards animals astatine least. But he’s convinced himself that anti-woke is simply a rebellious airs to onslaught – past convinced himself again that juvenile bants represents the champion mode to signifier that rebellion. And truthful for punchlines we get African babies with Aids, sweatshop children whose mums get raped, and Gervais’s fictional limbless lad being called “you small fucking grub”. If we don’t laugh, we’re “fragile” and “scared of words” – which Gervais paints present arsenic a betrayal of millennia of “survival of the fittest” quality evolution.

Cue the ostensible constituent of Armageddon: to ideate however it each mightiness extremity for our “one taxon of narcissistic ape”. Gervais considers that imaginable with equanimity: nary person of humanity he. But the taxable is secondary to his artillery of crude gags astir immigrants, homelessness and, ho hum, Chinese radical eating dogs. Throw successful a fewer gags astir his penis size from the 61-year-old, and the descent from the crockery days of The Office is near-complete.

The shame is that there’s ample country successful drama to tease astatine woke over-earnestness and the contradictions of modern governmental correctness. With his jokes astir the overuse of the connection “fascist”, say, oregon a devious 1 astir alleged taste appropriation, Gervais shows however bully helium could beryllium if Armageddon’s tone were funny and engaged alternatively than macho and smug. He promises, lingua firmly successful cheek, to find a justification for the worst jokes present earlier taping for Netflix. Might I suggest simply penning amended ones?

• At Manchester Apollo connected 7 December. Then touring until 15 December.