-Congratulations,
first of all, on the,
I will say on the stand-up
special, in general.
I think it was the
fastest-selling
or highest-grossing special
in the U.K.,
and then it was one of
the biggest purchases
on Netflix, ever.
-Yeah.
-Honestly,
I've had a great time.
I loved the tour.
It was my favorite tour ever.
-It's your favorite tour?
-Yeah.
-Why?
-So many reasons.
I think -- I hadn't
done one for seven years.
And that wasn't on purpose.
It's just getting pushed back.
You know, I did, like,
"Derek," a couple of movies,
and it just --
'Cause I always considered
stand-up to be the second
or third thing I did,
whereas this
has changed my mind.
Now it's my favorite thing I do.
Now I could lose everything else
and just do stand-up
for the rest of my --
Well, I won't be standing up
for long, but sit-down.
Just me in --
Even if I have to be
wheeled out in a bucket,
I'll just be saying --
No, actually,
I remembered the privilege of it
and, you know --
Even if I get final edit
on a movie or a TV show,
there's still
60 people involved.
With stand-up, it's just me.
I can say what I want.
-Yeah.
-It's amazing.
And, also, I think
the audience have known me
for long enough now,
they get me.
I don't have to
explain it so much.
I can go further, and I can
hit the ground running,
and they get what I'm doing.
-Doesn't it make harder because
they do know who you are?
-No. Well, only when you
sort of warm up, maybe.
Like, I do a warm-up show,
and people on YouTube
will get in the press.
So I book theaters,
and I sort of do
a little theater show
just for me
to just rehearse.
And I approached it differently,
as well.
My first four shows,
I sort of wrote them.
You know,
I planned them and went out --
-Set up punch lines.
-Exactly.
And this one,
I just wandered out
and just did it
really organically.
And that's the great thing
about stand-up --
the audience
chooses your best bits for you.
And I felt freer, as well.
Like, I felt I didn't --
I think I've got
old-people's rights now.
I mean, I can say what I want,
'cause I'm gonna die soon.
How can anyone hurt me?
They go, "I'm offended."
I go, "I'm gonna
[bleep] die soon."
[ Laughter ]
-That's true.
-Yeah.
-But every time you come on,
you always tell a great story.
About your uncle
getting the toupee.
Do you remember that one?
-Oh, yeah.
That's a true story.
That's in there.
-I know, I saw it
in the special, as well.
-Yeah, my Uncle --
my Uncle Reginald.
I won't give it away,
but my Uncle Reginald,
he went bald in his 20s.
And he was bald for 10 years,
so they called him Bald Reg.
So he was bald
to his 30s, right?
Turned up at our house one day,
ding dong, Elvis.
[ Laughter ]
Just...
And I said to my Aunt Edna,
"What happened to Uncle Reg?"
She went, "It was a miracle."
[ Laughter ]
So, yeah.
I loved --
It's much more personal.
I talk about my family
for the first time.
-I love that, too -- "Don't
show me photos of your kid."
-Oh, God, yeah.
-"Don't show me
photos of your kid."
-That's a true --
Even though I don't have kids,
people still show me
photographs of theirs.
And it's very sweet, right?
-I haven't done it to you,
have I?
-No, you haven't,
but I don't mind it, really.
But you could be really busy,
and someone would go,
"Oh, I was just out,
taking my youngest.
She's 7."
I go, "Oh, yeah, yeah."
Even strangers go,
"I've got a picture of her."
I want to say,
"Do you know what?
Show me if she goes missing,"
right?
[ Laughter ]
It's like -- No -- I --
[ Audience groans, laughter ]
-What?
-I just --
I don't need --
Why do I need to see it?
I know what a kid looks like.
-Yes.
-"Oh, yeah, 7 years old,
it's a kid.
I know what it looks like."
Unless they say,
"No, no, this one."
If she's just a head with
tentacles, I'll have a look.
Do you know what I mean?
-Yeah.
-Wow, that's amazing.
Thanks for showing me that."
Yeah. But if it's just a kid,
yeah, I know.
-Yeah, I know.
-They all look alike.
-But you also talk about
the length of time
you look at the photos.
-Yeah.
You got to go through
the whole polite rigmarole.
You've got to go,
"Oh. Oh, she's beautiful."
It's got to be that long.
'Cause too short, and it's like,
"Yeah," they know.
Do you know what I mean?
[ Laughter ]
And too long, it's like, "Oh."
[ Laughter ]
-No, it's not like that, no.
-Too long, see?
-Too long, yeah.
-I need to go,
"Oh, she's [bleep] beautiful."
-No, I don't think it's that.
-It's just...
It's too much.
That's what I'm saying.
You've got to do it just right.
It's a minefield.
[ Laughter ]
-Looking at a photo
is a minefield, yeah.
Also, a runner through the thing
is you saying,
"I should've just left it."
-Well, that's about me --
Yeah, I talk about
arguments on Twitter.
The worst people --
Twitter is amazing.
-Why do you get in arguments
on Twitter?
-Well, because it's fun.
It's like research for me.
I love it, you know?
I actually
go looking for trolls,
because I don't really get them.
The good thing about Twitter is,
it's like looking
at every toilet wall
in the world at once.
So you can really
find proper crazies.
-Yeah, yeah.
-And I wind them up.
Everything from just --
It's just mad fundamentalists
to just people
who live in a bin.
You know what I mean?
[ Laughter ]
-And you do it.
-I just -- I wind them up.
-And you should've just left it.
-Yeah, and I get
into arguments with them.
The running thing is,
I should've left it.
-Someone with 24 followers.
-Yeah, exactly.
-You're getting into
a major fight with them.
-Well, I got into a fight
after doing this show.
'Cause I didn't think about
being on the plane,
and they're saying,
"We're not handing out nuts
on this flight because this lady
is so allergic to nuts
that even someone else
eating nuts in the vicinity
would cause her
to have a fatal reaction."
And I talked about this
on this show that I was furious.
Right? Like I was going --
"Oh, God.
Just 'cause someone's gonna die,
I'm not allowed to eat nuts?"
[ Laughter ]
And I do this --
I did the whole routine.
I was going, "I wish I'd brought
my own nuts on."
And I say it as a joke.
I said, "And now when I fly,
in case that happens again,
I have a shower,
and I just rub myself all over
in nuts," right?
[ Laughter ]
And it went out,
and someone on Twitter
was going, "How dare you.
My daughter's
got a nut allergy."
And she was -- and you and me
and causing trouble.
She was going, "How disgusting,"
you know?
And someone else got involved.
Ohio moms are going nuts.
One of you filmed a little girl
and put it on YouTube
and sent me the link,
and it was just like --
A sweet little girl, about 7.
She went, "Dear Mr. Gervais,
I have a fatal nut --"
Delete, you know? No.
[ Laughter ]
-Ricky, I want to show
a clip from "Humanity."
This is Ricky Gervais'
new stand-up special,
streaming now on Netflix.
Check this out.
-A lovely welcome.
Just for that, I'm gonna
try my hardest tonight.
[ Laughter ]
I know what you're thinking.
You're thinking, "Rick, relax.
We've already had our money's
worth just seeing you."
[ Laughter ]
What?
"You're a legend, shut up."
Why is he --
I'm not a god.
[ Laughter ]
I'm just an ordinary guy,
you know,
going round talking to people.
So, sort of like Jesus.
[ Laughter ]
In a way, but better.
Well, I've actually
turned up, so...
[ Laughter ]
-Our thanks to Ricky Gervais!
His new special,
"Ricky Gervais: Humanity"
is on Netflix now.
