Russel Brand or Ricky Gervais

Russell Brand and Ricky Gervais, both comedians and actors both having some success on both sides of the pond and both with viewpoints diametrically opposed to the other seemingly. They tend to elicit a love them or hate them response from many. Russell being introspective, spiritual and, by his own admission, somewhat narccissistic, Ricky being atheist, rational and cynical.

Who do you prefer?

Ricky Gervais is a god among men, he is human nature defined in one person.
I only watch golden globes because he is the host, I love his honest and dank personality.

a reply to: fastzombie

I find both to be arrogant, insufferable assholes, to be honest. I enjoyed the show "An Idiot Abroad" in spite of Gervais, finding both Stephen Merchant and Carl to be far funnier and far less full of themselves than Gervais. It's not an America vs British humor/comedy thing, either. I have always enjoyed Monty Python, Eddie Izzard, Billy Connolly, and Simon Pegg.

a reply to: fastzombie

Ricky Gervais , more depth and creativity in my opinion.
The office was pure brilliance and Extra's was a breath of fresh air.

a reply to: fastzombie
Don't forget that Russell Brand was involved in the "Let's humiliate Andrew Sachs" affair;
www.telegraph.co.uk...
I think that makes him less than a pillar of virtue.

a reply to: fastzombie


You have to ask? 😆😆😆😆😆😆😆
Can't stand Russell Brand.

Gervaise is hilarious and does charities.

Ricky Gervais Donates A Total Of $420,000 To Charities Worldwide. Ricky Gervais's 120-date worldwide tour, Humanity has raised $420,000 for animal & cancer charitiesworldwide because of profits made on the Platinum Ticket sales.

www.looktothestars.org...

a reply to: fastzombie

rick gervaise FTW

i have had the honour of threatening mr brand with violence - he is a < cencored >

ETA - never met mr gervais - and am not much of a fan of his commedic output - all opinion based on inverviews and opeds he has released on various topics

further edit :

though i dont " get it " - i can see why mr gervaises commedy has a following - mr brand is the joke - and he is still a < cencored >

Bill Bailey..

oh wait, wrong thread.. Oo

a reply to: gallop

stephen fry

I like them both but for me its Ricky seen him live a few times and he is amazingly funny regardless of what you might think of him as an individual. His last tour was really good, he talks about freedom of speech stuff in a way that is real but very funny also goes into animal rights that again, while serious and thought provoking is very funny. For me that's what sets him apart, its both funny but also when you leave the subject matter stays with you.

Even better though is his old writing buddy Stephen Merchant if you ever get the chance to watch "hello Ladies" then treat yourself one of the funnies things I have ever seen.

a reply to: fastzombie

Please don't call Brand a comedian.

He is only labelled one by TV stations and promotors.

i like both, but i wish these 'celebrities' would not talk politiks. they ruin it, especially when they promote agenda.

ive seen both live, both made me laugh. got in free for both, so it was not like i had an investment.

a reply to: fastzombie

I find that a lot of their comedy is offensive, but most comedy suffers from that. Doesn't really make it any less funny, though.

I think Gervaise is more prolific than Brand, but that could be because of media distribution deals.

I also respect that Gervaise puts himself as the target of his humour. The vulnerability and emotional fragility played is accusative of ourselves, but without actually denigrating us. This gives him a scope of topics to parody which few other comics could portray without generating anger in the audience.

I suppose the difference in styles comes down to parody of ego vs parody of abnegation of ego.

originally posted by: chr0naut
a reply to: fastzombie

I find that a lot of their comedy is offensive

Great comedy usually is. If you make people see how ridiculous bigotry, racism, sexism, and, conversely, hangups over encountering those "isms" is, it defuses them and removes a lot of their power. Politically, that's inconvenient because modern politics is fueled by manufactured outrage and offended people,,, but in the real world, if you can make someone laugh at their adversary's attempts at insulting them as well as laugh at their own hang ups, then you've just made the world a better place.

It's always fascinated me that Blazing Saddles is almost a forbidden film these days and, certainly, would be a death knell for any director who released it today. The *ahem* "woke" crowd calls it racist, sexist, stereotypical, etc, etc, etc, insert BS SJW tripe here while utterly missing the points Mel Brooks was trying to make that these types of behaviors are ridiculous and worthy of mockery.

a reply to: fastzombie

Neither are the height of British Comedy, sadly our humor does not translate but the best were mostly in the past, some love the coarse insulting lewd comedy while other's like the dry, mild and subtle type.

Best comedy series ever made but sadly dated now was a British comedy series called Allo Allo which despite poking massive fun at the German's also poked it at everyone else ended up being perhaps a bigger hit in Germany.
The policeman was a British secret agent whom could not master his french accent and that was some of our subtle humor.


And let's not mention the British Airmen under the bed.

But sorry for me neither of these comedian's/actor's actually get's my funny bone, in fact I find then quite unfunny most of the time, not a patch on Lenny Henry, Kenny Everett, Jasper Carrot, BENNY HILL, Tommy Cooper.

I must be the exception because for me it's Brand. I think both have their merits but Brands outlook on life is more palatable to me than RG. K

a reply to: fastzombie

Ricky. Sorry but Brand USED to be funny but now he is a self entitled wanna be second coming fool. He tried to make out he was one of the poor, that he understood what they were living through and pretended to be on their side but in reality he was using it for branding purposes. I know he lived a crappy life, I know he fought drug addiction etc and that's nothing to scoff at but that doesn't mean NOW he isn't a massive fool who saw the rising anti-rich movement that was happening a few years back (and still is) and wanted to push the idea that he was just like everyone else who blamed the rich for the worlds problems but he wasn't one of the rich but one of the people and he did it without any sarcasm at all.

Gervais on the other hand is honest to the core. He knows he has money and doesn't shy away from having it. He just knows how to be a normal every day guy who happens to have a bagillion quid and more importantly the bloke is funny. I mean just his laugh makes me laugh lol.

a reply to: fastzombie

Same here, but I really don't care about the comedy angle, it is more about presence.

And pure honesty.

"The BBC & Brit Gov gives lip service to the ordinary citizens while only entertaining ideas that benefit large corporations"



He dosen't play by their games, within their matrix of BS. He speaks words that appear to be close to reality.

I'm going to stick my head above the parapet and admit that I'm more of a Brand fan,

I'm actually close to buying a screen-used prop from one of his movies (starring Jonah Hill), provided it's still available this time next week, lol

Sad, I know, but I like the dude