I’m still waiting for “science” (because I trust The Science TM) to prove the existence of a gendered soul. When this happens, I’ll change my view that gender identity is a fantasy, created to explain a form of mental illness and to give narcissists a cause to rally around.
Until then, long live Andrew Doyle, Ricky Gervaise and of course, Titania McGrath.
Mental illness? Yes, yes, yes! That is the root of gender dysphoria, however much the activists try to hide it. Do we usually collude with a mental illness? Do we usually urge an anorexic to eat less or a self-harmer to carry on regardless? I think not.
actually, Gender dysphoria is not synonymous with being transgender, it’s a symptom caused by social anxiety.
Also, being Transgender is not a mental illness, it’s not listed in the current DSM-V or the previous DSM-IV
it’s genius isn’t it.. .and no, no overdubbing, written like that in 1979, 43 years ago. The crazed fundamentals of this ridiculous ideology have been around for a long time. it’s only in the last 8 – 10 years that it’s taken root and spread outward from some very awry and eccentric activist academic departments. I blame Steve Jobs.
Just look at how much Soros & co have pumped into scholarships the last 4 decades!
It’s a CCP ‘capture’ strategy, finance the college’s, universities et al so along with lobbying the professors & educators of finance,law, education,politics etc are promoting a specific ideology, indoctrination is what we are experiencing.
The idea of a gendered soul also constitutes a belief in the immaterial, which is logically inconsistent with atheism and a nihilistic worldview, so I am with you on this. Until these activist zealots get a life and move on from their childish, unfounded, misinformed contradictions we just have to keep pushing back at their madness!
well, there is no such thing as a soul of any kind, so there’s that…
But, Science, has discovered for decades now, that males and females have physically different brain structures, mainly in areas of grey matter.
Since about 2010, neuroscience has discovered that Transgender individuals, who have yet to start Hormone replacement therapy, have brains that are more closely matched physically to the sex they identify with. Likewise, other studies with the same findings have also found that Transgender brains also function in specific areas associated with male or female thought and emotional processes, to be precisely like the sex they identify with.
If you want to liken the brain, its physicality and thought process to a soul, knock yourself out
Julian Farrows
1 year ago
What’s so worrying about this, is not that publications like Pink News negatively critique Ricky Gervais, but how all left-wing publications march in lock-step with each other to condemn entertainment that they do not like. It’s almost like there’s a centralized leadership layer telling them all what to say. Surely, when this occurs, news is no longer news, but merely propaganda?
You sound like you are ready to take that red pill, Julian! As of March 2021, News UK, Daily Mail Group and Reach dominated 90% of the UK national newspaper market (up from 71% in 2015)*. That is just the UK, so you can see how News UK (part of the Murdoch empire) is dominant worldwide too. James Bond movies don’t seem so outlandish anymore.
*Source: https://www.mediareform.org.uk/media-ownership/who-owns-the-uk-media
Quantify the size of the National newspaper market these days. Sales figures.
And then quantify the content of the Daily mail online, and then.. or tbh, don’t bother.
The point is that the National newspapers are a shadow of the things they once were and the new orthodoxy has been supported by new establishment that includes figures on TikTok, Insta and in Broadcast TV, Netfilx and so on, which is where the true reach of influential media is found these days.
Banging on about newspapers, that now sell less than ten percent of what they sold a decade or two ago, is becoming pointless.
Of course legacy news media have a place in the media world, they sit in what is a quite dysfuntional, and often toxic feedback loop with social media.
But to carry on if newspapers are as central as they were in 1980 or 1990 or even 2005, in directing opinion and influencing attitudes, is missing a very big point about the evolution of media in our society and culture over the last decade.
I’ve recently come to the conclusion that our entire world these days has devolved into a negative feedback loop:
A fringe group, somewhere, forms a coalition around a stupid or silly idea.
The fringe group marches in the street to express themselves.
A comedian, somewhere, pokes fun at the stupid idea.
The fringe group feigns being offended and becomes vociferous.
The media writes articles about the comedians and the offended fringe group.
A crisis emerges.
The average bloke thinks the world is going bonkers and soaks up the news about the crisis.
Rinse and repeat.
Penny Adrian
1 year ago
The person I love most in the world is transgender: my son, who is a trans man. And I absolutely ADORE Ricky Gervais. Why? One reason is that he ridicules one of the groups I most despise: trans activists.
Why do I despise these people?
Because they make my kind, funny, open-minded, self aware son look like a petty science denying lunatic.
My son is far from humorless about his situation. He makes jokes like “You’ve got to be secure about your masculinity to walk around with a vagina.”
Like Gervais, he adores animals and wants to be a veterinarian one day. He is a science nerd and has zero problem acknowledging that he is genetically female. As he’s said before “How can a trans man not be genetically female? It isn’t possible.”
He would like to foster-adopt a child or children one day, but the trans activists don’t care about practical matters like helping trans people to adopt if they want to.
Nope.
Trans activists want to shove Lady Peens down everyone’s throat and make us mindlessly recite whatever new pronouns they come up with.
Trans activism is the WORST thing that could have happened to trans people, most of whom just want to live their lives discreetly without flipping all of society on its head.
Thank You for defending the brilliant Mr. Gervais.
“You’ve got to be secure about your masculinity to walk around with a vagina” – I adore this! The more people like you and your son who say this the less people will listen to the TRAs. They absolutely do not serve genuine trans people, and I believe are dangerous to them (and women, but that’s a given)
Mikis Hasson
1 year ago
Fanatics in general are devoid of all sense of humor, especially regarding the field of their passionate beliefs. Protecting humor should be the objective of anyone that wishes to remain outside the herd. Bravo Ricky Gervais!
Jeremy Bray
1 year ago
One element of comedy is the mocking of taboo subjects. The court jester could mock the king where his courtiers dared not. The left have elevated a whole raft of subjects to the level of serious things that should not be mocked so naturally provide an open goal for comedians who are unconstrained by the taboo. Long may they take advantage. Mocking Trump for example is not taboo so has no true comedic element.
Loved Ricky Gervais when he first appeared on the scene in the 11 O’clock Show with the excellent Daisy Donovan and Sacha Baron Cohen. Then he seemed to go through a few years where he was a bit up up himself. I suppose massive fame can do that to you. But now he has returned to that ‘who cares’ , dangerous form of comedy, at which he is so awesome at. I reckon he would make an awesome dinner guest. He seems like a really nice chap.
It’s true that a comedy show which does not stimulate laughter feels more like a lecture
See: most comedy on BBC2, BBC3 or stand-up comedy on Radio 4; faddish new comics such as the risible Hannah Gadsby; or all comics who self-importantly pile-on to any other comic who says anything they do not feel appropriate.
PS and as a side point, for those who grew up knowing Steve Albini as an arch and snarky (frequently hilarious) commenter, not to mention outrageously talented and actually edgy musician and music recorder. It is a terrifically sad indictment of our times and the man himself to now see him as some kind of self-appointed naysayer of anything or anyone who does not strictly adhere to the mindless orthodoxy he would have spat at only a couple of years ago.
Well the outrage is going to make Ricky Gervais and Netflix a fortune ! Not only are these woke fanatics humourless they are also mind numbingly stupid. They have just provided far better and far cheaper advertising for this new show than any amount of MSM advertising could achieve.
I think it’s about time to drop this left-right assessment of politics and attitudes. I’m left, pretty much in alignment with Russell Brand and we all know he his ruffling many left/woke feathers right now. IMHO politics has shifted from a left-right paradigm to a centralised or not. The centralised wing have large corp thinking, big state, global solutions, NWO (!!), intellectual superiority complex etc. On the other side we have those speaking out about the centralisation, corruption and control of the current system and wish to promote local solutions, small business, self governing small communities etc. Is there a name for all of this. Ok folks behave yourself and don’t call one side “facism”…..although it’s pretty close.
I think we are now in a centralism vs localism world and all the centralists are in switzerland right now!
It may have become the sole purpose of these “outrages.”
AC Harper
1 year ago
You could make a case that all the cliches in quotes are thought-terminating cliches. “so-called comedian” “anti-gay rhetoric” “punching down” “hate speech” “Right-wing comedy” Assertions intended to end consideration or further debate. Ask someone using such a cliche ‘How bad was that hate speech on a scale of 1 to 10?’ – they will probably be stuck on’10’ no matter what. Thought-terminating cliches are also common in cults where individual thoughts are discouraged.
Mark McKee
1 year ago
Andrew, love it! I find it hilarious when you point out Gervais’s detractors are labelling him a “so-called comedian”. One only has to do a quick search to find that poor Ricky only has a net worth of about $140 million. Clearly not much of a comedian, so he must have gotten his money from selling the Big Issue! Keep up the good work of lampooning the histrionics brigade!
Vince B
1 year ago
“But it takes quite a degree of narcissism…” Narcissism. That is the most striking feature of radical trans activism. A tiny minority of the human population demands that the rest of humanity turn itself inside out to accomodate them. We must twist our language into knots, our basic understanding of sex and biology, allow unfair sports competition, teach our children ascientific nonsense as part of sex education, etc., all so they can feel better about themselves. It would be akin to me traveling to central Botswana and becoming enraged that nobody speaks perfect American English, then calling all Botswanans hateful bigots for failing to do so.
Nick Wade
1 year ago
Thank God for the likes of Gervais and Co. Who else will speak up, when the leading politicians of the land are incapable of explaining to their electorate what a woman is? If that’s a measure of their intellectual gifts, and moral courage, how are they to solve the real problems hurtling towards us?
I thought Super Nature was great. I didn’t laugh at everything, but it made me laugh more than most things on TV these days. I don’t think he can ever top his story in “Humanity” of transitioning to be a chimp though.
Last edited 1 year ago by Nick Wade
Earl King
1 year ago
If you cannot laugh at people what will you do? Laugh at hyenas or baboons? “Hey did you hear about the Praying Manits, the Ant and slug that went in to the bar”? Humans and human behavior is funny.
No, men cannot have babies, or abortions or breast feed. To feed in to this mental illness is certainly wrong on a science level, on an emotional lever it is a societal level it is suicide. Transgenders do not have a high suicide rate because of how society treats them. It is the gender dysphoria they live with. I believe they believe they are living in a body they do not belong in. It must be horrible. On the other hand you are born with XX or XY and generally that is your sex. It is one thing to want to live as another sex and if you are willing to do so feel free….but do not expect me to believe that if are XY Chromosome you can have a baby
Ian Stewart
1 year ago
Thank f*** for Ricky Gervais.
Don Holden
1 year ago
Cenk Uyghur, Steve Albini, never bloody heard of them !
I’ve heard of Cenk and if Stevie is anything like Cenk – I will give him a wide birth!
Steve Elliott
1 year ago
It says in the article “Gervais has been explicit in his support for equal rights for trans people.” But I’m a little hazy about what that actually means. Isn’t it set in law that everyone in this country (UK) has equal rights so the statement doesn’t really have to be said. The usual way of putting it is more like this – “I stand up for trans rights” which is not quite the same thing because it seems to imply that trans people should have special rights separate from the rights everyone has. Or am I misunderstanding?
Steve Jolly
1 year ago
There have been humorless finger wagging zealots who can’t take a joke in every era. They used to thump Bibles or Korans, but now they thump critical race theory textbooks and LGBTQ+ pamphlets. Their failure to appreciate humor and their zealotry spring from the same source, namely their inability to consider any point of view beyond their own. Humor requires a certain amount of flexibility in thinking. It requires looking at familiar things in a new way, changing your perspective. The zealot cannot do this, and so his only recourse is to ridicule, complain, censor, and cancel that which does not reaffirm his fixed, immovable view of the world.
Mark Hawkins
1 year ago
We should probably be ready for the ‘identity’ mathematics push!?, Only 2-9 can be used, one & zero triggers the ‘non-binary’, & all computers will be burnt on a pyre for reinforcement of binary is dominant for effective processes!?
😉
David Bullard
1 year ago
For a ‘so called comedian’ young Ricky has done rather well for himself. And who on earth is this Steve Albini? (presumably an Albino with a split personality—–pronouns they/them?)
Why are you not contributing here? I’m sure you would have good time doing so.
Sarah Tonin
1 year ago
I often encounter disavowels of conservative sympathies when reading pieces which criticize current leftist aberrations. In fact it’s become a sort of game with me to find the predictable disclaimer. Here it is in this piece:”…I was branded a “Right-wing comedian” in an article for Byline Times this week, even though my political views are largely more in accordance with the traditional Left.”
Other commenters here in the U.S. such as Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, and Bill Maher routinely proclaim their liberal bona fides while eviserating leftwing lunacy. Why is it necessary to do this? Will they be canceled in their trendy social circles or somehow black balled in their professions? They all have attained a state of clarity but still insisist upon maintaining membership in a political group they find fault in. What gives?
Not sure why you see a problem. Reflection & criticism of self, own country, tribe etc is a sign of maturity. Keep your own house in order, let those without sin…., those in glass houses etc. Further, Maher & others are very clear on why they do so – they think the current GOP is contemptible, beyond saving; all that can be done is strengthen the centre.
And where is that center now? I personally think the Democrats are certifiably insane – even those who call themselves ‘moderates’. As for the existing Republicans with all the RINO’s, it has just become Democrat light in that they have acquiesced to the left for far too long. The cesspool that is Washington is the prevailing problem.
Trump was right about one thing and that was the swamp people control America.
Tony Sandy
1 year ago
All censorship is murder of the mind. If you find anything written or spoken offensive, it is simply because there is something in your life you are not looking at and don’t want to know about yourself. In other words you are defending a lie you are telling yourself about yourself. These lot are paranoid bullies, trying to hide the truth by projecting their fear of being found out as pretentious idiots, on other people. This is a defensive stance, not an open, innocent one of self-expression. In the words of a song I once wrote, now lost in the mists of time ‘Conform, conform! Do what I say. Conform, conform! Do things my way.’
I fully agree with your first sentence, and completely disagree with your second. Mature adults can make that distinction and behave accordingly. Voltaire had a little something to say on the subject.
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago
who gives a damn about all this woke nonsense anyway? well done RG
Everyone should but not in the way they want us to. Weve got to give a damn because at best it’s propping up dangerous stereotypes at worst it’s phydicslly dangerous for kids, for women and for genuine trans people.
James Kirk
1 year ago
Ricky Gervais goes up in my estimation lately but, with $140m in the bank, he can afford to upset people. In the left right horns of the horseshoe, right and left are nigh on meeting and neither have a sense of humour. If the gender folk think whatever they are doing makes them happpy and the rest unhappy, scornful or indifferent then they are obviously misguided. Respect is earned not demanded as if by a spoilt child. We should all know what goes round comes round.
Paul Hughes
1 year ago
When I first read Titania I laughed out loud. But with apologies to Bob Monkhouse: I’m not laughing now.
On a recent reread it sounds more like a hitch hikers guide to standard 21st century orthodoxy.
Last edited 1 year ago by Paul Hughes
Julian Pellatt
1 year ago
Go Ricky!
Ingrid Nozahic
1 year ago
I’m waiting for Titania to comment but I don’t think she would read Unherd.
Anna Lowenstein
1 year ago
So what did he actually say? I’m curious, but I can’t find it in the article.
Copyright law? The Netflix official clip is his introduction to irony.
Al M
1 year ago
For those asking (I can’t seem to post a reply) Steve Albini is a fairly notable musician and producer in the realm of US hardcore punk. Some of it is pretty good. Not averse to controversy himself with one early band having the delightful name of R @ p£man. Named after a Japanese comic character, apparently. There you go.
neil pryke
1 year ago
Never apologise, never explain…
Satirical Scene
1 year ago
Comedians’ role was always to play the “holy fool”, to turn things onto their heads and look askance at social “truths” as an emergency responder, a front-line worker whose job is to get out of line. But you’ve got to be wise to play the fool, especially around pandemics within a society already in the throes of indigi-queer de-centering anti-ablist anti-colonialist antagonisms … and such.
As a first responder you’re looking for the funny side of things, but you keep finding hidden sides of miserable things. Life is funny that way. … SatiricalScene: The Comic in Tragic Times
Lord Rochester
1 year ago
Vanity Fair has a very, very patronising article full of inverted commas on just this subject, too.
Ron Bo
1 year ago
Trans women are women!War is peace, diversity is our strength and so on……….
Andy O'Gorman
1 year ago
Thanks for the honest and enjoyable article.
With so much to read and see, as a necessity, I have placed comedy right at the back of my to-do scheduling.
But having read this I will make concerted effort to watch Gervais on Netflix as soon as I have an hour or two to spare.
It’s crazy that in retirement one can be so busy!
Just watched this show of Ricky’s now and had a great laugh, which is a good way to start any day.
Aye, cats, dogs and…
Justin Clark
1 year ago
The labelling was (intentionally?) wrong in the first place.
A man who thinks he wants to transition to a woman is not a trans women but a trans(itioning) man.
A woman who thinks she wants to transition to a man is a trans(itioning) woman.
As assigned at birth.
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago
FANTASTIC… Keep taking the mickey, Ricky!!!
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago
Of course the great Indian comedians in ” Goodness Gracious me” mercilessly take the P out of… Indians, and look at the famous Jewish American comedians, latterly Larry David, who do the same to Jewish people, Peter Cooke, who mocked his own class….. I suggest that certain ” minorities” take note?
……
arthur brogard
1 year ago
I think the idea that we all have gender identity are wrong but close to a truth. Because I believe we are essentially kinda immortal ‘spirits’ that inhabit human bodies.
Hence really we are sexless and genderless.
Your physical sex being a function of the genes in your body – and some few bodies have unusual mixes and bodies can be male and female at once.
And your gender being a psychological attribute intimately involved with your perception of bodies and your nurture to believe them to be ‘you’.
So I’d go along with ‘I am not my body’ but I won’t go along with ‘I am female in a male body’ or any permutation of that.
And my contention is that we simply for convenience sort people according to physical body type and we should be able to do that without any fuss and commotion, it generally serves us very well.
And the claiming of actually being of a different ‘gender’ is maybe a psychological aberration, maybe even an effect of a physical chemical aberration, maybe a memory of a past life – who knows? But not relevant to the sorting of human bodies according to their sex.
The only thing that needs ‘allowance’ is to cater for those caught in a body with these genealogical mixups. It should be recognised it can happen. Is it well recognised in the field of pornography but it seems almost entirely unknown to the population at large despite their supposed fixation on porn.
It must be quite a strain for such people in some circumstances and we should grow up and provide for them.
We should grow up.
Now there’s pissing into the wind for you…
War is peace,diversity is our strength and trans women are women.
Alana Clarke
1 year ago
Sadly such confusion and lack of understanding of the difference between sex and gender.
Alana Clarke
1 year ago
Sadly such confusion and lack of understanding of the difference between sex and gender.
Victor T
1 year ago
I was with you until this
Gervais is the latest in a long tradition of comedians successfully puncturing the pretensions of the powerful;
Trans folks are powerful now? Man, how thin skinned do you have to be to take criticisms from a marginalized community as being an attack from the ‘powerful’?
Trans “folks” may not be powerful but trans activists and their lobby certainly are, given their near monopoly on determining what people in government, media, schools, NGOs etc. are allowed to say. So yes, punching up.
Rupert Steel
1 year ago
We started watching this on Netflix but turned it off after Gervais said ‘c**t’ for no reason at all and the audience laughed. This was right at the beginning, and it seemed like the start of a very dull session.
Rupert, I have a few friends whose vocabulary is top notch and they would walk circles around you without having to resort to one scatological word. However, you would probably not be able to follow the conversation and so they too use vulgarities to keep their audience awake. As someone mentioned this is not a lecture on morals! And i would have tuned out if he had somehow become all PC. At 68 I have acquired all the morality I need taught to me by my parents.
But that is the the beauty of freedom of choice is that you are quite entitled not to watch!
I think that c**t is more gynaecological than scatological but agree with your final sentence 😉
Don Lightband
1 year ago
I for one find it troubling that a court jester as active as Gervais cannot yet tackle the even bigger, more totalitarian social reality, which is basically that of the UK’s reinvention of ‘Satan’ as ‘Savile’, and the thousands of imaginary ‘nonces’ who are fed to this ceaselessly fattened image every day…
I’m still waiting for “science” (because I trust The Science TM) to prove the existence of a gendered soul. When this happens, I’ll change my view that gender identity is a fantasy, created to explain a form of mental illness and to give narcissists a cause to rally around.
Until then, long live Andrew Doyle, Ricky Gervaise and of course, Titania McGrath.
Mental illness? Yes, yes, yes! That is the root of gender dysphoria, however much the activists try to hide it. Do we usually collude with a mental illness? Do we usually urge an anorexic to eat less or a self-harmer to carry on regardless? I think not.
actually, Gender dysphoria is not synonymous with being transgender, it’s a symptom caused by social anxiety.
Also, being Transgender is not a mental illness, it’s not listed in the current DSM-V or the previous DSM-IV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFBOQzSk14c
I can’t believe this hasn’t been overdubbed – either that or Monty Python are far more prescient than I thought
it’s genius isn’t it.. .and no, no overdubbing, written like that in 1979, 43 years ago. The crazed fundamentals of this ridiculous ideology have been around for a long time. it’s only in the last 8 – 10 years that it’s taken root and spread outward from some very awry and eccentric activist academic departments. I blame Steve Jobs.
Just look at how much Soros & co have pumped into scholarships the last 4 decades!
It’s a CCP ‘capture’ strategy, finance the college’s, universities et al so along with lobbying the professors & educators of finance,law, education,politics etc are promoting a specific ideology, indoctrination is what we are experiencing.
At the time we laughed out loud!
Little knowing this sh*te would one day take root!
Not to mention “WHAT DID THE ROMANS EVER DO FOR US?”
Epic!
It’s been so long that I’d forgotten that clip. Hilarious 🙂
The idea of a gendered soul also constitutes a belief in the immaterial, which is logically inconsistent with atheism and a nihilistic worldview, so I am with you on this. Until these activist zealots get a life and move on from their childish, unfounded, misinformed contradictions we just have to keep pushing back at their madness!
Surely if we have a soul it is by definition disembodied, i.e. not gendered?
well, there is no such thing as a soul of any kind, so there’s that…
But, Science, has discovered for decades now, that males and females have physically different brain structures, mainly in areas of grey matter.
Since about 2010, neuroscience has discovered that Transgender individuals, who have yet to start Hormone replacement therapy, have brains that are more closely matched physically to the sex they identify with. Likewise, other studies with the same findings have also found that Transgender brains also function in specific areas associated with male or female thought and emotional processes, to be precisely like the sex they identify with.
If you want to liken the brain, its physicality and thought process to a soul, knock yourself out
What’s so worrying about this, is not that publications like Pink News negatively critique Ricky Gervais, but how all left-wing publications march in lock-step with each other to condemn entertainment that they do not like. It’s almost like there’s a centralized leadership layer telling them all what to say. Surely, when this occurs, news is no longer news, but merely propaganda?
You sound like you are ready to take that red pill, Julian! As of March 2021, News UK, Daily Mail Group and Reach dominated 90% of the UK national newspaper market (up from 71% in 2015)*. That is just the UK, so you can see how News UK (part of the Murdoch empire) is dominant worldwide too. James Bond movies don’t seem so outlandish anymore.
*Source: https://www.mediareform.org.uk/media-ownership/who-owns-the-uk-media
Quantify the size of the National newspaper market these days. Sales figures.
And then quantify the content of the Daily mail online, and then.. or tbh, don’t bother.
The point is that the National newspapers are a shadow of the things they once were and the new orthodoxy has been supported by new establishment that includes figures on TikTok, Insta and in Broadcast TV, Netfilx and so on, which is where the true reach of influential media is found these days.
Banging on about newspapers, that now sell less than ten percent of what they sold a decade or two ago, is becoming pointless.
Of course legacy news media have a place in the media world, they sit in what is a quite dysfuntional, and often toxic feedback loop with social media.
But to carry on if newspapers are as central as they were in 1980 or 1990 or even 2005, in directing opinion and influencing attitudes, is missing a very big point about the evolution of media in our society and culture over the last decade.
I’ve recently come to the conclusion that our entire world these days has devolved into a negative feedback loop:
The person I love most in the world is transgender: my son, who is a trans man. And I absolutely ADORE Ricky Gervais. Why? One reason is that he ridicules one of the groups I most despise: trans activists.
Why do I despise these people?
Because they make my kind, funny, open-minded, self aware son look like a petty science denying lunatic.
My son is far from humorless about his situation. He makes jokes like “You’ve got to be secure about your masculinity to walk around with a vagina.”
Like Gervais, he adores animals and wants to be a veterinarian one day. He is a science nerd and has zero problem acknowledging that he is genetically female. As he’s said before “How can a trans man not be genetically female? It isn’t possible.”
He would like to foster-adopt a child or children one day, but the trans activists don’t care about practical matters like helping trans people to adopt if they want to.
Nope.
Trans activists want to shove Lady Peens down everyone’s throat and make us mindlessly recite whatever new pronouns they come up with.
Trans activism is the WORST thing that could have happened to trans people, most of whom just want to live their lives discreetly without flipping all of society on its head.
Thank You for defending the brilliant Mr. Gervais.
A lovely post Penny.
Why can’t we all live and let live?
Excellent post, and interesting how what you say about trans people versus activists holds true for gay people vs gay activists as well.
“You’ve got to be secure about your masculinity to walk around with a vagina” – I adore this! The more people like you and your son who say this the less people will listen to the TRAs. They absolutely do not serve genuine trans people, and I believe are dangerous to them (and women, but that’s a given)
Fanatics in general are devoid of all sense of humor, especially regarding the field of their passionate beliefs. Protecting humor should be the objective of anyone that wishes to remain outside the herd. Bravo Ricky Gervais!
One element of comedy is the mocking of taboo subjects. The court jester could mock the king where his courtiers dared not. The left have elevated a whole raft of subjects to the level of serious things that should not be mocked so naturally provide an open goal for comedians who are unconstrained by the taboo. Long may they take advantage. Mocking Trump for example is not taboo so has no true comedic element.
It’s gotten to the point where the only groups they are allowed to mock are straight Christian men.
hear hear
Loved Ricky Gervais when he first appeared on the scene in the 11 O’clock Show with the excellent Daisy Donovan and Sacha Baron Cohen. Then he seemed to go through a few years where he was a bit up up himself. I suppose massive fame can do that to you. But now he has returned to that ‘who cares’ , dangerous form of comedy, at which he is so awesome at. I reckon he would make an awesome dinner guest. He seems like a really nice chap.
To me, he seems a snide little bu–er (just my personal opinion, of course)
Remember when comedy was about laughing ? And not about message, topics, themes and demographics ?
See: most comedy on BBC2, BBC3 or stand-up comedy on Radio 4; faddish new comics such as the risible Hannah Gadsby; or all comics who self-importantly pile-on to any other comic who says anything they do not feel appropriate.
PS and as a side point, for those who grew up knowing Steve Albini as an arch and snarky (frequently hilarious) commenter, not to mention outrageously talented and actually edgy musician and music recorder. It is a terrifically sad indictment of our times and the man himself to now see him as some kind of self-appointed naysayer of anything or anyone who does not strictly adhere to the mindless orthodoxy he would have spat at only a couple of years ago.
‘Risible’ is what I look for in a comedian.
Well the outrage is going to make Ricky Gervais and Netflix a fortune ! Not only are these woke fanatics humourless they are also mind numbingly stupid. They have just provided far better and far cheaper advertising for this new show than any amount of MSM advertising could achieve.
I think it’s about time to drop this left-right assessment of politics and attitudes. I’m left, pretty much in alignment with Russell Brand and we all know he his ruffling many left/woke feathers right now. IMHO politics has shifted from a left-right paradigm to a centralised or not. The centralised wing have large corp thinking, big state, global solutions, NWO (!!), intellectual superiority complex etc. On the other side we have those speaking out about the centralisation, corruption and control of the current system and wish to promote local solutions, small business, self governing small communities etc. Is there a name for all of this. Ok folks behave yourself and don’t call one side “facism”…..although it’s pretty close.
I think we are now in a centralism vs localism world and all the centralists are in switzerland right now!
It may have become the sole purpose of these “outrages.”
You could make a case that all the cliches in quotes are thought-terminating cliches.
“so-called comedian”
“anti-gay rhetoric”
“punching down”
“hate speech”
“Right-wing comedy”
Assertions intended to end consideration or further debate. Ask someone using such a cliche ‘How bad was that hate speech on a scale of 1 to 10?’ – they will probably be stuck on’10’ no matter what.
Thought-terminating cliches are also common in cults where individual thoughts are discouraged.
Andrew, love it! I find it hilarious when you point out Gervais’s detractors are labelling him a “so-called comedian”. One only has to do a quick search to find that poor Ricky only has a net worth of about $140 million. Clearly not much of a comedian, so he must have gotten his money from selling the Big Issue! Keep up the good work of lampooning the histrionics brigade!
“But it takes quite a degree of narcissism…”
Narcissism. That is the most striking feature of radical trans activism. A tiny minority of the human population demands that the rest of humanity turn itself inside out to accomodate them. We must twist our language into knots, our basic understanding of sex and biology, allow unfair sports competition, teach our children ascientific nonsense as part of sex education, etc., all so they can feel better about themselves.
It would be akin to me traveling to central Botswana and becoming enraged that nobody speaks perfect American English, then calling all Botswanans hateful bigots for failing to do so.
Thank God for the likes of Gervais and Co. Who else will speak up, when the leading politicians of the land are incapable of explaining to their electorate what a woman is? If that’s a measure of their intellectual gifts, and moral courage, how are they to solve the real problems hurtling towards us?
I thought Super Nature was great. I didn’t laugh at everything, but it made me laugh more than most things on TV these days. I don’t think he can ever top his story in “Humanity” of transitioning to be a chimp though.
If you cannot laugh at people what will you do? Laugh at hyenas or baboons? “Hey did you hear about the Praying Manits, the Ant and slug that went in to the bar”? Humans and human behavior is funny.
No, men cannot have babies, or abortions or breast feed. To feed in to this mental illness is certainly wrong on a science level, on an emotional lever it is a societal level it is suicide. Transgenders do not have a high suicide rate because of how society treats them. It is the gender dysphoria they live with. I believe they believe they are living in a body they do not belong in. It must be horrible. On the other hand you are born with XX or XY and generally that is your sex. It is one thing to want to live as another sex and if you are willing to do so feel free….but do not expect me to believe that if are XY Chromosome you can have a baby
Thank f*** for Ricky Gervais.
Cenk Uyghur, Steve Albini, never bloody heard of them !
Aren’t the Uyghurs being persecuted by the Chinese? Or is that the other side of the family?
I’d never read the word “moiling” before, and as usual, it’s perfect in its aptness. Such words deserve to be kept in parlance, thanks Andrew!
I’ve heard of Cenk and if Stevie is anything like Cenk – I will give him a wide birth!
It says in the article
“Gervais has been explicit in his support for equal rights for trans people.”
But I’m a little hazy about what that actually means. Isn’t it set in law that everyone in this country (UK) has equal rights so the statement doesn’t really have to be said. The usual way of putting it is more like this – “I stand up for trans rights” which is not quite the same thing because it seems to imply that trans people should have special rights separate from the rights everyone has. Or am I misunderstanding?
There have been humorless finger wagging zealots who can’t take a joke in every era. They used to thump Bibles or Korans, but now they thump critical race theory textbooks and LGBTQ+ pamphlets. Their failure to appreciate humor and their zealotry spring from the same source, namely their inability to consider any point of view beyond their own. Humor requires a certain amount of flexibility in thinking. It requires looking at familiar things in a new way, changing your perspective. The zealot cannot do this, and so his only recourse is to ridicule, complain, censor, and cancel that which does not reaffirm his fixed, immovable view of the world.
We should probably be ready for the ‘identity’ mathematics push!?, Only 2-9 can be used, one & zero triggers the ‘non-binary’, & all computers will be burnt on a pyre for reinforcement of binary is dominant for effective processes!?
😉
For a ‘so called comedian’ young Ricky has done rather well for himself. And who on earth is this Steve Albini? (presumably an Albino with a split personality—–pronouns they/them?)
Hello DB.
Why are you not contributing here? I’m sure you would have good time doing so.
I often encounter disavowels of conservative sympathies when reading pieces which criticize current leftist aberrations. In fact it’s become a sort of game with me to find the predictable disclaimer. Here it is in this piece:”…I was branded a “Right-wing comedian” in an article for Byline Times this week, even though my political views are largely more in accordance with the traditional Left.”
Other commenters here in the U.S. such as Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, and Bill Maher routinely proclaim their liberal bona fides while eviserating leftwing lunacy. Why is it necessary to do this? Will they be canceled in their trendy social circles or somehow black balled in their professions? They all have attained a state of clarity but still insisist upon maintaining membership in a political group they find fault in. What gives?
Not sure why you see a problem. Reflection & criticism of self, own country, tribe etc is a sign of maturity. Keep your own house in order, let those without sin…., those in glass houses etc. Further, Maher & others are very clear on why they do so – they think the current GOP is contemptible, beyond saving; all that can be done is strengthen the centre.
And where is that center now? I personally think the Democrats are certifiably insane – even those who call themselves ‘moderates’. As for the existing Republicans with all the RINO’s, it has just become Democrat light in that they have acquiesced to the left for far too long. The cesspool that is Washington is the prevailing problem.
Trump was right about one thing and that was the swamp people control America.
All censorship is murder of the mind. If you find anything written or spoken offensive, it is simply because there is something in your life you are not looking at and don’t want to know about yourself. In other words you are defending a lie you are telling yourself about yourself. These lot are paranoid bullies, trying to hide the truth by projecting their fear of being found out as pretentious idiots, on other people. This is a defensive stance, not an open, innocent one of self-expression. In the words of a song I once wrote, now lost in the mists of time ‘Conform, conform! Do what I say. Conform, conform! Do things my way.’
I fully agree with your first sentence, and completely disagree with your second. Mature adults can make that distinction and behave accordingly. Voltaire had a little something to say on the subject.
who gives a damn about all this woke nonsense anyway? well done RG
Everyone should but not in the way they want us to. Weve got to give a damn because at best it’s propping up dangerous stereotypes at worst it’s phydicslly dangerous for kids, for women and for genuine trans people.
Ricky Gervais goes up in my estimation lately but, with $140m in the bank, he can afford to upset people. In the left right horns of the horseshoe, right and left are nigh on meeting and neither have a sense of humour. If the gender folk think whatever they are doing makes them happpy and the rest unhappy, scornful or indifferent then they are obviously misguided. Respect is earned not demanded as if by a spoilt child. We should all know what goes round comes round.
When I first read Titania I laughed out loud. But with apologies to Bob Monkhouse: I’m not laughing now.
On a recent reread it sounds more like a hitch hikers guide to standard 21st century orthodoxy.
Go Ricky!
I’m waiting for Titania to comment but I don’t think she would read Unherd.
So what did he actually say? I’m curious, but I can’t find it in the article.
Salient. Why did the author not link to at least one offending clip?
Because it’s all about selling the show.
Copyright law? The Netflix official clip is his introduction to irony.
For those asking (I can’t seem to post a reply) Steve Albini is a fairly notable musician and producer in the realm of US hardcore punk. Some of it is pretty good. Not averse to controversy himself with one early band having the delightful name of R @ p£man. Named after a Japanese comic character, apparently. There you go.
Never apologise, never explain…
Comedians’ role was always to play the “holy fool”, to turn things onto their heads and look askance at social “truths” as an emergency responder, a front-line worker whose job is to get out of line. But you’ve got to be wise to play the fool, especially around pandemics within a society already in the throes of indigi-queer de-centering anti-ablist anti-colonialist antagonisms … and such.
As a first responder you’re looking for the funny side of things, but you keep finding hidden sides of miserable things. Life is funny that way. … SatiricalScene: The Comic in Tragic Times
Vanity Fair has a very, very patronising article full of inverted commas on just this subject, too.
Trans women are women!War is peace, diversity is our strength and so on……….
Thanks for the honest and enjoyable article.
With so much to read and see, as a necessity, I have placed comedy right at the back of my to-do scheduling.
But having read this I will make concerted effort to watch Gervais on Netflix as soon as I have an hour or two to spare.
It’s crazy that in retirement one can be so busy!
Just watched this show of Ricky’s now and had a great laugh, which is a good way to start any day.
Aye, cats, dogs and…
The labelling was (intentionally?) wrong in the first place.
A man who thinks he wants to transition to a woman is not a trans women but a trans(itioning) man.
A woman who thinks she wants to transition to a man is a trans(itioning) woman.
As assigned at birth.
FANTASTIC… Keep taking the mickey, Ricky!!!
Of course the great Indian comedians in ” Goodness Gracious me” mercilessly take the P out of… Indians, and look at the famous Jewish American comedians, latterly Larry David, who do the same to Jewish people, Peter Cooke, who mocked his own class….. I suggest that certain ” minorities” take note?
……
I think the idea that we all have gender identity are wrong but close to a truth. Because I believe we are essentially kinda immortal ‘spirits’ that inhabit human bodies.
Hence really we are sexless and genderless.
Your physical sex being a function of the genes in your body – and some few bodies have unusual mixes and bodies can be male and female at once.
And your gender being a psychological attribute intimately involved with your perception of bodies and your nurture to believe them to be ‘you’.
So I’d go along with ‘I am not my body’ but I won’t go along with ‘I am female in a male body’ or any permutation of that.
And my contention is that we simply for convenience sort people according to physical body type and we should be able to do that without any fuss and commotion, it generally serves us very well.
And the claiming of actually being of a different ‘gender’ is maybe a psychological aberration, maybe even an effect of a physical chemical aberration, maybe a memory of a past life – who knows? But not relevant to the sorting of human bodies according to their sex.
The only thing that needs ‘allowance’ is to cater for those caught in a body with these genealogical mixups. It should be recognised it can happen. Is it well recognised in the field of pornography but it seems almost entirely unknown to the population at large despite their supposed fixation on porn.
It must be quite a strain for such people in some circumstances and we should grow up and provide for them.
We should grow up.
Now there’s pissing into the wind for you…
https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1531194567315308544?s=20&t=RdjGivzDhlq6jPWsJrGBhQ
War is peace,diversity is our strength and trans women are women.
Sadly such confusion and lack of understanding of the difference between sex and gender.
Sadly such confusion and lack of understanding of the difference between sex and gender.
I was with you until this
Trans folks are powerful now? Man, how thin skinned do you have to be to take criticisms from a marginalized community as being an attack from the ‘powerful’?
Trans “folks” may not be powerful but trans activists and their lobby certainly are, given their near monopoly on determining what people in government, media, schools, NGOs etc. are allowed to say. So yes, punching up.
We started watching this on Netflix but turned it off after Gervais said ‘c**t’ for no reason at all and the audience laughed. This was right at the beginning, and it seemed like the start of a very dull session.
Rupert, I have a few friends whose vocabulary is top notch and they would walk circles around you without having to resort to one scatological word. However, you would probably not be able to follow the conversation and so they too use vulgarities to keep their audience awake. As someone mentioned this is not a lecture on morals! And i would have tuned out if he had somehow become all PC. At 68 I have acquired all the morality I need taught to me by my parents.
But that is the the beauty of freedom of choice is that you are quite entitled not to watch!
I think that c**t is more gynaecological than scatological but agree with your final sentence 😉
I for one find it troubling that a court jester as active as Gervais cannot yet tackle the even bigger, more totalitarian social reality, which is basically that of the UK’s reinvention of ‘Satan’ as ‘Savile’, and the thousands of imaginary ‘nonces’ who are fed to this ceaselessly fattened image every day…