Updated since original publication to include all of his specials up to 2025.
Comedian, actor and writer Ricky Gervais has released several stand-up specials on DVD and Netflix over the years. He naturally isn’t to everyone’s taste, and he is understandably seen as controversial or offensive by some. His shows are 18-rated with good reason, because his humour is often very rude and he sometimes covers very dark topics. So it’s fine if some people feel offended by him, that’s their choice to hold such an opinion, and they’re under no obligation to watch him. Comedy is very subjective and open to interpretation, and we’re all different. I’m not going to say whether people should enjoy his comedy or not, and I wouldn’t expect other people to tell me either.
All I can say is that I like his stand-up comedy personally, and I’ve never felt offended by anything in his shows. For me, it always comes down to context, which often gets removed when people report on certain routines or share carefully edited clips on social media. As Ricky has sometimes gone out of his way to explain quite clearly, joking about a particular subject isn’t a representation of a comedian’s views about that subject, nor is laughing about it a reflection on the audience’s views. I don’t agree with the sentiments expressed in every joke he makes, and I don’t find every single joke funny, yet I still enjoy his act. Because that’s what it is – an act, not a factual lecture. Every stand-up comedian portrays a character on stage, it’s escapism. Ricky’s stage persona is not the real Ricky.
In any case, the reason I like him isn’t because of the type of material he does – after all, there are various ‘edgy’ comedians who I dislike, and plenty of far tamer comedians who I love. I just like him because I find him funny. And his routines have no influence on my own personal beliefs, opinions and behaviours, because I know where to draw the lines. I also know that, in reality, he’s a big supporter of rights and equality, including animal welfare, gay marriage, mental health issues, etc. So that’s my interpretation and opinion of his work.
So with all that said, let’s get on to the shows themselves. Each of his stand-up specials, lasting around 70-80 minutes, is loosely based on a particular theme, although he does go off on plenty of tangents as well. And there are naturally some topics that come up repeatedly, including his true views on religion (which I do agree with to a fair extent as I’m an atheist like him), his privileged position, his own health and getting older, fat people (i.e. those who could improve through healthier living but choose not to), charity work, animals, political correctness, and his radio producer friend Karl Pilkington (who has a uniquely strange perspective on the world). But he does talk about other things too. And even when topics are revisited, there are usually new jokes and observations, so it doesn’t feel too repetitive. At most he might do an occasional callback to something he said in a previous show, to set the scene for a new joke he’s about to make.
So, for me, there’s a good variety of funny material in each of his gigs, and there’s a nice collection of extras on his DVDs as well. Hence I thought I would do a review of all his shows, and I hope you enjoy reading about them.
Contents
Animals
Ricky is a keen animal lover, and here he comments on various facts he’s found about all sorts of creatures, gives a mock commentary on a video of lions mating, shares illustrations from a book about animal homosexuality, and there’s an enjoyable analysis of the Bible story of creation. Plus there are digressions about fat people, giant Gorillas, mermaids, his childhood, and a second video at the start about taking a woman home from a bar.
There’s also an audio commentary, where he adds little remarks and anecdotes in response to the material. It’s not hugely entertaining and he soon struggles to find things to say, as he’s got nobody to banter with, but there are occasional nuggets of trivia and a few amusing moments, and he does talk about Karl for most of the last 20 minutes, which is the best bit.
The other extra is a fun 26-minute behind the scenes video diary filmed by Stephen Merchant. As well as Ricky working on the show and being interviewed by Stephen, we also see his support act Johnny Camden, a bit of Karl Pilkington, and Ricky’s appearance on Newsnight Review, where Ian Hislop was clearly not impressed with the show.
Politics
This show starts with an introductory sketch outside the Houses of Parliament, featuring TV producer and wheelchair user Ash Atalla, which is somewhat amusing – though Ash has since said that he wouldn’t feel comfortable doing that kind of thing now, and that is understandable. It’s clearly very tongue in cheek and no offence is intended by it, but I can see why some people would feel awkward about it now. Ricky also touches on the subject of disability during the main show (not in an offensive way), as well as talking about charities, historical figures like Gandhi and Hitler, morality in fables & nursery rhymes, bad excuses for immoral behaviour, different forms of protests, and a routine about a strange sexual health advice leaflet for gay men.
Ricky’s support act, Robin Ince, features heavily in the extra features here. Apart from a 3-minute glimpse into his audience warm-up routine, there’s also a funny 20-minute Living With Ricky featurette, where Ricky torments him with strange noises and silly jokes as they travel together. They also join forces for the audio commentary, where Ricky spends most of the first half hour reading from a 2001 diary he wrote about Robin, and the rest is banter, with barely any talk about the show itself. It’s all silly and pointless, yet still entertaining enough. Ricky gave up on doing commentaries after this though, and I’m not surprised, as it’s hard to fill the time with anything really meaningful when you’re trying to comment on a stand-up show. That said, it’s a shame he never did a commentary with Karl Pilkington, or even Stephen Merchant, but the podcasts and animated series they did together make up for that.
Talking of Karl, another enjoyable extra is a 19-minute chat to introduce us to him, during which we learn about his fascination with freaks, and his bewilderment over the infinite monkeys theory. There’s also a 5-minute clip about the making of the opening short with Ash, which isn’t anything exciting, but it does include the full, uninterrupted version of the video, without the theatre cutaways from the main show.
Fame
This show is introduced with a voiceover by Matthew Kelly from Stars In Their Eyes, before Ricky strides out to One Vision by Queen, which naturally I approve of as a big fan of the band. He then covers a wide selection of topics in the show, including charity work for people with various conditions, having a medical checkup for the tour, his amusing struggle to do an African accent, global warming, owning your reputation, the meaning of fame in historical vs modern times, newspaper reports & rumours, his atheism, royal visits, public toilets, and an incident between Sharon Osbourne and Chris Tarrant during an X Factor show that Ricky attended.
He also recalls an interview 5 years previously where, in response to a question about how to become famous, he made the deliberately absurd suggestion to kill a prostitute, clearly not meant seriously, to illustrate how some people will do anything for attention. However, after writing the story into his set in 2006, the Ipswich serial murders took place later in the year. And he didn’t take the story out when he started his tour in 2007, because the anecdote isn’t about those murders. But he does add a line about not doing that part of his set in Ipswich and, inevitably, the story did upset some of the residents who were naturally still reeling from recent events.
The extras include a second funny instalment of Living With Ricky, lasting 26 minutes, where he continues winding up Robin Ince with silly noises, the song Halfway Up The Stairs, making him kiss things, talking about his hot testicles, putting him on a fitness regime, and giving him a makeover. Robin’s both a glutton for punishment and a good sport, that’s for sure! There’s a reasonably amusing 8-minute clip of his warm-up set as well, where he talks about observational comedy and drugs.
There’s also a 15-minute feature where Karl Pilkington interviews Howard Isenberg, who believes he’s the only person in the universe with the ability to stop the body’s ageing process and live forever, and claims he’s protected from harm by the spirit world. It’s utter nonsense of course, because Howard did age, and died during lockdown in 2021, but it’s worth watching for more of Karl’s views on life.
Science
For this show Ricky enters his castle laboratory set to Won’t Get Fooled Again by The Who, another fantastic choice of song. He doesn’t talk about science heavily during the show, but it does come up here and there, in amongst other topics including his back injury, acts of God, Susan Boyle, an audience member at a Ken Dodd show, autograph hunters, charity gifts and campaigns, spiders, his support of gay equality, the effect of fear on rational thought, and a great routine analysing a children’s book about the story of Noah.
Karl Pilkington appears in the extras yet again, and is great humorous value as usual. Firstly, there’s an entertaining second edition of Meet Karl Pilkington, lasting 25 minutes, where Ricky chats to him about various science-related topics. As Ricky gives some interesting facts and makes important points, Karl explains why it’s pointless to think about The Big Bang and put man on the moon, why we should throw rubbish into space, why he’d only use a time machine to repeat a holiday he once had, why thinking about the miracle of life hurts his head, and why he thinks slugs and spiders are pointless, plus he struggles with a simple logic problem that Ricky sets him.
There’s also an 18-minute feature where Karl meets Warwick Davis for the first time, which is very funny. And finally there’s a 10 minute video diary filmed by Ricky in New York, as he prepares for a guest appearance on Season 8 of Curb Your Enthusiasm, including a chat with Larry David and a few brief clips from a talk show interview. It’s not as interesting as the clips featuring Karl, but it’s still alright.
It’s also notable that this is the only one of his DVDs to have skippable copyright and logo screens, and the inclusion of subtitles.
Humanity
Ricky’s first Netflix special was recorded at the Hammersmith Apollo, and was very successful, even if there was a bit of inevitable controversy to begin with. For instance, he discusses his speech at the Golden Globes, with particular reference to a joke he made about Caitlyn Jenner’s car accident and sex change, which had made headlines around the world.
The special also includes the so-called ‘dead baby joke’ that had caused some outrage after a couple walked out of one of his earlier shows on the tour. It was the first night out they’d had since losing their son to stillbirth so, while they had enjoyed a lot of other rather dark material during the show, that particular moment understandably hit a raw emotional nerve for them. But the reports about their exit led to anger from others who had never seen the show – as it was still a year before the Netflix premiere – and thus didn’t know the story or its context. And once the special was released online, it didn’t cause any media furore, as it then became clear that it’s a fleeting part of a lengthy sketch about fictional fatherhood. The target of the routine is Ricky himself, as he uses an extreme scenario to explain why he wouldn’t have the skills or patience to be a good father, and thus why he doesn’t currently have children. It’s not celebrating a bad thing.
And beyond all of that, Ricky talks about a variety of other random things, including dogs, becoming a chimp, being spoilt, nut allergies, freedom of speech in comedy, growing old, wigs, distending testicles, the problems of social media, Twitter arguments, and the benefits of laughing in the face of adversity. So I enjoyed all of that.
SuperNature
This is Ricky’s latest show that has just come out, from his tour that was severely delayed by the Covid pandemic. It was filmed at the London Palladium, and is the first of his shows to have audio description available.
The tour itself generated no complaints or media coverage as far as I’m aware. Hundreds of thousands of people spanning all sectors of society bought tickets, knowing that he deals with taboo subjects, and they enjoyed themselves. But now it’s online for everyone to see, inevitably it’s resulted in a few complaints from people who already weren’t fans of his. So Ricky has had to explain things in interviews that he already explains in the show anyway. If anything, he explains his comedy a bit too much in this special, as his audience already knows his style anyway, and those who don’t like him will ignore him regardless. But his observations on things like woke comedy, cancel culture, outrage and virtue signalling are amusing, and unfortunately they are prominent issues that need to be discussed in this day and age, we can’t pretend they don’t exist.
In any case, despite him referencing all sorts of sensitive issues throughout the show, only one has resulted in complaints and headlines. But from what I can tell from watching the full show, I don’t see any evidence that he’s transphobic. The routine in question sees him directly quoting, and mocking the ideology of, the most aggressive and abusive hardline trans activists, who fail to realise that their actions are actually fuelling division and misunderstandings against the wonderful wider community of trans people they’re trying to protect. The fact that many of those activists have taken the bait and are attacking both Ricky and anyone else who speaks in his favour is only proving his point and giving him free publicity. And he knew full well that would happen, he’s not stupid. He’s basically flushing them out to illustrate the issue.
So of course trans rights are vital and need to be protected, nobody’s disputing that. Ricky explicitly states his own support for that later in the show, which is conveniently omitted from the clip that’s in circulation. And, absolutely, there are some genuinely traumatic events and serious anxieties underpinning the actions of the activists in question, mirroring concerns that many other trans people have. The community undoubtedly needs everyone’s help and support to feel safe. And exactly the same sentiments apply for women’s rights and safety as well, they’re equally essential. No group is more important than any other. But there needs to be polite discourse and gentle awareness raising if we’re to achieve inclusivity and equality, as opposed to attacking people just because they unwittingly get someone’s pronouns or grammatical preferences wrong, or because they have different ideas. Anger and abuse is only going to alienate people. Societal norms are changing and evolving, as has always happened over the centuries, and some people need time and education to adjust.
Anyway, apart from that, Ricky also talks about his disbelief in the supernatural (reincarnation, ghosts, heaven, praying, etc), and marvels at the ‘super’ powers and abilities of nature (hence the show’s title). And he also discusses things like stress relief, cats and dogs, Boris Johnson, AIDS, extreme anti-abortionists, Hitler, old age & death, medical check-ups, gyms, the human brain, becoming a lesbian and racism, and recounts some amusing true stories from his school days. So there’s actually quite a mixture of topics overall, even though the headlines suggest otherwise.
Overall, it’s certainly not a show for everyone, but then nor are any of his others. And sure, it doesn’t contain anything hugely original in terms of subjects covered either. After all, he knows what works, so he doesn’t need to deviate from his trademark style. But I enjoyed it – it’s a very funny show, and it’s great that he’s added audio description this time.
And I’m looking forward to his next show, Armageddon, which I will try and see in person if I can. But it’s not the end of the world, pun intended, if I can’t make it, as it will also be on Netflix. It should be fun in any case.
Armageddon
I have mixed feelings about this show, which was filmed at the London Palladium and released on Netflix in 2023, as it’s certainly not his best. Some of it is funny, as he makes light of the extreme claims about how ‘woke’ people behave, raises fair points about how humanity is destroying itself and the planet, observes how language and society have changed, and I do like some of his darker jokes. He’s also won a Golden Globe for the show and raised a lot of money for animal charities, which is admirable.
But it does feel like he’s increasingly relying on causing offence, instead of just telling good jokes, in order to get laughs from the audience and free publicity from complaints, such as his use of the R-word that he shared on social media. I know he’s talking about doing a nice thing, and I do get the joke, it’s just not a clever one. And the fact that he has to explain why it’s ok takes away from it as well.
The real problem is that when people and charities have raised valid grievances or concerns, they’ve predictably received abuse from a lot of Ricky’s fans, who feel that anyone who gets upset is weak and inferior, and some take pride in the further distress they’re causing. Ricky isn’t naive, he would have known that would happen, yet he’s effectively endorsing and emboldening their behaviour by not addressing it. Sure, I know he can’t stop it, but he could at least acknowledge it. Because if those ‘fans’ were capable of respecting people’s opinions and feelings, and could avoid being inflammatory, it wouldn’t be such a big issue. Some people would still hate his use of the word, but at least they’d feel comfortable in saying so and using it to raise awareness without fear of bullying and harassment for it.
So while the special is good in general, with lots of funny moments that still make it worth watching, that aspect has put a bit of a dampener on it.
Mortality
This Golden Globe-winning Netflix special was again filmed at the London Palladium and released in 2025. It’s nothing exceptional compared to his earlier specials, as his style of humour is the same as it’s always been. But I enjoyed it, and I think it’s better than his previous special. He does use strong and occasionally controversial language, yet it isn’t without reason, so I don’t feel offended by it. And if he were being truly offensive, Netflix would have caved into pressure and dropped him years ago.
During the show he makes well-considered and often humorous points, without being patronising, about free speech, hate crimes, the dark side of social media, morality, and the importance of comedy vs people who take offence to everything.
And right at the start he sticks up for disabled comedian Rosie Jones, not just for the ableist abuse she receives in general, but also for the backlash she got for the inclusion of the R-word in the title of her documentary about online hate speech. Whether she should have used it will always divide opinion, but his point is that she had the freedom to do so. And it did generate a lot of headlines and discussions that raised awareness as to why it’s such a bad word, including in this show.
But he discusses plenty of other things too. Indeed, the title of the show, Mortality, mainly refers to the fact that he’s now in his 60s. So he talks about what it’s like getting old and the things he’s learned at his age, his frustrations with everyday things and annoying people, why he’d be alright in jail or in hell, and what he considers to be the best part of the body.
He also tells a funny story about preparing one of his monologues when hosting the Golden Globes, and having to persuade the lawyers to let him use a particular slang term. And there’s an amusing tale about how he inadvertently upset Elton John.
So it’s a good show altogether, he had me laughing out loud several times. He also donated £2.5 million to animal charities from the premium ticket sales on the tour, which is very generous.
Conclusion
And that’s it. As I said at the start, I know he’s not to everyone’s taste, but I hope you found the post interesting. Presumably you did if you got this far. I think there’s a lot to enjoy in his shows anyway, and I’m looking forward to his future specials.
Share this:
3 thoughts on “Ricky Gervais – Stand-Up DVD & Netflix Reviews”