Ricky Gervais: Armageddon

In many ways Armageddon is a classic Ricky Gervais special; huge laughs, beautiful construction, well-articulated points and all that great jazz that has become his signature ...

BUT ...

.... There is nothing new!

The subject-matter has been exhausted at this point, yet he is still trampling that same old ground and making the same old points.

There are also references to bits by other comedians, as there have been in his last three specials. This is by no means an accusation of stealing material or any such nonsense, however, it should be noted that less popular comedians have received a lot of flack for a lot less.

My last criticism would be that a lot of his material seems be aimed at twitter. Twitter and the real world are very different places, so when he talks about 'people', it comes across as almost hollow because his characters are based in that world.

This might sound like a bad review, but it isn't. Armageddon hits the same high standards we're used to seeing from Ricky Gervais. Unfortunately, 'same' might be the most important word in that sentence.

I believe most comedians make specials when a tour is ending, and according to what RG says it's also the case with Armageddon. So it's a special talent for a comedian to keep it fresh. Especially when they are reacting to their own jokes. Some of them, like Louis CK, are masterful in this respect.

So, when RG bursts into giggling in a special, he has probably done it dozens of times, but most of the time you feel like "Oh he just thought of something funny, said it out loud and is now laughing like me". Don't know exactly why this time I just didn't buy it. Especially when RG underlines it saying something like "I just tought a new joke..."... No, didn't really believe it.

Also, repetition is killer. RG says the word "woke" about as much as your average edgy teenager who is writing a TLDR rant in Youtube comment section. I don't disagree with the message, just found myself detaching from the comical and humorous aspects of it.

Comedians have been complaining about audience getting butthurt too easily for over ten years now, not just the woke ones, but pretty much everyone. The subject it's not fresh, you should take a new angle or something. And even so, currently comedians probably are free'er to say whatever than ever before. RG was born 1961, that year Lenny Bruce was arrested all the time just for saying f. Can't write the full word here... it's not because of woke people.

But yeah, it doesn't totally suck, so if you generally like Ricky Gervais specials, it still delivers some laughs.

Ricky was right about that joking about the horrible stuff in life makes it a bit more bearable to deal with. This is dark humor, so it's definitely not for the easily offended people.. not everyones cup of tea.

I love Ricky, and I thought that Armageddon was good.. but it was definitely not his best. It was quite underwhelming, to be completely honest.. I enjoyed Humanity, Supernature and After life way more than this one. I really wanted to love Armageddon just as much as I love the other netflix stand-up specials, but it didn't happen this time.. it's okay though. Everybody has different preferences and tastes when it comes to most things in life. I'll just keep my hopes up that there will be more netflix specials from Ricky in the future.

I love Ricky, his other stand ups, presenting, series etc. Have all been some of my favourite comedy to watch. This felt a little repetitive though. His view on 'anything goes' when telling jokes, is something I fully believe in, but to convince the audience of his beliefs on this, he really pushed things to the limit. Many parts were truly cringeworthy! In addition, I feel that he knows many are critical of him, and this whole stand up was in response to them and their issue with him. What happened to silly Ricky? I miss those jokes! Next time, keep it light, let us laugh at something intelligent and not just constant controversy.

I was eager to see the show as Gervais is one of my favorite comedian. I was hoping for a little more fun and well thought jokes but what I was afraid of, kind of happened: that the show would not be at the same level as the previous ones. Did I spoil myself? Maybe, but it felt that most of the material was just old jokes "reworded" in a different way or not "well refined". I'm not condemning it much since I realize that it's not easy to surpass yourself or stay at certain levels.

I'm for sure not the kind of person that gets offended by jokes and confirm that I didn't, so me not being particularly impressed by the show has nothing to do with that matter.

Felt a bit like a money grab show but who cares... better than nothing.

I still like Gervais, as I share most of the points of his jokes... those that have one of course.