Young people aren't funny
Gervais snipes at the under-30s
Few comedians under the age of 30 are funny, Ricky Gervais has claimed.
The Office star believes people don’t have the experience of failure, or enough knowledge of their own inadequacies below that age.
He said: ‘I think you have to be a certain age to be funny. So few people under the age of 30 are funny.’
His comments came in an interview with Curb You Enthusiasm creator Larry David, who agreed with him.
David said: ‘You have to discover when you're inadequate to be funny and you don't know you're inadequate when you're a kid.
‘I started to become funny when I realised I was inferior and inadequate.
Gervais added: ‘Exactly. Who wants to see unfeasibly good-looking, clever, popular people doing things brilliantly? Who cares?’
He also made an obvious swipe at some exponents of observational stand-up.
'I think comedy has to be recognition, but it's pointless to do comedy to a roomful of people that could just about think of it themselves,' he said. 'If you're saying what everyone's thinking, you're not doing anything.'
The interview will be screened on Channel 4 on January 5, but a transcript of some of it appears in the Daily Telegraph today. Click here to read it.
Published: 10 Dec 2005
