Gervais's verdict on British comedy

Ricky Gervais has launched a new assault on the state of British comedy, claiming it doesn’t match up to American standards.

He said that TV comedy in Britain was tired, relying on a tiny pool of comedy writers churning out lacklustre material.

‘They're always the same people,’ he said. ‘The same people write for I Love The Seventies as some new satirical show on BBC Three. Hold on - have we really only got ten people?’

‘It's different in America.  They're ambitious, they're good, they're funny. They do stand-up, and by the time they're 31 they've got their own sitcom because they're good.

‘You don't see many 40-year-old hack writers in America. They get fired if they're no good. It's like natural selection.’

He also said in the interview with GQ magazine he feels no empathy with fellow British comedians. ‘It's going to sound terrible but I do feel that myself and Stephen [Merchant] have more in common with Larry David or Mitch Hurwitz, who writes Arrested Development, than with anyone here.

Gervais also said that The Office was, in part, a satire on the state of British comedy.

‘I never said this at the time but I snuck in all my pet hates about comedy,’ he said, including ‘people whose highest level of sophistication is remembering a catchphrase and then shouting it across a pub’.

He added: ‘I can't stand to see comedians begging for the laugh. If you have to take your trousers down and run around like a chicken to get a laugh ... There's nothing more tragic: people who desperately want to be funny are automatically unfunny.’

Published: 11 Apr 2006