
This week we find Mr. Ricky Gervais, dusting off old awards from 20 years ago (again!?). Trade secrets, cannibals, getting a crab drunk, and table tennis in a snorkel. Honesty is funny, so how do we look in these slacks? Welcome to an all-new SmartLess.
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Sean
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Ricky Gervais
Awake up.
Sean
Happy, happy New Year.
Jason Bateman
Hey, Happy New Year to you.
Will Arnett
Yeah. New Year. Yeah.
Jason Bateman
What are we doing New Year to you?
Sean
Everybody sleep okay? Anybody party last night?
Jason Bateman
Um, no. No.
Will Arnett
No. Is it New Year's Day?
Sean
Oh, sorry.
Will Arnett
It's not New Year's Day. Oh, sorry. Are you missing something? Are you sorry?
Sean
I don't know my calendar.
Will Arnett
Stop saying sorry. What is happening?
Jason Bateman
Is that your New Year's resolution is to say sorry for all the things you've done wrong in 2025?
Ricky Gervais
No.
Jason Bateman
How long would the list be of things you have to apologize.
Will Arnett
Do you guys mind if I just interrupt real quick and say welcome to a brand new smart list?
Sean
Oh, sorry.
Will Arnett
Go ahead.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah.
Jason Bateman
Oh, yeah.
Will Arnett
Smart.
Ad Voice 2
Less.
Will Arnett
Smart, Smart less. Hi, guys. Are we rolling?
Jason Bateman
Yeah. Willie, you look really handsome. You got someone just off camera. Who's. Who's the surprise listener? We've got a special guest.
Will Arnett
The.
Jason Bateman
The director and co star of the great film. Is this on? Is this thing on?
Bradley Cooper
Dude, I can't believe I'm got a little peek behind the curtain here.
Jason Bateman
Wow, man, this is amazing.
Sean
So cool to have you and so.
Ricky Gervais
Hi, Bradley.
Will Arnett
Well, it's such a.
Bradley Cooper
It's so fascinating.
Jason Bateman
Wait, but haven't you done. You've done a. I feel like you've done a double. Or am I thinking of you and. And Dan.
Sean
Because he came down. He came to the.
Bradley Cooper
I did your hundredth episode.
Jason Bateman
What? But. But live. I remember you on stage.
Bradley Cooper
And then I came to the live.
Jason Bateman
But you've done this.
Bradley Cooper
But I don't remember like. But I don't. You know, seeing it. You know, seeing Sean and his habitat and you. And it's cool for the. For the listener.
Jason Bateman
Sean chewing. There he is.
Bradley Cooper
Sean's got a hat on glasses. Jason looks like the guy from the Maxell commercial.
Jason Bateman
I still have my DJs on.
Will Arnett
You know what? This is fun because we've never done this in intro with a surprise guest. So, Bradley, why don't you guess what Sean is eating? Don't tell him yet. Sean.
Sean
Oh, okay. Want me to show you?
Will Arnett
Or was it. Was There. Was there?
Bradley Cooper
Yeah. Show me. Give me a little hint.
Sean
I just chew like this.
Bradley Cooper
Oh.
Will Arnett
Oh.
Bradley Cooper
Is that some sort of pie? Is that a glaze on top? A vanilla glaze?
Jason Bateman
It's a glaze, probably. Hey, it's 9:31. It's gotta be a glaze.
Will Arnett
All bets are off.
Sean
No, it's a cinnamon butter. Cinnamon sugar.
Jason Bateman
English muffin. Fourth grade graduates.
Bradley Cooper
Oh, did you make that? So butter cinnamon on an English muffin you just toasted.
Ricky Gervais
Yes.
Sean
So there's.
Bradley Cooper
And by the way, and for the listener. Great. You covered all of the surface of the muffin.
Will Arnett
Look at that. Look at that, guys. Oh, yeah.
Bradley Cooper
Hey, Bradley.
Sean
How are you?
Jason Bateman
Yeah. What are you doing over there? Do you guys have a sleepover last night?
Will Arnett
We did. Yeah.
Bradley Cooper
We're living together now.
Will Arnett
We're back to back Delivery.
Bradley Cooper
We've gone 180. 360.
Will Arnett
360.
Ricky Gervais
Thanks.
Bradley Cooper
We just. We just came from press, so I was just like, going to run to say hello.
Will Arnett
We were just doing a bunch of press for the movie every day. And I love that. We just did this GQ game. We just did this. What was it?
Bradley Cooper
We just did this. You have to guess how well you.
Will Arnett
Know how well you know each other. Yeah.
Jason Bateman
Listener. They both. They both do look literally like they just came from a GQ shoot. They look gorgeous, these two.
Will Arnett
Thank you.
Ricky Gervais
You do you both.
Will Arnett
But we did. Bradley won because I gave him extra points. I was really magnanimous.
Ricky Gervais
What was the question?
Will Arnett
You were. You were generous too. No, the answers were, what's my middle name?
Bradley Cooper
The cons is like, yeah. It's like, yeah. By the way, do you know his sister's names?
Ricky Gervais
Yeah.
Jason Bateman
Wait. Tannis and Chardonnay.
Will Arnett
No, Tannis is right. That's good.
Jason Bateman
Chamblee.
Will Arnett
Shanley.
Jason Bateman
Wow. That's it.
Will Arnett
Yeah. That's good. Jb.
Jason Bateman
And your middle name, Will, is William Gordon Arnett.
Bradley Cooper
Almost boy.
Jason Bateman
Gary.
Will Arnett
Sean. Do you know my middle name?
Ricky Gervais
Go with it.
Bradley Cooper
Go with it.
Sean
Of course I know. Your middle name is Emerson.
Ricky Gervais
Okay.
Bradley Cooper
Nice.
Will Arnett
Yeah.
Jason Bateman
Wait, Is that right? Bradley, Yours. What's the first letter of yours? Bradley C. Channing.
Bradley Cooper
No.
Jason Bateman
Curtis.
Bradley Cooper
No.
Will Arnett
No.
Jason Bateman
Chad.
Will Arnett
Close.
Jason Bateman
Come on, Sean.
Sean
No, it's Charles.
Bradley Cooper
Yes, it is.
Jason Bateman
Wait, are you Googling? Ch.
Sean
Oh, I know this.
Jason Bateman
God, I wish it was Chad. I'd call you Chad every.
Will Arnett
They were like, what's your favorite movie? What's your favorite.
Jason Bateman
They say, what is yours is with nail and I. And I yours. Bradley, yours is Ghost.
Will Arnett
Ghost.
Bradley Cooper
That's right.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Bradley Cooper
The director's cut.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah, I. What's your favorite movie.
Bradley Cooper
You know, I, I, he knew that I couldn't answer it. Like, I, I don't really have one.
Will Arnett
He doesn't have one. He loves them all. Well, you have.
Sean
What's a couple of them.
Bradley Cooper
Yeah, exactly.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah.
Will Arnett
What.
Bradley Cooper
What are they, like an elephant man, Apocalypse now, you know?
Will Arnett
Yeah, yeah. Beverly Hills Cop. Beverly Hills Cop. Three Stooges. And they said, what, what is one thing here. Here's what they said. What's one thing about Bradley that you. That people don't know? Yeah. And I said, well, there's a lot. And then I was gonna say. I was gonna say, because we keep reading, people, everybody thinks that Bradley's had plastic surgery. Everybody keeps saying that. I'm like, what people don't know is that he hasn't.
Jason Bateman
That he hasn't.
Will Arnett
Yeah, of course he hasn't.
Bradley Cooper
I get, like, people cut. Like, some people came up to me the last couple weeks, and they're like.
Will Arnett
Oh, you look good.
Sean
Yeah.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah.
Will Arnett
But it's a crazy. It did make me think. And then I was like. I was like, oh, I didn't want to get. But then I'm like, I should have. It made me mad because I'm like, people say that all the time. And I'm like, it's such a hilarious thing. Everybody thinks that they know, you know, you read stuff, and.
Jason Bateman
And I've been cut to ribbons. But look at. Look how it's worth it.
Ricky Gervais
Look at this.
Ad Voice 2
Huh?
Will Arnett
Yeah.
Bradley Cooper
What look is that?
Jason Bateman
What did you get? This is. I was asleep 45 minutes ago, and we've got a young aspiring guest, you know, that I didn't need to do a lot of research for because this person hasn't done a bunch. So I'm just kind of ready, you know?
Will Arnett
Wow. I mean, your guest must feel great about that.
Jason Bateman
Yeah. Bradley, we actually might need a little bit of help. Give us five more minutes here and help us with this. It's a very exciting comedic voice coming out of the uk he's received some great momentum from his last couple of standup specials. Got a new one on Netflix. Now he's a fan of the ufc, David Bowie, Animals of all kinds. Let's. Let's get him out, guys. Give a warm welcome to England's brightest new star. I want to get this pronunciation right. Ricky Gervas.
Ricky Gervais
Ricky Gervas.
Jason Bateman
Is that right? Do I have it right, sir?
Will Arnett
Look who's back. It's like reunion night. Ricky's back. Bradley's back.
Jason Bateman
Everybody's doubling up. Good morning, Ricky.
Ricky Gervais
Hi.
Jason Bateman
Hi.
Will Arnett
Good morning.
Ricky Gervais
Sound good?
Jason Bateman
Christ, look at the row of BAFTAs behind him. Good.
Will Arnett
I know.
Jason Bateman
Are those real?
Ricky Gervais
No, it's a. It's a green screen.
Sean
Ricky, can you do. Can you do the podcast and just make sure your camera is covering all the awards before you hop on?
Jason Bateman
If we widen out, we'll see more.
Bradley Cooper
Ricky, we've never met, but.
Ricky Gervais
Hi.
Bradley Cooper
What a great thing to see you.
Ricky Gervais
Nice to meet you, man.
Jason Bateman
You two have not met?
Will Arnett
No. Wow.
Ricky Gervais
I don't know anyone I love. I. I think. I think I met Jason and Will and my first even brush with Hollywood about 20 years ago. And that's. I just kept them as friends and didn't add anything to that.
Bradley Cooper
Yeah. I love all your shows, man.
Ricky Gervais
Oh, thank you, man. Cheers.
Bradley Cooper
I loved Extras.
Jason Bateman
What? What? What isn't good that Ricky's done?
Will Arnett
All right, guys, Bradley's gotta.
Jason Bateman
Love you, Bradley. Bye, buddy.
Will Arnett
Bye, dude.
Jason Bateman
You know, Ricky, I was. I was on a plane, an overseas plane, so I had a lot of time on my hands and I went into their little entertainment offerings there on the plane and I climbed into Office Christmas, the Christmas special. Fuck, I ate that up so deeply, making a real idiot of myself and the folks next to me. Just. I know you don't want to talk about the Office anymore, and I'm not asking any questions. Questions about it. There's no question here. It's just. You just. You're just it. I just love your. What you do. I could. I could. I could eat it all day.
Ricky Gervais
So.
Jason Bateman
Thank you.
Ricky Gervais
That's lovely. Thank you very much. That's just. So now I've got to be nice to you.
Jason Bateman
Yeah, that's my strategy.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah. But.
Will Arnett
But Ricky, did it look like Jason was reading that off a script?
Ricky Gervais
Did it?
Will Arnett
No.
Ricky Gervais
I know he can't read. It was a child star. He didn't need an education. He didn't need anything to fall back on.
Jason Bateman
Nothing.
Ricky Gervais
So. And he's. He's kept his looks. Cuz sometimes child stars, they start looking weird. Yeah.
Sean
Give it a couple more years, they.
Ricky Gervais
Sort of turn into like a weird little monkey. But he's. He's still nearly handsome.
Jason Bateman
I better take my hair off and you save me this.
Ricky Gervais
I watched the film with you in actually. Carry On. I loved it. I thought you. Great. Oh, you did. You did sort of menacing really well because obviously I find you funny. And there was. I could still. You could have made a joke at any point, but it was. It was really good. It was quite. It was quite chilling.
Jason Bateman
Any drama is always one line of dialogue at the end. Of every scene from becoming a comedy.
Ricky Gervais
I know, I know. Well, I sort of turned down a lot of. Not big dramas, but things I thought, well, they just laugh. I turned down. They wanted me to play Winston Churchill and I was going, they just laugh. They're not gonn. They're not going to be lost.
Will Arnett
I'd give anything. I would have given anything.
Ricky Gervais
It would have been terrible. I'd have hated every minute of it as well, because I'd have had to have every day. The baldwig. Actually, if I leave it a couple of years, I won't need that. But it would have been. It would have been three hours in makeup and puffing a cigar and never.
Jason Bateman
What was that? Was it intolerable or. No. What was a Quentin Tarantino film where Mike Myers played a German soldier? Inglourious bastards.
Sean
Glorious.
Jason Bateman
Yeah, right, right. And. And I started to smile when I saw him and then realize, oh, wait, I shouldn't be. But it's fine. You get right past it. And your, your acting talent, like you never tell jokes. Your. Your acting talent is just incredible. And so you could, you could seamlessly and effortlessly.
Will Arnett
I agree, I agree.
Jason Bateman
Somebody dramatic. I mean, it'd be right.
Ricky Gervais
You got to stop this now because I don't know whether this is a wind up or not. I'm just waiting. Was all the time you were saying that, I was looking at Will. I was thinking, what's Will going to say now?
Will Arnett
I just love the work. I just love the work you've done for animals and, and with your time and what you've done and really how you've inspired millions of people. This is the worst.
Ricky Gervais
This is the worst case scenario ever.
Will Arnett
Oh.
Ricky Gervais
Oh, God.
Will Arnett
And just how, how thoughtful you are. And I think for me, that just really. I don't know, Scott. I'm.
Jason Bateman
I'm.
Will Arnett
I can barely. I'm. I'm.
Jason Bateman
Yeah, you're wetting up. I can tell.
Will Arnett
People say that my crying sounds like laughing.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah. I know you're not a great actor, but I could tell what you were trying to do.
Jason Bateman
Sean, do you have any praise for Ricky?
Sean
I do. I sent him an email after I saw Afterlife and I thought it was. It was great. I was late to the party, watching.
Jason Bateman
No notes.
Sean
No notes.
Jason Bateman
No notes at all?
Sean
No, no. I thought it was one of the best shows I'd seen, I've ever seen. I mean, is it loud?
Ricky Gervais
How is this biggest entertainment podcast in the world?
Jason Bateman
I have zero idea. I'm in pajamas.
Sean
Yeah, we haven't covered anything yet.
Jason Bateman
You know, I was Thinking about that on the walk out to, to, to, to. To plug my computer in. And all I. Thinking about. I'm thinking I'm about to chat with my, my two best friends and Ricky Gervais. Like, that's. I'm not thinking about this going out to X number of people. And I think that's a really great thing. I hope we never lose that.
Ricky Gervais
In fact, we did a Will and Will and I and Ted and Mitch did a few of these in lockdown and it was just, it was, it was lovely because you were. That's when you really remembered you had friends when you couldn't see them.
Jason Bateman
That's the, that's how this whole thing started. Yeah.
Ricky Gervais
Oh, is that when you start.
Ad Voice 2
Oh, go.
Jason Bateman
Yeah.
Ricky Gervais
It was just in lockdown, didn't I.
Will Arnett
You did, yeah. You were one of our. End of 2020. You were one of our first, you were in our first, first batch and.
Sean
Gosh, that doesn't seem that long ago.
Will Arnett
I know, five years ago. It was five years ago. And I said, well, I did that.
Ricky Gervais
I thought, listen, let's. Let's help these guys.
Will Arnett
Yeah.
Ricky Gervais
And then sure, five years later. Ah, right, they need my help again. Yeah, let's. A little leg up, a little injection. Yeah, a little.
Will Arnett
Yeah, of course.
Ricky Gervais
A little vitamin R injection.
Will Arnett
Listen, man, we're. We're happy, we're happy that you're on here helping us out and your backdrop with your dusty old awards from 20 years ago. You know what I mean? It's just for us.
Ricky Gervais
How dare you.
Will Arnett
Yeah, look at the most.
Jason Bateman
I feel like I.
Will Arnett
Most of them have rusted out.
Jason Bateman
I used to see you a bit more.
Will Arnett
It's like going to a museum. It's amazing. You know, this is so educational.
Jason Bateman
Have you not been coming out here lately? I seem to. I used to see you a lot more. Used to like dinners. Will. And.
Ricky Gervais
Well, the truth is I. I've still got a place there in New York and. Yeah, from like for the last 20 years in, it come out like, it's got like six, seven, eight times a year. Whenever I had something out the second series, I'd come out. I do the chat show sort of thing, New York, fly to la, do that and. But I, I think not. Not just because of COVID but since COVID sort of things have changed. Really? Yeah.
Jason Bateman
You can do everything from home.
Ricky Gervais
Well, yeah, and. And Netflix, they've got like 300 million subscribers. They send an email. I don't have to. I don't have to go on a chat show and play Table tennis in a snorkel, you know, but you're also.
Will Arnett
Doing, but, but Ricky, you're, you're also doing, you're also doing stand up so much more now than you were 15 years ago.
Ricky Gervais
That's absolutely right.
Jason Bateman
Yeah.
Will Arnett
Right. So that's, it's kind of changed the way that you interact with your fans a little bit.
Ricky Gervais
Well, I think I started off, yeah, writing the director and the being in stuff and I, I'd fit in a little stand up tour when I could between writing and you know, and then I think humanity was the first one. I hadn't done it for like seven years. And after humanity I thought, oh no, this is my job. I'm a stand up now who. I'll do the odd TV show and film when I have time. And it just, I just flipped it. And I think in the last eight years I've done four tours and four specials and it felt like I'm fitting other stuff in and I want that to continue. Well, to, you know, to a certain degree is. It does get, you don't mind the.
Jason Bateman
Travel, all that touring. That's, there's a lot more travel with that than doing the acting stuff. Right.
Will Arnett
Yeah.
Ricky Gervais
But I honestly, I do the most luxurious tour possible. It's like I do two or three nights away at the most and four nights at home. I, you know, I hop, I hop private all around Europe. You know, I do three trips to North America and get it all done then with, you know, the biggest venues I can play.
Jason Bateman
And Jane go with you? No.
Ricky Gervais
Yes, she does, yes. All the good places she comes to, America, Canada, all the lovely places in Europe. She does, she doesn't, just doesn't come to the, some of the seaside towns of England out of season. But yeah, no, again I make it a little weekend break. So I'll play Prague arena and we'll go the night before we have dinner, we'll walk around all day and then I'll pop to the arena and do a gig and then we fly home. And so it's like, you know, 46 hours of holiday and two hours of work. So it couldn't be better. But still the last few years, if I do two or three gigs in a row, I wake up, I think was I run over last night? I am absolutely exhausted. It's age, it's like also I think I don't know what it's like it'd be like for people to see me at 70. I'm already sort of grumpy and I shuffle around. Sorry, you're not angry.
Jason Bateman
Sorry, you're not yet 70.
Ricky Gervais
I remember the first time I met you, right? It was the. In the makeup trailer on the invention of lying.
Jason Bateman
Invention of lying.
Ricky Gervais
And I said something like, so you're 40? And you went, I think you were 37 or something. You went, you think I'm 40? You were like that. You couldn't believe that someone thought you were impressive, two years older than you. And then someone else came and said, he thinks I'm 40.
Jason Bateman
Why, do I sound like Mrs. Doubtfire? Yeah, you bastard.
Ricky Gervais
It was like that. It was like. And then I think you mentioned it again. I'm 38.
Jason Bateman
You don't. So, yeah, I get it. Like, there's no way you miss being on a set for 12 hours a day.
Will Arnett
Yeah, come on.
Ricky Gervais
Honestly, I do. Because. No, honestly, the thought, I will do it again, but the thought of doing it again, like, eight weeks up at the crack of dawn. Eight weeks. So at the moment, I'm just finished a tour, but I'm starting again straight away in January. I'm doing warmups for the next tour, which will be two years. I'm just finishing the first season of an animation I've been working on for two years, but I've been doing that with having a nap every day as well. So I do all my work. I work 10 till 12, have lunch, come home, I get 40 minutes, nap, and then I. So you can't do that on set. That's out of the question.
Jason Bateman
You can do it.
Will Arnett
I'm a big napper. And funnily enough, because, you know, Winston Churchill famously took a nap every day, even during the war, he get free full pajamas between the sheets. So we call it Mark Chapel, whom you all know, Chappie, we call it taking a Churchill. So I, as often as I can take a Churchill.
Jason Bateman
Churchill this morning.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah, it's great, isn't it? It's just the best. I look forward to it because I wake up tired. I wake up at seven, think, oh, I'll have a nap in five hours. Do you know what I mean? It just gets me through that first five hours.
Will Arnett
Are you a good sleeper, Ricky? Like, do you go to bed early, wake up early? Do you get eight hours, all that kind of stuff?
Ricky Gervais
Yeah, I do. I probably do. I think I've had a bad night. If I don't get eight and a half hours, I'd say, oh, good.
Will Arnett
Good for you.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah.
Sean
And you know, you have to get up, like, I know that feeling. Like it's seven o' clock in the Morning. Like I should get up because that's what people do.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah.
Sean
But if I had the choice I would just stay here. But I have to, I should get up.
Ricky Gervais
Well that, that's always been the case. In fact I've got earlier as I've got older again, I think it's in Covid. I used to get up at half nine and think, oh, I gotta do. And now I, now I can't not get up at like 7, 7:30, but I feel like I want to. I could easily if I didn't wake up, I just keep, keep going. Yeah, be lovely. But as soon as I look at the clock and go right, that's it, you've had.
Will Arnett
I'm 6, I'm 6am Every day. I can't help. And I was just in London again for a couple of days and I, I, it's dark right now until about 8:30 in the morning. So you know, now I've got like two and a half hours of dark after I've woken up and I'm like, fuck. It really fucked me up.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah, yeah, I bet. I seem to, I don't usually beat the sunrise, that's pretty rare.
Will Arnett
But Ricky, I will say this about you talking about going to the cities and I know that about you. I love that you go and you really like that. You and Jane go for a meal and you walk around and last summer I think we might have texted about.
Sean
This.
Will Arnett
You went to Toronto and did a gig in Toronto.
Ricky Gervais
One of my favorite, it's my favorite.
Will Arnett
Place and you talked about how it was your favorite and you love going to the island, Toronto Island. Oh, I love person I know in my family because Canadians are so proud in the nicest way. They're like my dad, my dad's like, hey, your buddy Ricky came in, they went and he loves the Toronto island day. Like they love it.
Jason Bateman
Is that the name of a comedy spot or is that a. Literally, it's a park.
Will Arnett
It's like a park, It's a beautiful island.
Ricky Gervais
It's like an island where, where residents live and it's, it's so lovely and you just get the, the little boat over for like the ferry, $10 or whatever it is. And I stay in Yorkville. I just love walking around Yorkville. And then I, I hopped to Montreal and I love Vancouver as well. I love Vancouver. I've only been to a few, but I've been to I think Vancouver, Banff, Toronto and Montreal. And that is my Canadian experience. And I'm from, my dad was from Kitchener Right. It was. He was. It was sort of near London, Ontario, sort of near Chatham. It was called something like. Oh, Pont something.
Jason Bateman
And he was a World War II vet.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah, he was. He volunteered. Right. So he. Yeah, Canadian. He joined the Canadian army to volunteer and he got stationed to Europe and I think he spent most of his time in Britain. He drove. I didn't talk about it much to him, but he drove tanks. He delivered tanks to the front.
Jason Bateman
Jesus.
Ricky Gervais
He was. Yeah, yeah.
Jason Bateman
And that's where he met your mom when he was over there?
Ricky Gervais
Yeah, he met my mum, got her pregnant. Yeah. And just stayed and just stayed in my. I think my. My oldest brother was born 44. He's Larry's. He died recently. And my sister, 47. And my next brother, 1950. So I was 11 years old after all that. I don't know what happened there.
Jason Bateman
Your mom admitted it was a mistake.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah, yeah. When I was about 13, I said to her, I said, why am I so much younger than my brothers and sisters? And she just went, you were a mistake. And I laughed and that. And that taught me that honesty is funny. Honesty has always been the funniest thing for me. People who just say the first thing comes out and they mean it, that always makes me laugh. That's why anger's funny, because you can't help it. It's a. It's a visceral reaction. Oh, if someone does that, I want to laugh. It could be anything. If someone bumps their head and they go, ow. Like that, I want to go, that's the funniest thing I've seen today. But I've got to make sure they haven't got concussion, they're not bleeding. But then I ask people their permission. If someone falls over. I go, can I laugh now?
Jason Bateman
And we will be right back.
Sean
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Sean
And now back to the show.
Jason Bateman
Now, what I love is that you're always so beautifully unapologetic about leading your audience with like, this is okay to laugh at. But you know, obviously we've gone through a section of years where people were a little bit uncomfortable about laughing at some of the things that were freaking hilarious. Do you get the sense that the audience that you're in front of now that, that that whole thing is starting to soften?
Ricky Gervais
And it is, it is. And it's, and it's cyclic. It's not the first time it's happened. I've. I've experienced it three or four times in my career, let alone my lifetime. But you know, these, these things, they come and go. They're like fashion really. And it's like it's generational and they kick out the. They want to be, you know, quite rightly, more progressive than the last one. And sometimes, sometimes they get it right, sometimes they get it wrong. Sometimes things were okay. Sometimes it's the best we've ever been. We don't need to change stuff. But they have to have a go, and I think we have to go through it. And I think that you sort of ride the waves and, you know, I mean, comedy seems to be at the. On the front line.
Will Arnett
Yeah.
Ricky Gervais
Because, of course, people can go. People would rather someone say something awful and mean it than say some are awful and be joking. Like, sometimes they're angry that you would joke about a terrible thing. Sometimes people are angrier at someone joking about the terrible thing than the terrible thing because they know they can't do anything about that.
Will Arnett
Right.
Ricky Gervais
But they can tell someone off for laughing at someone terrible.
Jason Bateman
Is Jane still your most trusted sort of barometer of that which is funny or not? Like, do you trust her laugh the best?
Ricky Gervais
Yeah. Well, I do run things past her because I'm excited. I think we're just a vessel for ideas. I don't sit down and go, I've got to have a great idea, because it doesn't happen. You live your life, and then something comes in your head and you go, oh, thank you. And I usually have. I'm going jogging, and I come up with an idea. Oh, that's a good joke. And I run home and I tell Jane. I go, look, I've got an idea. I tell her. She says, please don't say that in public. And I know that somewhat I can work on that. It's got something.
Jason Bateman
Well, but, I mean, I know you're joking, but you're also being serious. Is it because you trust your ability to match performance to content, that it would make it somewhat palatable? And like. Yes, I get it's offensive, but I know I can deliver it in a way where I. Yeah, yeah.
Ricky Gervais
There's lots of things. One, I like the challenge.
Jason Bateman
Yeah.
Ricky Gervais
You know, there's no. I can. I can point out funny things, but there's. You know, it's. They're like found objects. Where's the added value? What have I done to it? So the harder dive.
Jason Bateman
The.
Ricky Gervais
The thing that tantalizes me more is, can I make a terrible thing funny? How do I do that? How do I make them, you know? And I deal with taboo subjects on purpose because I sort of want to take the audience to a place that hasn't been before. So you're already. As soon as I approach a subject, I can feel that, what's he gonna say about that? It's the elephant in the room. Sometimes pointing out the elephant in the room is funny enough. It's like, just even.
Sean
And you're probably touching on a lot of things that people want to say themselves. Or thought themselves.
Ricky Gervais
I think that's exactly it. I think it's exactly it. And you know when you see an impressionist and they do an impression of a person and then you can do the impression of that person of the impression.
Sean
Yeah, totally.
Ricky Gervais
It's like I've reduced it for them to go, well, this is the meme. This is, this is that terrible thing you don't know how to approach. This is a good way to do it. And it's a discussion.
Will Arnett
It's the thing that excites you about it, Ricky, Because I think that I see it a lot in your comedy and it's something that kind of excites me too. I'm not a stand up. But that you. This idea, I can relate to the sort of the idea that getting into subject matter that is taboo or dangerous or that people don't want to talk about and figure out a way to sort of shed a light on it, make a joke about it and do it in a way that you can kind of work around really hard parameters. That's exciting. I feel like a school, that's where I feel like a schoolboy, where, like I'm getting away with saying the thing that the teacher that I'm not allowed to say. So how do I get to it, that's okay. And still get my pointer, you know what I mean?
Ricky Gervais
Well, that's the thing. Obviously you want everyone to laugh, right? Yeah. You can't second guess. You can't try and make anything so anodyne that everyone likes it because that won't happen either. Most people go, this is horrible. This is anodyne. So you've got to polarize by mistake. If you're doing anything that's slightly interesting, slightly contentious, as many people are going to hate it as like it because everyone's different. So you just do what you think is right and funny. And I do want to, I do want everyone to like it, but if they don't, there's nothing I can do about it. You know, some people say, like journalists, they say things like, is there anything you won't joke about? And I want to go, is there anything you won't write about? It depends on what you say. It's mad. And most offense I've noticed comes from people mistaking the subject of a joke with the actual target. They see a joke about a contentious joke and think, well, that's gotta be that. That can only be bad and it's just not true. Because we discuss bad things all the time and we come down on the right side. So I'm just doing it and hoping there's a punchline as well. There's just. There's nothing wrong with that at all.
Jason Bateman
Talk a little bit about the difference. You do many things incredibly well, but one of the things I really marvel at is that your standup Persona, and I don't mean to say that it's contrived, so Persona is probably the wrong.
Ricky Gervais
Word, but it is to a certain degree.
Jason Bateman
But there's a swagger that you have on stage when it's richer pays off.
Will Arnett
That you could possibly have in real life.
Jason Bateman
But it's part of the joy that I love that there's just no fucks given or no apologies, not in an asshole way, but just. I just love going on that ride. Yet when you're playing some of your most iconic characters, Andy Millman or David Brent, like, there is a. There's a level of vulnerability and insecurity and brokenness to them that is so heartwarming and earning and lovely. Like, how do you. How are you able to find the bullseye of humor in both of those polarizing kind of strategies? You know, ones with swagger.
Ricky Gervais
As long as it's a. Yeah. As long as it's a realistic portrayal, it doesn't matter what it is. And because, you know, people are complex, so even my villains, I sort of give them a bit of redemption or a bit of backstory or why are they like that? And I think you find that with everyone, everyone who's. Who's sort of like a little bit nasty or arrogant, it's because somewhat bad happened to them, probably, or they've never had a hug. You know, there's usually a reason to it. And we're all like that. And we all go around thinking, oh, we all live in our head because we walk around thinking, oh, everyone. Everyone is thinking, I'm a loser. I've got to act a bit, because look at them, they're great. But they're living in their head, too. They've got all the same insecurities and all as you, sort of. So I think that the comedy at its best is saying, we're all idiots. Let's just admit it and get on with it. So even when I do the swagger on, that is a bit of a Persona because I've gotta have that. I've gotta have that faux arrogance. So me falling down is funnier?
Will Arnett
Yes.
Ricky Gervais
If I just come out and clown and go, oh, slipping over, boring. If I come out and go, right, I'm the best thing since Sliced bread and then slip over. That's so much funnier. That's so much funner in life and in character. And the other thing is, I've got to keep comedians stand ups and certainly British stand ups. We're jesters, we're court jesters. We're down in the mud with the other peasants laughing at the King. We're low status now. How do I keep low status? Because everyone knows how much we earn now. So I've got to keep. I can't fake it. I can't pretend. I can't go, oh, I was on the bus the other day going to claim a welfare check. You're a liar. Right? So I can't do it like that. So I keep my low status in two ways. One, I show them that it's not all glam. All the silly things I've done, all the mistakes I've made, all the faux pas I've made in Hollywood, all the, you know, all the ways the press have called me an idiot and caught me out. And the other way I do it is I talk about things where they're better off than me. I talk about being fat and old and gonna die and going bald and my ball's distending and you know what I mean? So they're. So that's how I keep. In a way. I don't think that I keep low status. I try and keep same status. That's what I want to do. I want it to be us against the world.
Jason Bateman
And are you able to.
Sean
Yeah.
Jason Bateman
Are you able to tap into some of this sort of explanation and theology when you're trying to court folks on the extras to sort of, you know, when they come out and they parody themselves a bit like, are you able to sort of make them feel comfortable, like we're all idiots? I'm an idiot. Come on and have fun at your yourself.
Ricky Gervais
I found that the, the stars that I approached, right, that was like a day after them. They wanted to do it. They wanted to go, let, let me show the world I've got a sense of humor about myself. Because there's so many rumors about these people. They want 12 white kittens in their trailer. They want the trailer to be big. They, someone else has to flush the toilet. They want to go, let me, let me show them I'm normal. Let me show them I'm an idiot.
Sean
All right? And.
Ricky Gervais
And some of them made it worse. Some of them went, oh, no, do this, do this, do this. I did this once. It's cathartic. It's like a day off for them, you know, And I think that's fun. And I sort of. I've played it, you know, myself a couple of times when I've been the other side, like Curb Enthusiasm, where I was thinking, oh, I've got a parody myself here and it is fun. You do it anyway. If you write yourself apart, you've got a. You've got a parry, you know, a little bit and. But it's, it's nothing new. It was nothing new that the Muppets used to do it. When I was a kid, I used to watch the Muppet show and they would have on big stars and they would be the idiot. The Muppets won. The Muppets won over.
Sean
It's like being interviewed by Jiminy Glick when Marty Short is Jiminy Glick.
Ricky Gervais
Oh, my God. I was interviewed by him and I just loved it.
Sean
You can't compete. Like, the worst thing you could do is compete. Try to one up him. It's like, no, just.
Ricky Gervais
No, you can't. I was just, I just was laughing. I wanted to hug him. I wanted to go, right, I wish, I want to say, I wish this was real. I wish you were like this all the time. But I felt that I did a Muppet film, right, and Constantine was the evil Russian frog and I just wanted, I wished he was real. I wish I could take Constantine. I did all my press stuff with Constantine because it was so good having. Yeah, I like being, I like being, you know, the lower status. You know, it's good to play the arrogant idiot who wins, but it's much, it's much more fun to. I like it when I'm insulted in fiction. I love, I love me being the butt of the joke.
Jason Bateman
Well, so how about. Could that possibly be a new angle on whatever sort of filmed entertainment, like scripted entertainment, you might be doing this? Because, you know, fans like us, like, we love the stand up stuff, but we want more. We want it all. We want what? Like what, is it going to be another show? Is it going to be another movie? Is there anything close to the.
Will Arnett
To the.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah, there is something that's, that's, that's close to parodying myself that I'm going to get around to one day.
Sean
I can't.
Jason Bateman
Anything.
Ricky Gervais
You talk about the title. I've got the idea, but I can't even discuss it now because it would.
Jason Bateman
Be maybe shooting in the next 12 months.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah. Oh, you'd. Oh, you lot would be roped straight in as my only friends.
Jason Bateman
We're available.
Ricky Gervais
You're in. Yeah, you're in it and. But I've just finished a thing called Nearly. It's like, it's like two years and it still isn't quite finished and it won't be out till the end of next year. Doesn't animation take a long time? Yeah, but it's a six part thing about. It's called Alley Cats and we're a group of sort of feral cats living in a disused basement and we watch TV and go out and cause havoc and it's, it's a lot of it is improv as well. There's the storylines, but they're the sort of, you know, the meanest, sweariest cats in the world. But you know that they're losers as well. They're the bottom of the pile. It's all about sort of like survival and it is all about that thing that, that when you're the bottom of the pile and you know, you can, you can be angry, you can lash out because there's, there's a reason you.
Jason Bateman
Get away with a lot because you're not. There's nothing perfect about you.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah, I think that's, that's funny, isn't it? Because that's one of the big differences between sort of drama and comedy. You know, the lead in a comedy is a putz, whereas the lead in a drama is perfect. He can't slip, he can't hit his head. Good point. You know, he can get shot, but then he's got to go. It's just a flesh wound. Right. I can't do the voice. Will. Do the, do the butch voice, will ya? The butch voice. Do that butch voice. You learn when you got your.
Will Arnett
When my balls dropped. Hey, listen, hey, Rick, Rick, listen. When this summer did you do, did you. When you were doing the Office, which is a great extended Jason's earlier point. Is it a, it is a great acting triumph that, that series for you playing David Brent and, and I'm sure you got asked him fucking million times and I'm sorry.
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Jason Bateman
He never sucks.
Will Arnett
No, I know.
Sean
Yeah.
Will Arnett
And, and did you, did you. How much of that was. And then when you're first making that, of course it's kind of like, you know, they made the Internet without the Internet. You know what I mean? You made the Office without knowing. With no reaction. You made it in a vacuum that first season.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah.
Will Arnett
There's no reaction. So you're doing it. Did you have any idea that you were, what you were doing was, was, was special or working or working?
Ricky Gervais
I Knew it was different. I knew you did know it was different.
Jason Bateman
Do you think it was gonna spoil.
Will Arnett
Were you guys improvising? Were you improvising a lot?
Ricky Gervais
No, I was. I was the only one that really improvised at all. And I did that at the beginning and the end of the scenes or just to make the actors think a little bit and make it real or do something different to.
Jason Bateman
To.
Ricky Gervais
To make them laugh or. Or whatever, or just some put them.
Jason Bateman
On their back foot.
Ricky Gervais
But it was. I'd say it was 99 scripted. And what we found, and I've always found this, actually, but the behavior was.
Will Arnett
Was. Was improvised, though. Do you know what I mean?
Ricky Gervais
Well, sort of. You know, I. I did want to be an actor's medium. I remember saying to. Like, sometimes the. The DOP might go, oh, it'd be good if he came in and sit there. I go, no, no, I said, come in and sit where you would. And I said, we're film it. It's like wildlife. But, you know, we had to stage it a bit because there had to be, of course, because we didn't cheat. So, you know, some documentaries.
Jason Bateman
But you wanted cameras to react, right?
Ricky Gervais
Yeah. It's what? Well, it's one camera. So if someone went through a door, we wouldn't cut to a camera there waiting for them. We'd follow them through the door. So it was all possible. So we probably cheated less than real documentaries in a way, which was a bit of naivety, but I think it came across. But we had to find people who got it, just that they had to say these things. And I do remember that, you know, we were meticulous. No, do it like this.
Will Arnett
No.
Ricky Gervais
Cause it's got, you know, we saw the whole picture. So we would make them. There were sort of multiple takes for them to get it, you know, how we wanted it.
Jason Bateman
Did you find that the cast bought into it early on, or did it take some convincing? Cause they didn't have the reaction from the audience either, you know?
Ricky Gervais
No, no, I. I think. Well, it was finding them. It was the. Once we'd done this sort, because it's the first thing I did, and I sort of cast it with someone in my mind. Like I had these characters. Like, Gareth was based on a kid I went to school with, right, when I was like, 14, 15, and he was in the Territorial Army. And he spoke like that, right? And he. He said, this is a true quote of this guy. I won't say his name. He said, when you're captured by cannibals, right? And you're in the pot and they're cooking you. They show you pornographic pictures so you get an erection and there's more meat, right? And so. And once, right, I. I did this in some of my stand up, I. As a joke. I was talking to him once and I told him when we were a little bit older, I told him that. I said, if you get a crab drunk, it walks forwards. And he came back off holiday, right? He's been on holiday with his parents. And he said, you're talking shit, Gervais. I did it to a crab in my beer. And it just walked sideways still. Right, so this was the sort of. So Gareth was based on him and he was quite.
Jason Bateman
How did you find that incredible actor that could hit that tone without any winking at all? He was just. What was that?
Ricky Gervais
What made it even better was this guy was quite a sporty guy. He played cricket, football. He was big. And I was looking for this guy. I was looking for a guy who came in and talked about killing a man and all this. And then when Mackenzie Crook walks through and he's about seven stone and looks like a baby bird, it was even funnier because suddenly him talking about, I could kill a man. Yeah, if I was in the jungle. No, you couldn't. You definitely couldn't survive. You'd be eaten by a lizard. Immediately. There's surprises with. But we cast and cast and cast and I remember it was like, you know, 2000. And in England at that time, you either got these people who talk like that. It was like, you know, they were like that. They were sort of like, you know, this and that and. Or they wore bonnets and spoke like the Royal family. There was no one who acted in between. And comedy was sort of quite heightened. Everyone still talk funnily like that. And so you had to tone it down. And once we found the people that could do that, they could do anything. They could just do it. They could just act naturally and do.
Jason Bateman
Did you have success? I mean, I love the American Office as well, but as far as I'm concerned, can't touch what you guys did in England. Were you able to have at least the amount of success comedically, tone wise with the other international iterations of the show? Because you've done it 16 times. Did I read around the world?
Ricky Gervais
I think, yeah. Well, I usually. On all the others, you know, I okayed it. I'd see a rough thing. I'd see they'd cast a fat 50 year old as Bren. I thought, they're doing it right. And I often watch the first pie that some of. I haven't, I haven't seen a minute of them. I've seen clips, but, you know, and they have to make it. There are, there was funny one. There was a, there was a French one. And you know, when Tim puts Gareth's stapler in jelly.
Jason Bateman
Yeah.
Will Arnett
Yeah.
Ricky Gervais
They, in France, they put it in a big cheese. It's that easy. How do we translate? This would be like cheese.
Will Arnett
I thought you were gonna say they went on strike in the pilot and then they just came back. Episode four. Right.
Ricky Gervais
We're doing satire now.
Will Arnett
Hey, listen, man, we're having fun.
Jason Bateman
We'll be right back.
Sean
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Sean
And back to the show.
Jason Bateman
What a great success, though. That. That. I mean, I'm sure you felt like you were in such a. Such a vacuum there in England, and you're doing, what, only six episodes a year? And. But then it. Then it takes off.
Ricky Gervais
It's. Yeah, well, we got that. I was a big fan of Fawlty Towers. That was. That was the first time that I saw, like, this. This is my. This is so perfect. And they honed the script. You know, often British sitcoms were written by, you know, people banging out on a typewriter over the weekend, and they'd, you know, they do loads. And this was like, you know, 12 episodes. So perfectly, like, possibly the most perfect farce ever committed to TV. 40 towers. I thought that that's. That's what we do. We do it. We. This is boutique. This is.
Jason Bateman
But that was a sitcom, right? Shot proscenium style, right? Multiple cameras, audience, studio. Like, yeah, you. But you did the opposite of that in that it was single camera, very quiet. There was a lot of humor in the. In the. In the discomfort of silence and awkward beats.
Ricky Gervais
Well, I stole that from Spinal Tap. Anything you say that I invented, I'll tell you where I stole it.
Jason Bateman
Okay, well, we all do.
Ricky Gervais
All of us.
Will Arnett
Yeah, all of us.
Jason Bateman
Yeah.
Will Arnett
My God, we were inspired. Jason and I were inspired when we were just shooting Arrested Development in the first season, and we were.
Jason Bateman
We watched your show.
Will Arnett
Watch your show, and we were just. We were crazy about it. We were like, holy, look what these guys are doing. Like, we were blown away.
Ricky Gervais
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Jason Bateman
Truly, I give you all credit.
Ricky Gervais
I mean, because, as, you know, a huge fan of all of yours.
Jason Bateman
Well, then, like, I think we told the story last time you were on. Then it was like, we got word to us that you might be interested in actually coming over and doing an episode of our show. And Will, wasn't there, like, some sort of, like, ridiculous argument high up at the studio level with them, like, wondering, yeah, should we really buy him a first class ticket to come over? I think, like, the phrase was, he's not gonna put new people in the Tent, like it's not worth the plane ticket to bring him.
Ricky Gervais
Remember, like, they're right. They were right, wasn't there?
Jason Bateman
That, like, ridiculous.
Will Arnett
No, because Ricky. No, because he wanted like 12 kittens in his trailer. When Ricky made that point earlier, he was just reading off his own writer, you know.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah. Arrested Development, or Arrested, as Will calls it.
Will Arnett
Like, he always kept me.
Ricky Gervais
Did you just get. I think it was. I think you were voted for like five years. When it was, how long it was on, you were always voted best comedy of all time, weren't you?
Jason Bateman
The best unwatched show.
Will Arnett
Yeah, yeah.
Jason Bateman
Well, and then we got a little bit of awards attention and we got to stay on a little bit longer. And speaking of awards, we've got. We're going to ask you for some advice.
Will Arnett
Ricky. Ricky's going to be blown away by this. You ready?
Jason Bateman
We've got a nice, nice bit of love from your friend.
Ricky Gervais
No, I know you've been. You've nominated for a Golden Globe.
Jason Bateman
Yeah. So I think we're gonna get up there on stage, maybe present at a. At a minimum.
Ricky Gervais
I think you've got a great chance. I think you've got a great chance because this is really fun. You've got all the big guests. You're like, you're huge. It's friendly. You're. You're very. You're not Hollywood in that, but you're very. You're very Hollywood, the three of you. I mean, you're, you know, three people at the top of their game. I think you've got a very good chance.
Jason Bateman
I'm trying to. We don't. I just don't want our patter to, like. I hope they don't write us some weird pattern.
Ricky Gervais
Just say no whenever. Even when, even when Arrested Development wouldn't give me a first class ticket, I was still arrogant. And when I was handing out awards, I said, I'm not doing it with anyone. I'm not going out with someone I've never met doing a bit of shtick. I said, I want to come out as me and I'm just going to do the thing. And they let me do it.
Sean
And yeah, the best thing, like, it's too, is the default is just to just read the prompter, like without any bits.
Jason Bateman
Right?
Ricky Gervais
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I, I think I complained every time I got there. I said something like, I've come a long way for this and I didn't win. I was usually up for an award. I tell you what, I, you know, I've been nominated 25 Emmys and I've won two now. That is just taking the mickey in it. That is like, get him over here again. Get him over here again. Let him think he's gonna win again. Get him over. And at least I thought, oh, you're right. I used to hand out an award. At least I used to get up there somehow.
Jason Bateman
Your host. But your hosting of the Globes, what did you do five or six years was just priceless.
Sean
Ricky, do you, do you watch it at all anymore? The Globes?
Ricky Gervais
The Globe. I don't. I don't think I've ever watched an awards ceremony I wasn't at. Well, first, for a start, the Globes and the Oscars and all those in America. I'm in bed, right? Like they're 3:00am yeah.
Sean
Here.
Will Arnett
Right.
Ricky Gervais
So that's out of the question. I sometimes check out. I check out the monologue, if it's a comedian, you know, So I thought, I thought, yeah. Oh, yeah, whatever. But no, I don't, I, I mean, I don't know. It's changed. You can't take it seriously. You mustn't take those things seriously.
Will Arnett
No, you can't.
Ricky Gervais
You've got to treat them like a. A night out, meeting your friends or a job or, you know, it's like. It's an industry award.
Jason Bateman
I like meeting all those people, all those fancy folks.
Will Arnett
It's.
Jason Bateman
It's nice to see.
Ricky Gervais
The only reason it's on telly is because it's an industry award for really famous people. The teaching awards don't get televised, do they? They don't do it for science awards. Really important awards.
Jason Bateman
I love. They put a bunch of booze on the table, too. They try to get everybody hammered. So when they go up there, they do something interesting.
Ricky Gervais
Well, that's, that's, that's the great thing about the Golden Globes. That's the good and bad thing about the Golden Globes. The Golden Globes is better to be at, and the Emma's is probably better to host because at least they're all in their seats and they're listening. And you can do your. I've never hosted the Emmys because that is too much work and you have.
Jason Bateman
To rehearse, but there's no rehearsal hosting the Globes.
Ricky Gervais
I know. Rehearsal. No, I, I talk about this in my special. 30th of December.
Will Arnett
Yeah, I came in, I came inside. I. Rick, I saw you.
Ricky Gervais
Oh, you saw it just before. Yeah, I think I filmed it before.
Will Arnett
You filmed it? And I saw, I went. I saw Ricky at the Palladium in London. Chappie and I went over and watched.
Jason Bateman
It was great.
Will Arnett
It was brilliant, man. It was.
Ricky Gervais
Oh, thank you.
Will Arnett
It was brilliant. It was brilliant, brilliant. And yeah, you talk about it was fun and the, the audience was so psyched and you were really funny talking about, like hosting the Globes and what that was like.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah, I talked about some behind the scenes, just like, like what it was like for me and, and what happened. And there's a couple of really funny stories, but I can't, I can't tell you.
Will Arnett
Don't, don't know because I need to watch.
Jason Bateman
Was that. Was the, Was the show that Will went to. Is that the one that you filmed? How do you decide which one to film?
Ricky Gervais
It was this. It was the. It. What? It was the venue and maybe the week, but not the, not the night.
Will Arnett
Right.
Ricky Gervais
Because I, I did about. I did like, I think I did 14 shows and I taped two of them. I don't think.
Jason Bateman
How is that traditionally decided? Is it. Usually you want to film one of the later shows because you're still working on the material.
Ricky Gervais
You want it to be. You want it to be ready. You want it to be ready, and you want to be as soon as possible while it's still fresh and you're still sort of, you know, into it and, you know, loving it. So it was within the last sort of like five or six shows, actually. You want it to be a venue that you can do a night before, warm up in the same venue, and you want it to be as intimate as you can without it looking.
Sean
You have to wear the same outfit.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah, I was gonna say the same outfit. Well, that's fine. I do that anyway. I could do it tonight. I haven't. I haven't changed my hairstyle in 22 years, so it's not a problem.
Will Arnett
That.
Ricky Gervais
And you do. You do two just in case. And usually you sort of. You make sure you nail it on the first one and make sure you've got everything. And then the second one, you just have fun and in the cold light of day. The first one is always the best. Yeah, of course, because it's more self indulgent. The second one, you're going, I'm in a lovely time. They're laughing. I'm riffing, I'm riffing. Then you get into the studio and go, well, people at home aren't there, so they just want to hear what you had to say clearly. And it's always that first one that wins every time. But it. No, I even do Things on the night that I have number four little things I try out and. Cause you can always edit it out so, you know, I film too much and crunch it down. I probably do 70 minutes and it comes out at 65. Just so things didn't hit so much or, you know, or two jokes about the same thing. I let go that just sound. That sound too much or cruel or whatever, or something that wasn't ready. I'll go, I won't put that in. I'll work that up. That'll be in the next special. So.
Jason Bateman
And as far as your material goes, have you found that the sourcing of the ideas that you get has changed over the years? Is the ratio kind of stayed the same as far as like pulling from like family and friends, funny ideas and news ideas and.
Sean
Or it's still.
Ricky Gervais
It's still. It's still Hitler, aids.
Sean
In that order.
Ricky Gervais
Classics yourself.
Will Arnett
Yeah, classics.
Ricky Gervais
Evergreen. Evergreen.
Will Arnett
The stuff that got us here. You know what I mean?
Ricky Gervais
Yeah, yeah. You know. Well, also that translates as well. So if I. If I work up my show in England, I've done 50 shows in England and it's all about what was on telly last night or our prime minister or you have to go about universal subjects. And joking aside, my use of universal subjects are usually things like what it's like, you know, ego, bad days getting old or, you know, so I try to be more timeless than topical.
Jason Bateman
Right. So this one, this one called mortality is that the theme of the whole thing is sort of mortality is again.
Ricky Gervais
It'S a jump off, you know, it is about me getting old and grumpy and, you know, getting annoyed at stuff more and more. Again, it's quite classic. You know, everyone goes through the phases of their life.
Jason Bateman
Sure.
Ricky Gervais
You know, I think is about. It's not. It's not zeitgeisty, but it is clearly about now. But I hope it. I hope it lasts.
Will Arnett
But I will say, Ricky, that's one of the things again about sort of the Office and your standup, which is. And you just said. I was about to jump in and say that it's not zeitge. And that's what gives it. All those best comedies aren't because they do have that evergreen theme. They do. It is about these characters who are flawed. The relationships between people, certainly in the dynamics of the Office, between the different things. I mean, that is just as relevant today as it was 25 years ago.
Ricky Gervais
Well, I think so. I think if you go classic, sometimes I even go retro. Like this project. I'm working on now alicat. It's like 2D retro. I want it to be Hanna Barbera mixed with sort of 60s Disney. So if you look at it in 20 years, you don't go, oh, what were they thinking of then? It just looks classic. It's already sort of classic. It's already, it's already stood the test of time, the way it looks, you know, So I do, yeah, I am quite conscious of it sort of being universal and timeless and because you notice as well if you suddenly it's going well, but you, you get to Paris and you go, well, I can't do that bit. I can't do that bit. They won't know he is. I can't do it. It's really sort of demoralizing. So, you know, and they know, they.
Will Arnett
Surrendered, you know what I mean? So you don't need to tell, you.
Sean
Know what I mean?
Will Arnett
You don't need to do that joke. You don't have to, you don't have to remind them, you know.
Ricky Gervais
What, when did you, you, did you enter the war? Before or after? My dad volunteered in 19.
Will Arnett
Trying to think, boy, it's been funny. I, I did change my number, so I don't remember getting a thank you. So maybe that came, maybe that got. Wow.
Jason Bateman
Ricky, if with all of your, your, your, your influence, your access and, and, and, and credibility, capital, all that stuff, if you could, you could point all of that towards something that is not, not comedy, not stand up, not movies or television, stuff like that, like a documentary or something like that. What would the audience be surprised that you would. If you had to shine a light on something, would it be like animal rights? Like a documentary on animal rights?
Ricky Gervais
Well, that's the first one, I suppose. I think that.
Jason Bateman
And where'd that come from? Did you have the, did you have like a pets as a. When you were a little kid and.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah, yeah, it was, it was, it was always quite important. You know, pets were like, you know, member of the family, you know, growing up as sort of like a, just a working class family in England. It was all about the kids and pets. I remember when I was, I was about 15 and my brother, as you know, you know, 26, 27 at the time, he came over with a couple of his kids, right? And the kids came running into the house to my mum and they went, nanny, nanny, daddy just punched a man in the face and knocked him over in the park.
Jason Bateman
Right, right.
Ricky Gervais
And my mom was like horrified, right? And then Bob comes walking in and she went, they said, you Punched a man in the face. And Bob went, yeah, he kicked the dog. And my mom went, oh, fair enough. And that was it. And that was like. That was a life lesson. It's like some. Some things are all right. Sometimes violence is justified. It was always about, you know, I've always. I've always thought animals were unconditionally sort of perfect and beautiful and should be treated well. It's all about. It's about empathy, isn't it, really? And I know you guys are the same. I've never understood animal cruelty. And then the older you get, the more you find out, well, there's so much animal cruelty you didn't know was going on, and you're sort of like you're cashing in on it without knowing. And so that's why I became vegan as well, because the terrible cruelty in the sort of farm industry. And, you know, and I thought, oh, I can't. I can't really. I can't really be saving dogs and eating sheep. And so, yeah, you just, you know, if, if.
Jason Bateman
If you had to make a choice between bringing one person back to life, one. It could be any person, historical figure, family member, whatever it is, or give voice to one animal that is alive right now. Like, your pet could talk or you could bring back a person. What would you pick?
Ricky Gervais
That's really good. Well, it would be. Oh, my God. They're both pretty irresistible, aren't they? Yeah, it's too risky. And it. Bringing someone back, because you might bring back that. Oh, I'd love to.
Bradley Cooper
Yeah.
Ricky Gervais
You might bring back Einstein. And he keeps going. It's boring. Yeah, I know. E equals MC squared. I know. I've got it. I've got it.
Sean
Shut up, me.
Ricky Gervais
Why does that.
Jason Bateman
Yeah, now he's got to catch up.
Ricky Gervais
It's gotta be my cat talking, hasn't it? It's gotta be my cat.
Jason Bateman
You've just got the one pet. Yeah, one cat.
Ricky Gervais
What if my cat was really boring?
Will Arnett
Oh, God.
Jason Bateman
Or had an attitude? Yeah, it's a real pain.
Ricky Gervais
I know you're sleeping, but we can talk now.
Will Arnett
What if your cat just said, I've been. This whole time, I've been all over you because I'm a sadist. I just want you to fucking kick me.
Ricky Gervais
Oh, God.
Will Arnett
I just. That's what gets me off. I just wanna get. Get kicked. And you spend all this time telling people not to kick, and that's the only thing that gets me off, is getting kicked.
Ricky Gervais
Obviously, we're gonna cut this bit, right? We're definitely gonna Cut this bit.
Will Arnett
Keeping this bit leading with it.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah, that's the opener.
Jason Bateman
It's the only thing.
Ricky Gervais
I'm not gonna sleep now. I'm not gonna sleep now. What? Oh, God.
Jason Bateman
Right, so now you got a chatty cat.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah.
Jason Bateman
And, and, and. All right, I think that's a. That's a good decision. What's the cat's name?
Ricky Gervais
She's called Pickle.
Jason Bateman
Are you sure?
Ricky Gervais
Yeah, yeah. No, I've. I've had lots of cats. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jason Bateman
But so if you had to give voice to one, it's going to be Pickle.
Ricky Gervais
It's got to be Pickle because you're.
Sean
Lucky.
Ricky Gervais
Your current cat is your favorite and you just. You probably forget how much you love the other ones and you go, oh, my God. This is. You know. Yeah, you'd to. They become a member of the family.
Jason Bateman
You know, what's the life, Sean?
Will Arnett
Hang on one second. Sean. Sean, what's your. What's your dog's name?
Sean
Ricky.
Ricky Gervais
Excellent.
Sean
Look at that. Yeah.
Ricky Gervais
I've always known that my name should either be a child or a dog.
Sean
Dog.
Ricky Gervais
It's. It doesn't really suit for sure a man in his 60s, does it, Ricky?
Jason Bateman
Never Richard.
Sean
Ever when he's bad.
Ricky Gervais
No, it was Ricky. Ricky Dean Gervais. It was. Apparently it was a thing what shows lower class from a name most in America. And the top name to show you were from a lower class was Ricky.
Will Arnett
Really?
Sean
Oh, really?
Ricky Gervais
Yeah, apparently.
Sean
That's funny.
Will Arnett
Yeah.
Jason Bateman
Somebody is having a. Having a. Having a gag on you. They sent you. Sean.
Will Arnett
What do you think, Ricky, your dog would say if he could talk today?
Sean
How do I get out of here?
Jason Bateman
How about stop curling my hair?
Sean
Yeah, well, I crimp it. I just crimp it. I don't curl it.
Ricky Gervais
I crimp it.
Will Arnett
Ricky is such a big, beautiful dog.
Jason Bateman
And, Ricky, you're a beautiful guest.
Will Arnett
When's the special? When's the special? What's the date?
Jason Bateman
The special's out.
Ricky Gervais
It's out.
Will Arnett
It's out now. It's out now.
Ricky Gervais
It's already out the charts. It's already made number one. And fade out. This is absolutely pointless, this.
Will Arnett
Okay, you ready? I'm going to do this. So, Ricky, Ricky, your Special came out December 30th. It's already number one across the world.
Jason Bateman
I don't know how we booked you.
Will Arnett
What incredible success. And congrats on all the nominations. Yeah, let's do one.
Ricky Gervais
Just in case you say, say. Oh, Ricky, just after your special came out, you had your testicles removed. From cancer. Just in case, let's do every scenario.
Sean
Yeah, just like, write them down.
Ricky Gervais
I see. I'm all right with.
Sean
I'm.
Ricky Gervais
I'm all right with testicular cancer. Now, when you're about 50, that you, you. You forget about it. It's asshole. It goes, don't worry about your testicles, mate, but we've got to check your ass now I'm out of the woods. My testicles are safe. They're absolutely safe. Well, there's a fear of them getting trodden on these days.
Jason Bateman
Safely tucked in your socks.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah.
Jason Bateman
We love you and thank you and please say hello next time you're out here.
Ricky Gervais
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, I did last time.
Jason Bateman
Oh, I wasn't there. Where was I?
Ricky Gervais
Oh, you weren't.
Will Arnett
This.
Ricky Gervais
No. When was that? That was the last time I played the bowl. When we all came to Ted's house.
Will Arnett
Yeah. Yeah.
Ricky Gervais
Two years ago.
Will Arnett
It was a while ago. Yeah, a while ago.
Ricky Gervais
I will. I'll say. You were in England recently, weren't you? You didn't say hi.
Jason Bateman
I'm not. It's. It's.
Ricky Gervais
You're.
Jason Bateman
It's Will that has the sleepovers at your house, not me.
Will Arnett
Wow.
Jason Bateman
I need friends. I don't have any friends. I got these two. Help me out.
Ricky Gervais
I know you're all busy. You're all too busy. We're all too busy. I'm too old. I'm too old and grumpy and antisocial, and you're too busy. That's.
Jason Bateman
We'd be perfect. I'm just like a cat. I don't talk. I'm sitting.
Will Arnett
You know what, Jason? You know what it's called? It's called making an effort. You make an effort. I go there and I make an effort. I reach out to Ricky and I say, what are you doing? He says, I'm busy. I'm gonna come see your show. It's called making an effort. Okay, Ricky, thank you so much.
Jason Bateman
Teach me, Willie. Teach me.
Will Arnett
All right.
Jason Bateman
All right. Have a great rest of the day.
Will Arnett
Bye bye.
Ricky Gervais
Thank you. That was absolutely a pleasure for me. I hope it was a pleasure for you and I understand I'm the first. First. Second guest.
Jason Bateman
The first.
Will Arnett
You are the first guest.
Ricky Gervais
First guest. To do. To.
Jason Bateman
To do first repeat. The first.
Will Arnett
First repeat.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah. That's the word I was looking for. I'm getting tired.
Jason Bateman
The money's the same, though, so don't look for an increase in your check.
Will Arnett
I wait, is it. It's yes after half past nine, isn't it?
Ricky Gervais
It's yeah, no, sorry.
Will Arnett
Half past six.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah, half past six.
Ad Voice 3
That's.
Ricky Gervais
I've only got two hours before I think about bedtime.
Jason Bateman
Dinner time. Say hi to Jane at the dinner table for us, please.
Ricky Gervais
I'm going up there to eat now.
Will Arnett
Now.
Ricky Gervais
Thank you.
Will Arnett
Yeah, love to Jane. Great to see you guys.
Jason Bateman
Thanks, Ricky. Bye, buddy. Bye. The great. Our first returns. Our first return. And that's. That's the bar. That's the bar, yeah, right there. You don't get to come back unless you're Ricky Gervais. Good. You know.
Sean
You know, I don't remember him going into so much detail about the Office. It's really cool to hear that. And I know, you know, like, because you don't want.
Jason Bateman
You guys saw that. I, I seriously, I was on the plane a couple weeks ago. I hadn't seen it since we watched it. Willie.
Will Arnett
It's. It's been, it's been a minute. But you know what? In that time, I will say. I will say. And really, you know, and I know Ricky was part of it and, and credit to Greg Daniels and my sh. And all those brilliant people that we love over the Office and all the performers, the American Office. Very funny. And I, I ended up watching the bulk of it during COVID because I missed. So there were gaps in it and fucking hell. I mean, first of all, Steve Carell was, you know, because Ricky cast such a huge shadow, right? What he did on.
Jason Bateman
I remember thinking, like, who is this guy Steve Carell thinking that he can do what Ricky Gervaisa. And he made it his own.
Will Arnett
He just did it different. He made it his own and he drilled it and, oh, so good. And it's tough.
Jason Bateman
Those are big shoes to fill. Everybody's characters were so specific and everyone in the American office came, made it their own, kicked the door down, and I think inarguably became a bigger success than the British one. One.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Will Arnett
I think. Who knows?
Sean
But like you said, it's so hard to write a part and a tone and a voice of a character and then have an actor match that. Like, what are the odds of that?
Will Arnett
Yeah, yeah. I loved. Yeah. I also love Martin Freeman. I'm such a fan of Martin Freeman's and he was so good and, And I love that show that he did. The responder respond. I think I mentioned it before. It's a BBC show set in Liverpool. He plays a cop. That came out two years ago. He's unbelievable.
Jason Bateman
Well, you just fire up Britbox and. And you just start knocking down shows kind of yeah, No, I know.
Will Arnett
Are you doing a plug for the. For the Brit box? I mean, I'll do it.
Jason Bateman
Do I have Brit box?
Will Arnett
No, you have. You are.
Ricky Gervais
Yeah.
Jason Bateman
Do I just. I just. I guess it's a certain channel. I gotta find it.
Will Arnett
It's a fun callback. That's a fun callback. To Do I have to be. You know.
Jason Bateman
Sean, do you have one yet?
Sean
Well, I was thinking of. To be. To be.
Ricky Gervais
To buy.
Jason Bateman
No. No. It's too much of a reach.
Sean
Okay. What about sort of. Well, their shows are so. Their shows are so. Those are shows. You know, all those shows.
Will Arnett
Like, this is gonna be so good.
Sean
And they're so rare that they're really hard to come by.
Will Arnett
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Episode: “Ricky Gervais”
Hosts: Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, Will Arnett
Guest: Ricky Gervais (w/ a drop-in by Bradley Cooper)
Release Date: January 5, 2026
This episode of SmartLess features the triumphant return of comedy legend Ricky Gervais. With characteristic wit, humility, and a sense of mischief, Ricky joins Jason, Sean, and Will for a wide-ranging, spirited, and self-deprecating conversation. Special surprise drop-in: Bradley Cooper, who helps kick off the episode with laughs and a discussion about British pastries, plastic surgery rumors, and friendship.
The discussion covers Ricky’s evolving career, comedic philosophy, views on cancel culture and offense, the art of sitcom creation, his love for animals, family roots, the making of The Office, and his latest ventures.
[02:00–07:30] The 'SmartLess' Chaos, Bradley Cooper Dropping In
[07:30–11:00] Friendship & Comic Heritage
[12:52–14:30] Lockdown, Origins & Affable Tone
[14:30–19:41] Ricky's Comedic Evolution and Touring Life
[22:10–23:53] Canadian Roots, Family Dynamics, and Comic Honesty
[26:14–31:45] On Offense, Progress, and Navigating Taboo
[31:45–35:15] Swagger vs Vulnerability Onstage & Onscreen
[35:17–39:19] Extras, Celebrity Cameos & Animated Felines
[40:19–46:13] Deep Dive into the Making of the UK Classic
[48:41–50:59] Sitcom Heritage & The Classic Touch
[51:41–54:50] Golden Globes Advice, Award Show Satire
[55:40–58:01] Stand-Up Filming & Timeless Themes
[58:03–60:21] Timelessness, Mortality, and Comedy That Travels
[61:16–65:12] Animal Rights, Veganism, and Impossible Choices
[65:29–68:59] Nicknames and Making Time for Friends
This episode is true to the SmartLess brand: breezy, irreverent, unguarded, and deeply funny. Ricky Gervais is in top form—sharp, vulnerable, honest, and generous with insights on comedy, career, and life. The hosts’ affection and admiration for him are palpable, and Ricky's wit and humility shine through. The conversation is packed with hard-earned wisdom about why honesty matters, what truly makes people laugh, and how great comedy lasts by being universal and rooted in genuine experience.
For anyone who wants an unfiltered look at the mind of one of comedy’s most influential modern voices, and a lot of laughs—this is essential listening.