Jill Furmanovsky
Ricky Gervais
The Master Of Cringeworthy Comedy By Jim AllenActor, writer and director turns public humiliation into hilarious comedy
In the 1980s, when Ricky Gervais was the singer for failed synth-pop duo Seona Dancing, no one could have guessed he'd go on to become one of England's brightest comic lights. Starting in 2001, Gervais and his partner-in-crime Stephen Merchant revolutionized the world of sitcoms, making mundane office politics and mortifyingly awkward social situations into cringingly hilarious comedy on The Office, whose success eventually inspired a popular U.S. version of the show. A few years later, Gervais turned his unique style of self-deprecating humor (the writer/director/actor always plays the most embarrassing character in his shows) towards the movie business for the possibly even more awkward and hilarious series Extras. Subsequently, Gervais moved on from TV, becoming a standup comedy star, directing and starring in films such as The Invention of Lying, and even establishing a wildly successful podcast, The Ricky Gervais Show, co-starring Merchant and producer Karl Pilkington, whose endearing cluelessness in the face of the host's often savage barbs made him an internet cult celebrity.
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