The Dean

I have a theory.......... television exposure and success dilutes your humour, talent, sharpness, etc.

If it pleases the court, m'Lud, may I present Exhibit A: Alexei Sayle. I saw him at a live comedy jobby in London circa 1979 - he was so funny, people were in uncontrollable fits and convulsions of laughter (his monologue where Thatcher was a swear word was one of the funniest things I've ever seen). Later he got a TV series and became a watered down self-parody - tragic.

Exhibit B, m'Lud, is Harry Hill who was a brilliant and unique stand-up until he got a slot on radio, then TV, and now does "You've Been Framed" or something equally crass and unfunny. He can now safely be ignored.

And now we have Gervais - his stand-up routine (all self-written) was superb, but that was a long time ago now. True, The Office was original and funny (but went downhill after the first two series) - now he is everywhere and has lost whatever it was that made him so funny. His "cutting" comments as a presenter of an awards evening are not what he was always known to be brilliant at - and they're not even funny any more.

All very sad.

Miss Anne Thrope

The Office was funny, Extras even better, the stand-up routines were superb and all were inventive and original in my view.

The radio podcasts and strange animated TV shows with Karl Pilkington and Stephen Merchant were execrable. I did believe they were some kind of meta-test of Gervais' diehard fans: "will you really laugh at any old shit just because I'm telling you it's funny?" Having to listen to forced hysterical laughter and declarations every 5 minutes or so that a fairly anodyne comment by Pilkington was "the stupidest thing I ever heard" is my idea of torture.

But the rest of Gervais' output recently does tend to reinforce the jumped the shark view. Smug rather than challenging is the word that comes to mind. Again it's a little difficult to unpick because he has created this character that he chooses to inhabit (like Stephen Colbert but nowhere near as brilliantly resolved) so perhaps it's this alter ego that is the insufferable twat. Anyway, even the yanks appear to have rumbled him:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1207098.html

The clip probably won't play in the ME (certainly not in Dubai) without going through a proxy. In common with most SNL output, it's not actually worth the effort of trying to view it - the article makes the point better.

I agree that inhabiting the TV celebrity world may well dull your edge and Gervais seems to have lapsed easily and comfortably into that requisite mode of nauseating mutual back-slapping (snarky remarks at the Golden Globes notwithstanding). Again though, is that his character? Does it matter? Pity, he was funny once though...

BettyArnold

I watch The Office and get the impression that playing the mega prat David Brent, wasnt much of a stretch for Mr Gervais.

I do get, that being funny is one thing but having to do so on demand is quite another.

Not funny this time around.