Office star Ricky Gervais mocks
his Little Britain comedy rivals in his new series of
Extras. He has a swipe at Matt Lucas and David Walliam's
style of humour in the opening episode, featuring the
actor Orlando Bloom. Gervais's character, Andy Millman,
sells a sitcom to the BBC but producers force him to
drop the script's social observation in favour of catchphrases
repeated over and over again. A studio audience wearing
T-shirts with the slogans 'I'm a lady' and Catherine
Tate's 'Bovvered?' laugh uproariously Gervais said he
wanted to have a dig at shows that relied on catchphrases.
"People think it's maybe a shortcut - it's chasing
ratings, trying to look for a hook," he said. "It's
not what we do but we're not angry with people that
do use catchphrases." And he has also hinted that
he may have to move to Hollywoood to fulfill his acting
ambitions because British drama is so bad.
I've never met Mr Gervais and of course
he is entitled to his views. I will say that just as
he is "not angry with people that do use catchphrases",
I have no problem with actors who appear to be 'one
trick ponies'; espcially when, as in this case, it happens
to be an extremely good trick (and a very funny one
too). It's been mostly a pleasure to see the character
of David Brent time and time again in The Office, Extras,
The Eleven O'Clock Show, Politics and Animals.
For more "hilarious" catch
phrases repeated endlessly buy The Catherine Tate Show
Scripts Book now from; click below for details. Oooooooooh,
get me.
