Ricky Gervais’ New Netflix Special ‘Armageddon’ Tries So Hard to Be Edgy and Offensive — but It’s Just a Total Bore
variety.comWilliam Earl administrator One of The Onion’s classic headlines reads: “Marilyn Manson Now Going Door-To-Door Trying To Shock People.” The satirical article, published in 2001, was a devastating blow to a musician whose career consisted of dressing like a lunatic and screaming profane lyrics.
Once you shine a light on it, the shtick becomes embarrassing quickly. That headline came to mind when reading a tweet Ricky Gervais posted in the days before the release of his new Netflix special, “Armageddon“: “In this show, I talk about sex, death, pedophilia, race, religion, disability, free speech, global warming, the holocaust and Elton John.
If you don’t approve of jokes about any of these things, then please don’t watch. You won’t enjoy it and you’ll get upset.” Hoping to stir up online discourse and make his “woke” enemies — real or imagined — tremble in their boots, “Armageddon,” which dropped on Christmas Day, starts with Gervais loosely riffing on how he can’t be stopped.
People get mad at his jokes? Tough shit — he had the #1 comedy special on Netflix last year. It’s the latest example of a comedian with an enormous platform saying whatever he wants while complaining about how he can’t say anything anymore.
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