Ricky Gervais: Out of England—The Stand-Up Special

Ricky Gervais came to stand-up comedy largely after his television success with The Office, in which he turned a queerly egotistical, socially inept hedgehog into a uniquely profound comic character. Therefore, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the best moments of his Out of England HBO special, one of a handful of American performances he gave in 2007, tread the same “awkward comedy” waters: Gervais’ irritation at being labeled a “chubby funster” by the tabloids, a childhood friend’s compulsion to tell humiliating stories about himself and so on. The rest of the routine is filled with naughty jokes and scatology gags that are pretty standard issue, although positively inspired compared to the Dane Cook crowd. Of course, so is actual poop.