Definitely his weakest special - it's bookended by stuff that tries a little hard to be outrageous (it's not that it's taboo by itself; it's that it's a bit lazy taboo content), but there's a chunk in the middle that delivered a few laughs for me.
The funny stuff is let down by the fake laughing he does (he's always done it, but he might've done it more here). Then there's the "they're not gonna keep that in the special" line, which was funny maybe once, but he says it like four or five times without building on it. And some of the more innocent subjects are so tired and worn out in standup comedy I was shocked he resorted to them without putting a spin or some sort of subversive element to them (complaining about naked men being over-confident in change rooms? Really?)
I'll sit in the middle. I can see people hating this and certain people loving it. Can't deny there were some parts that were funny for me, and I think Gervais still knows how to deliver a joke for sure- when he's not doing that stupid fake laugh at least. But it's more the actual jokes themselves that are pretty so-so, and it's overall disappointing by Gervais's standards.
The funny stuff is let down by the fake laughing he does (he's always done it, but he might've done it more here). Then there's the "they're not gonna keep that in the special" line, which was funny maybe once, but he says it like four or five times without building on it. And some of the more innocent subjects are so tired and worn out in standup comedy I was shocked he resorted to them without putting a spin or some sort of subversive element to them (complaining about naked men being over-confident in change rooms? Really?)
I'll sit in the middle. I can see people hating this and certain people loving it. Can't deny there were some parts that were funny for me, and I think Gervais still knows how to deliver a joke for sure- when he's not doing that stupid fake laugh at least. But it's more the actual jokes themselves that are pretty so-so, and it's overall disappointing by Gervais's standards.