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One of you British types explain the hate for Ricky Gervais, and please go into detail and give me some examples. I see this come up once in a while but I think it's an exposure thing, since everything of his Canadaside seems pretty hilarious to me.
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I don't know much about it, but I think Nate's right, he just has a very polarising style.
There is also the (dumb) idea that he 'sold out'; At the time of
The Office he was hailed as something of an unseen genius, his original style a quirk of the British character. By the time
Extras rolled around, he'd attracted something of a following overseas, and was able to punch well above his weight in terms of the showbiz types he could rope into his projects. Once you start hanging around with those sorts of people, of course, fame tends to rub off on you, and soon 'our' talented little man was just another American hotshot.
Someone once said that an American wants you to be successful in case you take them with you, while a Brit doesn't want you to be successful in case you leave them behind.
There's
also the (equally dumb) idea that he claims to hate showbiz and celebrity culture (hence why he only takes rubbish parts in overblown Hollywood movies), but gets all chummy with the big stars nonetheless. He sometimes claims to be silently mocking them, but if that's true, it makes him a dishonest dick. If he's lying, it makes him a lying dishonest dick.
I don't subscribe to any of these theories, as indeed I don't care enough about Gervais or his career enough for it to concern me. I did like
Extras and
Flanimals, but that's about it.
Oh, and he's also quite a smarmy, blasé character if you've ever seen him on talk shows.