His name is Ricky Gervais. He likes a crisp IPA, a ripe international spy thriller, and he also happens to care deeply about humanity. Welcome to another wild & crazy episode of SmartLess.This episode was originally released on 12/7/2020. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of SmartLess ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.
Chapter 1: What is the concept of the SmartLess podcast?
Hey there, Will Arnett here from SmartList. It's the podcast where Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and I interview somebody. Two of us don't know who that person is because one of us has brought on a surprise guest. That's the whole conceit. I wish I could describe it better, but I'm not that smart. So it's SmartList, and it's starting now. You never did a guest spot over on the Mork & Mindy, huh?
No, but I would have.
What was your best guest spot when you were a kid? Knight Rider. Yeah, of course. Knight Rider just made my year. I was 15, and so I couldn't drive yet. So this was an opportunity not only to guest on the best show in the world, but also drive a Trans Am. owned by the Hoff, and see how they do all the tricks over there.
They had a little guy sitting behind the seat that was looking through this mesh sort of headpiece in the seat. Sure. I loved all the movie magic.
I was going to say, you would have made a good...
computer if they already had you would have been a good I would have cast you as a computer I'd still cast you as a computer wait because because I know that about you it was on the other day not your episode but Knight Rider and Scotty and I turned it on and they did this like super fancy interior shot of the car And I'm telling you right now, it was disgusting in there.
It was like there was, like, dust and, like, wrappers all around it and, like, all the scratches on it. Like, it was not pristine at all.
Wow. The on-set dresser was not great on the show.
Look at this. 35 years later, you're taking shots at, you know, Transpo and picture cars. Great. Great. We'll have the local on your ass by Monday. Hey, guys, I'm so glad that we're here today because we have a guest on our show, and we say this a lot, you know, deserves no introduction, but this is just another example of that.
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Chapter 2: Who is Ricky Gervais and why is he significant?
Yeah. So I keep my low status in two ways. One, I invite them behind the curtain. I say, what, you think it's plain sailing, do you, being rich? Well, look what happened to me when I met so-and-so, or first time I took a private jet, they thought I was the cook. So I do all that, right? And the other way I do it is I talk about things where I'm worse off than them.
I talk about being fat and old and in pain and going bald and... Do you know what I mean? Being hated by the press.
I don't know what you mean. I don't know what you mean. But let me... Do you think... I mean, Ricky, you started as a... You were doing stand-up before, right? You'd been doing stand-up off and on, yeah, for years.
No, I started before The Office, but I only started in about 1999, I'd say, was my first try. Okay.
And then you started doing that in 99. Then The Office hits. And then over the last 10 years or 15 years, as you've grown and done more and more stand-up, you kind of, you build that currency, right, with your audience. Like, that's the thing. You build the momentum of that sort of relationship that you have.
Yeah, I have to go out there and I want to be the one that says the wrong thing. Whatever the current regime is, I have to say the wrong thing. I have to go against the grain, which is why it was hard for the last sort of few years. You know, I didn't realize half the people would agree with those things on face value. So irony was put in danger recently.
I remember going to that small little theater. You were working stuff out. I remember like a couple of years ago, I came up there. Yeah. And you were working out jokes in the audience. And I remember you, first of all, the relationship was they knew you. They came because they were huge fans. You had a limited number of seats. It was basically free. But you were working stuff out.
And the relationship was, hey, I'm trying stuff. And some stuff was, you know, over the line for them or whatever. But you were figuring everything.
out well that's the thing you know um you do have to find the funny but you have to go for it and you have to be able to play and that's the problem again with today as well because i've done shows that i'm trying stuff out and it's been reviewed and i'm gonna go well that's mad You can't do that. You can't do someone who's just started a painting going, it's rubbish. I haven't done it yet.
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Chapter 5: What are some memorable interactions with celebrities?
It might be one of the best programs ever. Me too. It's amazing. Another one as well. There's only one thing that might even be better than that, and that's The Bureau. Have you seen it, Le Bureau? Of course. It's incredible. It's incredible.
There's a great Belgian show as well called The Break. Have you seen it about this?
Amazing. Have you seen, oh, The Twelve, another Belgian thing, The Twelfth. The Twelfth.
Oh, my God. Wait, have you guys seen Quincy?
Yeah, and what about Chicago Fire, guys?
These guys... Jason spends all his time trying to figure out how IPA is made, so he doesn't have time to watch.
Well, that's... So, okay, to quickly answer, I get up, I have a coffee, breakfast, we go for a long walk, which is habit now. We get that where we used to do that when we were allowed to go out one hour in lockdown. With dogs, cats?
I know you have pickle. You don't walk a cat, you stupid ass.
Well, our cat died at the beginning of lockdown. We just got a new one.
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