When Kate Winslett faked a blow job in a phone sex sketch for Ricky Gervais in Extras, you just had to say, give the lady a prize. More surprising though was the praise heaped on Gervais, "an extraordinary comic talent", when winning the Best Sitcom award at the Rose d'Or festival in Switzerland a month back. Have things got this bad?
Extras was workerlike and relied on those high school prankster skits we all remember and cringe at but to say this is an extraordinary talent is to raise an important question? Which one?
Is this the best we can do? How far can the mainstream sink? Why? Can no-one do subversion anymore?
In an era of unprecedented creativity…. Gervais's press reminds me of that other average English comic Eddie Izard. Skilled self-marketers what they do is just not that funny but each has self-awareness in sufficient quantities not to over-expose themselves, lest the gossamer snaps. Gervais ascent to podcasts is part of the strategy of seeking the break point.
The best that can be said for Gervais is he knows how to use the new media environment to boost the popularity of his programmes and his income. Gervais piloted podcast comedies for Guardian Unlimited and helped that left of centre UK daily get a strong toehold in the future media scene.
Now he's dragged his podcast act to the UK Daily Mirror. The Mirror claims it is creating a fun, informative and interactive website. When big corporations talk about "fun" it augers ill for viewers.
Nevertheless we see the media industries reformulating. The Mirror is working with boreme, an archive of viral emails, as well as Audible and it's good to see upstarts rubbing shoulders with the big corps, something that should have happened a decade ago.
