-Welcome back. We're here with Ricky Gervais.
I feel bad. I didn't ask after your health.
Have you managed to make it through these last two years
without falling ill?
-Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, well --
I wouldn't say I'm healthy, but I haven't caught COVID.
I mean, I'm 20 pounds overweight.
I'm 60. I'm losing my hair. I'm fat. I've got a bunion.
I've got bad knees. I've got a bad back.
Back goes every now and again. I'm a -- I'm a slob.
I -- It's because I eat and drink too much.
I'm drunk now. Because I'm in England.
And I don't mean because of the time zone.
I mean it's compulsory.
If you're in England, you've got to be drunk.
It's one of the rules, right?
So -- But, yeah, I haven't caught COVID, no.
Maybe I have. I always wake up sort of sweaty
and anxious and feeling [bleep],
so I might have COVID.
I don't know. But -- [ Laughs ] I wouldn't know.
I wouldn't --
In fact, all the way through the first year,
every time I woke up, I thought I had COVID.
But then I'd wake up, if I've got a sore throat,
I'd go, "Jane, it's cancer."
And she goes, "No, it's not. Go to the doctor."
And I'd go, "Don't say that." So I google it.
And then the first five, they go, "Oh, it's nothing."
And then I google too much,
and it goes -- this one's rare and it's terminal.
And I go, "I've got that one."
But apart from that, I'm -- Yeah, I'm well.
-Yeah, good.
-I'm in really good shape. Mentally.
-Do you think maybe all the sort of awards behind you
created, like, a natural immunity to it?
-Maybe.
It plays havoc with the Wi-Fi.
Yeah, I'm in Meryl Streep's house.
Um, yeah.
I didn't place them there. They're there all the time.
This is in my study. It's not like I put them out.
I'm on set when I put out all --
"Jane, get all the awards, put them all behind me!"
-While we're talking about awards, you sort of --
the Hollywood Foreign Press.
The Golden Globes happened a couple of weeks ago
just online. It was a Twitter feed.
This is how far the Golden Globes have fallen.
I hosted it once. You hosted it five times, very famously.
I think you are the person most associated with that.
Are you surprised at where this has sort of led?
-Basically you're blaming me.
You're trying to blame me, aren't you?
-I only did it once, and you did it, like, five times.
-"I did it once. And it was fine. It kept going.
He did it five times. It's done."
Well, I wouldn't watch it anyway.
The only time I've ever watched an awards show, I'm at.
I'm either winning or losing an award or presenting it.
I loved it, though. I thought it was great.
I did it five times over ten years.
And it's funny because the first time I did it,
I could feel particularly the sort of Hollywood press, right?
They were going, "Who is this? Who this is fat annoying Brit?"
How dare he -- How dare he make fun
of the most important people in the world," right?
Over ten years, I kept going. I kept doing the same thing.
But the world changed.
And by the last one, the public were going,
"Yeah, give it to 'em. We're sick of celebrities.
We hate them.
We're tired of being lectured, telling us to recycle
when they're going on a private jet."
So I think ordinary people were suddenly just --
They sort of turned a little bit.
They didn't -- They were sick of being told
what to do by rich people.
So I think I hit a lucky streak on the last one.
But it was fun. It was just fun.
It's not what I do, but it was fun.
-You do -- You have started doing stand-up again.
You have a new special coming out on Netflix.
Was this a hour, or however long it is,
that you'd been working on before the pandemic?
-Yeah, I did --
I did lots of gigs and then just --
It just stopped in sort of like --
February. Was it 2020?
And, yeah, I had, like, over half still to go.
And it was amazing.
Because people kept their tickets for like two years.
Which -- And then I managed to finish it
between sort of June and Christmas.
And it was amazing.
Because the atmosphere was electric.
I was so happy to be back to normal.
I really am appreciating my audience
more now than I ever did.
I really -- It really hit me.
Almost on an emotional level.
Because you think, you know,
that they're paying hard-earned cash and
they've got to find a babysitter and a parking space.
And I better have something to say.
But I really, really love it.
I can't wait to start again. And I've recorded the special.
But now Netflix got to translate it into 160 languages.
I didn't know there were 160 languages,
but apparently there are, and that will be out in spring.
But I'll be on a new one. I can't wait to get back.
I think it's my favorite thing I do now, stand-up.
-Do you worry about that lead time after you record a special
and before it comes out that any of the jokes will age?
-Yeah. Lots of things, I think, you know --
Luckily, my set list is like, you know, AIDS, famine, Hitler.
And they're evergreen.
[ Laughter ]
They -- [ Laughs ] They age really well.
-So, like, the worst thing that would happen to you
right now would be, like, new Hitler news.
-[ Laughs ] Yeah! Exactly. Yeah.
[ Laughter ]
-If anything happened where people are like,
"Oh, I'm going to reconsider Hitler."
-Yeah, exactly, yeah.
Find out something. "Oh, no. That ruins everything."
I do think that, though. I do think that.
Like --
If Boris Johnson's not around.
I do one joke about Boris Johnson,
and if he's not around, I go, "Oh, no, that ruins that joke."
-I can't thank you enough for being here, Ricky.
I really do hope next time you're in New York City with us.
Ricky Gervais. All three seasons of "After Life"
are currently streaming on Netflix.