Even the irreverent Ricky Gervais sometimes wonders about the limits of his jokes. This was the case in an episode of season 3 of his series After Life, available on Netflix.
Known for his trashy jokes and his well-felt punchlines, Ricky Gervais never hesitates to push the cursor of humor far enough, as evidenced by his series The Office or his presentations of several Golden Globes, before the American ceremony took place. out of breath.
Since 2019, the British comedian has found a new playground on Netflix: the series After Life, which he created, wrote and directed. Ricky Gervais plays Tony, a journalist in mourning after the death of his wife, who thinks that life is no longer worth living. As he contemplates suicide, he chooses instead to make the world around him pay for his companion’s death.
Ricky Gervais is true to himself in this role and has a blast tickling those around him, telling them their four truths. But the man recovers little by little thanks to his relatives and new acquaintances who take him in spite of everything in sympathy and do everything to help him overcome this mourning.
With the arrival of the third and final season on the platform, one of his playing partners, Tony Way, who plays Lenny the local newspaper photographer, revealed that one of the jokes of these new episodes was questioned by Ricky Gervais: “That’s the first time I’ve heard Ricky say that out loud!”, he told Digital Spy.
What joke sparked this reaction from the British comedian? In episode 3 of season 3, Tony (Ricky Gervais) is annoyed by a father who makes too much noise with his baby in a café. To make him understand that his behavior exasperates him, Tony will then insult him and imitate him by playing and talking with Lenny as if he were an infant whom he was tickling. And he even goes so far as to blow on her belly.
Screenshot / Netflix
When Ricky Gervais shot the scene, the comedian wondered if he was going too far in the joke, as Tony Way explains:“In the middle of a take, I had my sweater up and he was blowing on my stomach like I was a toddler, and his head popped out and he said, ‘Did I go too far? Is is that correct?’.”
To which Tony Way replied: “I think that’s good, we should keep doing it and see what happens. You can always cut the footage if it doesn’t work!”
In the end, the joke went very well and Tony Way found the scene brilliant, which remained well in the final cut: “Yeah, that scene was amazing. I think it was written pretty early on. The belly gasp not so much at first, but it’s definitely an irritant to Ricky, people making too much noise, because I think he’s talked about it a lot before. This scene got weirder and weirder but we rehearsed it a lot and he ended up doing this! It’s awesome.”