Ricky Gervais: Out of England

USA TodayRobert Bianco

Ricky Gervais may be the funniest storyteller we have.

Entertainment WeeklyAubry D'Arminio

The Office's Gervais is half as good a stand-up as he is an actor, yet he's still one naturally funny bloke.

TV GuideMatt Roush

The Extras Emmy champ riffs with mischievous charm on topics from diseases to Nazis. His style is so nonthreatening, especially as he giggles while reading from a memorably explicit safe-sex leaflet, that it's hard to take true offense.

Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron

The Moffitt-Lee production, taped in New York, offers additional proof that Gervais is that rare British talent able to charm audiences consistently on either side of the pond.

The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley

Shocking audiences is the easiest way to get a laugh, which is why so many stand-up comedians these days rely on X-rated material, ethnic slurs and spews of profanity. What’s remarkable about Mr. Gervais is that he can do all that, and less.

Los Angeles TimesRobert Lloyd

Because we know that he knows that we know that he's manipulating the ironies, Gervais "as himself" can for the most part get away with the sort of comments that reliably brought his alter egos great grief.

Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert

The jokes are fair to middling, to be honest, and they don't feel particularly fresh, especially toward the end of the performance....But his delivery is irresistible nonetheless, as he rambles on like a fool, filling in the gaps with self-incriminatory hemming and hawing, reveling in all the attention.

New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley

It's 75 minutes of standup comedy that will melt any remaining asbestos in your insulation. Some of it also very funny, though it's blue enough that when he does a clean routine about Humpty Dumpty, you feel like you should rewind just to make sure you didn't miss some X-rated punchline.

TimeJames Poniewozik

I hadn't really thought of Gervais as a stand-up comedian. After watching it, I still don't. Which is not to say that the special is not entertaining; it's uneven but sometimes gaspingly funny.

Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan

Though enjoyable moments were scattered throughout, aside from the priceless routine I mentioned at the start of this review, they were just moments.

Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray

Gervais may just be one of the funniest men alive, but once you hear his ruminations on AIDS and monkeys, sex and public toilets, cows and stairs and a variety of other subjects that all seem to come back to penises, you'll have far more fun with "Filth," if only in imagining Whitehouse in the audience, furiously scribbling notes for the letters she'd soon be writing to the proper authorities.

Washington PostTom Shales

Although the hour has its highlights, there is a great reliance on toity topics (he even confesses that a final story is "toilet-related") and, like virtually every modern comedian except Seinfeld, a wretched excess of potty mouthiness.

Wall Street JournalDorothy Rabinowitz

Mr. Gervais's new comedy special has nothing whatever to recommend it--other, perhaps, than the skin-crawling curiosity it raises.