Ricky Gervais does it again.

rickenvox said:
Well some actors might view the receiving of awards as meaningless in the first place and an opportunity while they have the world’s ear to say something about important issues of the time.

I personally rank political acceptance speeches slightly above long thank you speeches to everyone including the grip, oh and god. Why don’t we have dairy farmer and plumber awards ceremonies?
Click to expand...
I think we should. Proud winner of the Butt Crack award, 3 years running!
 
shoeless said:
I can't take awards shows...for a lot of reasons, but at the top of the list is the political rants from award winners. Kudos to Ricky for calling them out on that and their self-importance in general. They're just actors/actresses after all, why would anyone take their advice on anything other than acting? :shrug:

Plenty of shots of Tom Hanks during that monologue. I couldn't tell if he was laughing or offended.
Click to expand...

Yes. We should leave politics to the experts. But not the pointy-headed ivory tower experts. Those eggheads don’t know what it’s like in the real world. We should find the real political experts to do our politics—but not lifetime politicians, those jerks are bought and paid for. The other experts with expert opinions...but, you know, not with like forceful opinions that sound like “facts” because I can make up my own mind after I do my own deep research. And certainly not experts in the media (boo, hiss) those guys are the worst. So biased.

I mean, I only want my politics done by the experts. The right kind of experts. The best experts. But not too expert.
 
shoeless said:
They're just actors/actresses after all, why would anyone take their advice on anything other than acting? :shrug:
Click to expand...
I think the problem with this opinion is that it assumes like only career politicians and political science degree holders have valid opinions. Which is frankly not what anyone actually would want.

Most people who tell actors to STFU also give their own views all the time without anyone asking. In fact, their main thing seems to be not that people talk out of turn but that some people get to speak more than them. Not that either needs proper credentials. In fact, let's be honest it is usually people skeptical of the whole idea of credentials who feel belittled by the Eggheads.
 
Bones McHorror said:
I think the problem with this opinion is that it assumes like only career politicians and political science degree holders have valid opinions. Which is frankly not what anyone actually would want.

Most people who tell actors to STFU also give their own views all the time without anyone asking. In fact, their main thing seems to be not that people talk out of turn but that some people get to speak more than them. Not that either needs proper credentials. In fact, let's be honest it is usually people skeptical of the whole idea of credentials who feel belittled by the Eggheads.
Click to expand...
That's a much larger leap ("assumes like only career politicians and political science degree holders have valid opinions") than I was making. I only said I don't care to hear Hollywood's opinions, not that only career politicians/scientists have valid opinions. Since I don't care about Hollywood's opinions, I don't tend to watch awards shows, as my original post stated. Besides, tuning into a films award show and being lectured on politics is about like watching a cooking show to learn how to fix your car. I agree with Ricky, "say your thank you and F-off".

If you like what they have to say, then tune in. I choose not to. That's the wonderful thing about choices and opinions, we don't all have to agree on them.

I would, however, probably tune into the plumber's awards. I think that could be very entertaining. Just imagine the categories....worst clog, biggest pipe, most artistic solder joint, etc.
 
Last edited:
Peen Simmons said:
Yes. We should leave politics to the experts. But not the pointy-headed ivory tower experts. Those eggheads don’t know what it’s like in the real world. We should find the real political experts to do our politics—but not lifetime politicians, those jerks are bought and paid for. The other experts with expert opinions...but, you know, not with like forceful opinions that sound like “facts” because I can make up my own mind after I do my own deep research. And certainly not experts in the media (boo, hiss) those guys are the worst. So biased.

I mean, I only want my politics done by the experts. The right kind of experts. The best experts. But not too expert.
Click to expand...
Good luck with that. :wink:
 
Some people in the performing arts are incredibly intelligent, ruthlessly well-informed, and are more than capable of political insight and leadership. See: Vaclav Havel.

Others, like Ronald Reagan and John Wayne, ought to have been shot.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tig
Flamencology said:
Some people in the performing arts are incredibly intelligent, ruthlessly well-informed, and are more than capable of political insight and leadership. See: Vaclav Havel.

Others, like Ronald Reagan and John Wayne, ought to have been shot.
Click to expand...
But could they solder a water-tight copper joint?
 
Flamencology said:
Some people in the performing arts are incredibly intelligent, ruthlessly well-informed, and are more than capable of political insight and leadership. See: Vaclav Havel.

Others, like Ronald Reagan and John Wayne, ought to have been shot.
Click to expand...

The Memorandum was genius.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
shoeless said:
That's a much larger leap ("assumes like only career politicians and political science degree holders have valid opinions") than I was making. I only said I don't care to hear Hollywood's opinions, not that only career politicians/scientists have valid opinions. Since I don't care about Hollywood's opinions, I don't tend to watch awards shows, as my original post stated. If you like what they have to say, then tune in. I choose not to. That's the wonderful thing about choices and opinions, we don't all have to agree on them.

I would, however, probably tune into the plumber's awards. I think that could be very entertaining. Just imagine the categories....worst clog, biggest pipe, most artistic solder joint, etc.
Click to expand...
If you say they have to stick to only talking about acting, then either:

1. No one has valid opinions outside of their career choice. Boxing everyone into extremely narrow specialized understanding of the world. This is how you get autocracy.

2. You're arbitrarily singling out actors, and no one else, for the types of opinions they have. Without explaining why.

Gate-keeping mentality is a funny thing in America. It feels good at first, and kind of feeds people's need to vent and also live in your own reality of alt facts, but at the same time it would disqualify most if not all people from voting in elections if applied consistently. Mostly I think it is like a way of skirting around having to suggest what the problem is with said opinions.

I also see people who hate Hollywood having double standards. They will say Meryl Streep is a washed up no talent, and then follow Scott Baio on twitter for his political rants and amateur hour conspiracies. They will say acting is for wimps only manual laborers are in touch with the common man, but they think Pat Sajak who has had the easiest job in the history of mankind is totally legit. Hmm, wonder why.
 
[QUOTE="shoeless, post: 1735347, member: 614"I agree with Ricky, "say your thank you and F-off".
[/QUOTE]

To clarify, Ricky wasn't saying that actors, in general, should not make political statements at awards shows. He was specifically singling out the hypocrisy of working for a huge corporation like Apple or Amazon that has horrible ethical practices while making a statement against those same horrible ethical practices. I imagine he wouldn't take issue with someone coming from a less compromised standing to make the same public protest.
 
Poparad said:
To clarify, Ricky wasn't saying that actors, in general, should not make political statements at awards shows. He was specifically singling out the hypocrisy of working for a huge corporation like Apple or Amazon that has horrible ethical practices while making a statement against those same horrible ethical practices. I imagine he wouldn't take issue with someone coming from a less compromised standing to make the same public protest.
Click to expand...

Well, we’re all collectively impure because somewhere we’ve done the bidding of some evil comic book villain in exchange for money—because capitalism. Somewhere along the line everyone has been tainted. That’s the system. And the system’s existence isn’t any one person’s fault.
 
By the way I did appreciate Patricia Arquette’s comments. I was just wondering when her boobs got so big. I don’t think that took place during that 10 year long movie she did.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Bones McHorror said:
If you say they have to stick to only talking about acting, then either:

1. No one has valid opinions outside of their career choice. Boxing everyone into extremely narrow specialized understanding of the world. This is how you get autocracy.

2. You're arbitrarily singling out actors, and no one else, for the types of opinions they have. Without explaining why.

Gate-keeping mentality is a funny thing in America. It feels good at first, and kind of feeds people's need to vent and also live in your own reality of alt facts, but at the same time it would disqualify most if not all people from voting in elections if applied consistently. Mostly I think it is like a way of skirting around having to suggest what the problem is with said opinions.

I also see people who hate Hollywood having double standards. They will say Meryl Streep is a washed up no talent, and then follow Scott Baio on twitter for his political rants and amateur hour conspiracies. They will say acting is for wimps only manual laborers are in touch with the common man, but they think Pat Sajak who has had the easiest job in the history of mankind is totally legit. Hmm, wonder why.
Click to expand...

1. I did not say that at all. I did say that, in general, I don't care about Hollywood's opinions. Sure there are exceptions, but for the most part I do not. I do not see most of them as role models that I should try to follow, and hence, don't feel the need to follow their advice/opinions. I thought I was clear about that, and you seem to be turning my statements about Hollywood specifically, into a more general argument.

2. I don't feel like an awards ceremony, which is supposed to celebrate the industry's and individuals' achievements, is the appropriate place to seize the stage and spout your personal political beliefs. If you want to talk politics, go to a political forum and do so, just like we do here.

So I watch something else, problem solved.
 
Last edited:
Poparad said:
[QUOTE="shoeless, post: 1735347, member: 614"I agree with Ricky, "say your thank you and F-off".
Click to expand...

To clarify, Ricky wasn't saying that actors, in general, should not make political statements at awards shows. He was specifically singling out the hypocrisy of working for a huge corporation like Apple or Amazon that has horrible ethical practices while making a statement against those same horrible ethical practices. I imagine he wouldn't take issue with someone coming from a less compromised standing to make the same public protest.[/QUOTE]

Name a huge corporation that has ethical practices. There are none. And film is inherently expensive and these corporations have forced the industry's hand. And actors are at the mercy of whatever is going on in the industry.

There is no such thing as ethics in capitalism. It's inherently amoral. As much as we like to believe individual choice matters it doesn't. Even if you're like Milton Friedman, and love sweat shops and think flipper babies are just caveat emptor, you have to include in how dictatorships like Saudi and China are components in the system. People who don't play by how liberal economists understand capitalism. No one reconcile so many different ethical systems rationally at the same time. It makes no sense.

Are we going to have the same standard for people here who order packages from Amazon? Nope.

How about how everyone here who has ipads or macs? Which is seemingly everyone. Nope.

People who watched Star Wars?!? Nope.

There is no ethical consumption either.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top