All these pseudo intellectual guys who think critical thinking is reducing the world to some basic functional factors and ignoring *everything else* and through the simple "clarity" it brings them they feel enlightened instead of delusional and reductionist. And they think everyone else must be wrong or just not tell the truth, and they are *so brave* for telling everyone...🙄
@@SirWeirdGuydon’t you know? All Redditoids are neckbeard misogynists that reference Rick and Morty all day. I won’t deny some Redditors are like this, but the majority of redditors at least in the news articles comment sections are really progressive and sometimes straight up socialists advocating for equal rights for everyone. The type of people that you should avoid like the plague on Reddit are the people from r/wallstreetbets r/conservative r/libertarian r/neoliberalism and other right wing subs but most other places hold mostly decent people even the ones who are “apolitical” can be pretty nice.
This is just the "I'm just saying what everybody's thinking" talking point right? Does our boy Ricky think people are against eugenics only because of political correctness???
@@dudeguyoverlord In a way, he's not wrong. A lot of people have certain ideas about society and human behavior that, if they followed them to their logical conclusion, would inevitably arrive at eugenics. They just balk at the actual practice because it's much more obviously misanthropic. If you think people's behavior is overwhelmingly driven by their essential qualities, e.g. "criminals are simply people who choose to commit crime; 'good people' would never choose to commit crimes no matter their circumstances", you eventually arrive at the idea of "weeding out" the "bad people".
I mean it's not weird that there would be a few people like that, but I remember it bothered me that that's who he is madly in love with and there's nothing really off about to him - because "that's just how all women really are if they were being honest", right? Also since he can lie + lacks the compulsion to explain all his motivations, he never explains why he finds her so desirable, and somehow ends up portrayed as if he's less shallow and/or eugenically minded. She wants an attractive partner bc eugenics, he wants an attractive partner bc wdym "why"? He's the male lead? Idk pissed me off
"Idiocracy" came out three years before "The Invention of Lying" and that movie was a full on argument in favor of eugenics. The 00's were an especially misanthropic decade for comedy.
If Avengers Endgame came out in the 00's I imagine it would end with the Avengers stopping Thanos from indiscriminately wiping out half of humanity so they could snap away the half the Avengers deem genetically inferior
Rickster name searches himself all the time, @ him, and he will see it, and probably be bothered for literal weeks, as well as retweeting it with some lame self-deprecating joke ";D" while really intending for his platoon of followers to dogpile you
THANK YOU! this bothered me so much-- it's such a good premise! but the movie thinks 'not lying' is the same as 'compulsively saying rude things' which is so sad and revealing
@@dvol I think the idea is that not everyone has rude thoughts that they're hiding. They might have unclear, surprised first thoughts but omitting them or thinking things through before answering isn't lying And that even people who have immediately unpleasant and clear thoughts, there's still a good chance someone would still feel bad about saying something like "Oh wow your baby is ugly" not because of societal pressures but because they could empathize with a person who probably doesn't wanna hear that about their kid, and regret it. Sure, rude people would exist and honestly a movie that showing some depictions of that isn't an issue but the very cynical and nature of the movie where everyone is awful feels very..faux-intellectual though because it's more bitter it's more "honest" And is completely disinterested in having a larger and genuinely difficult conversation about the complexities honesty and lying
Well, if she was concerned him and his genetics weren't attractive enough for her and her baby desires, and she couldn't lie, what could she tell him instead?
I've been saying similar shit for years! My angle has more been that it's insane to assume that in a truth-only world, everyone would constantly belittle and shit on each other. So much of human interaction is based on subjective appraisals, and it seems bonkers to assume that how we communicate has no bearing on how we form those appraisals. For example, iirc in the opening joke reel there's a line where a lady says something like "Your baby is so ugly! It looks like a little rat!" with a huge smile on her face. But, surely that can't be "the truth" in some objective sense - it's a reflection of how she feels about the baby. It would be just as honest for her to say 'I don't think your baby is particularly cute, but that's just me'. And like, wouldn't she get enough feedback from the people she interacts with that the crueler response is unnecessary? It isn't honest to compare a baby to a rat, it's hyperbolic and mean! The premise could've prompted a really interesting narrative about how lying corrupts - how the existence of lying is this faustian thing that lets our unfriendly attitudes fester in the dark, making us worse people in exchange for more convenient social interactions. Instead, we get "wouldn't it be lame if no one could lie? Then, how would Ricky Gervais show everyone what a clever little boy he is for seeing the ugliness in the world?" Thanks little joel, I've long felt insane about this movie
Right?! Like I remember seeing this movie as a kid and the part with commercials that have spokes people who just low key shit on the product. Find someone who likes your product?! Describe the products actual taste maybe? People genuinely love Coke it just felt so disingenuous.
Another thing is like, why couldn't they just keep their mouths shut? It's as though the movie asserts that not telling everyone every rude thought in your head is lying. Weird, bad movie.
I think the whole point of the movie is to say that God is a lie. We create "meaning" beyond our pathetic existence because we (pathetically) want good outcomes for ourselves and our loved ones. To make "the truth hurt," they make all the "truth-sayers" cruel. I guess it is a way of boasting that - I (Ricky) have the courage to face the cold hard truth. (perhaps)?
busylivingnotdying Oh, no doubt. It's just such a shitty thesis statement, though - it doesn't really answer to any of the classic philosophical arguments for the existence of god, nor those about the origin of spirituality and religion. For example: how did the inhabitants of truth-world interpret disease before germ theory became possible? What did they think about determinism before quantum mechanics? Did none of them really ever argue for a "final cause"? The world in "the invention of lying" doesn't lack deceit, it lacks imagination. And then it spends its runtime pointing out what a genius ricky is for confusing the two.
The thing that always struck me about this movie was how bad Ricky was at explaining the concept of lying in the movie. "What if I said something that wasn't" is gibberish, and in the movie the concepts of "being wrong" and "doing something on accident" still exist, so why doesn't he just say "I said something wrong on purpose.' Not as biting of a critique, but I have thought about this for a decade.
Because that's kind of what the movie is about; is a thing wrong if it serves one rightly, and isn't right and wrong somewhat dependant upon perspective?
@@zer0nix But in the context of lying, "wrong" means something you do not believe to be factually correct. Your comment is some epic "Instagram wisdom" fodder. Telling someone that a dress is blue when you see it as red may "serve you rightly", but that doesn't change that you didn't see a blue dress. It's not really some philosophical quandary 😂
SO, my first year of college, I got my nose pierced on Yom Kippur, but I still had 6 hours left in the fast. I decided to watch this movie to pass some of the time. About 30 minutes in, I felt a weird pain in my stomach. I ended up not being able to feel my arms and having hot flashes to the point where someone on my floor called security to drive me to the health center. The health center was about to close, so they sent me to the hospital, even though I insisted I was fine. I spent 4 hours in the ER because my stomach hurt but I wasn't actively bleeding or dying. They gave me a bunch of really invasive tests, but I realized I didn't have a at and my phone was almost dead. By this point, I hadn't eaten in 26 hours. I ended up calling my parents (who luckily were only like 30 min away bc they were visiting family) and they came to get me, but I hadn't told them about the septum piercing yet, so they were really angry. They gave me a bagel and sent me home. (Best bagel I've ever had.) I ended up having to get like $1500 more in tests, only for them to put me on hormone supplements. Then they thought it was IBS. I found out this year that it was probably just a particularly bad panic attack because I pierced my nose and hadn't eaten in 18 hours. I have still never finished the movie. Thanks for telling me what it's about so I never feel the need to rewatch it. I knew it was bad. I didn't know that it got worse. Also, 11/10 impression
@@samgoldstein1993 note taken. next yom kippur i will be eating a bagel as soon as the fasting is over. i shall be known across the world for my bagel eating.
I've never felt more betrayed by a celebrity's career than that of Ricky Gervais; from the heartfelt relatable humanity of The Office (the original UK series) to his current hateful smugness and casual bigotry.
Extras and the most recent Afterlife were so good. So I think you're just coaxed into believing the "Ricky Gervais is problematic" story the video essayists do these days.
@@purplewine7362 Afterlife looks really good and I never really watched Extras but for the Bowie scene but if he dug it I'm sure its good. Gervais's last special was right awful though, just lazy jabs at wokeness as if being anti-woke is funny in itself.
"Ricky Gervais has a husk for a soul 😆😂 Ok bye 😃" Each day I'm more and more convinced that Little Joel is an ancient wizard that just pretends to be a normal human person for fun. And I'm here for it.
I dont think anything showcases how much Ricky Gervais needs to feel superior to everyone else than that le epic rant he did at the Golden Globes. You can’t flaunt how much better you are than all the other celebrities when you’re the one contributing to that celebrity culture by hosting this award show you find so vapid, not once, but 5 different times.
Dont forget while doing a speech that was preapproved by the academy. While all your celebrity friends laugh along with you. I still cant believe people ate that up as him owning the "Hollywood elites."
@@raze_ I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and believe him when he says it wasnt preapproved. My main issue is that for all of his talk about celebrity egos during that monologue there was only one person that whole show that spent minutes on end touting how smarter they were than everyone else in the room.
I actually went to a movie theater to see the Invention of Lying and it's the most perplexing piece of cinema. Not only is Ricky's character the only person who can lie; he's the only person capable of any kind of metaphorical or abstract thought, storytelling, or metaphysical speculation. Things most children do pretty much as soon as they can speak in complete sentences
well yeah, that's the whole thesis of the movie? That creative thought is really just lying, or making things up? I think the problem is you not understanding the movie.
@@onurbschrednei4569 I can see how deception requires imagination, as an intermediate step. That doesn't make them literally the same thing. The movie just doesn't seem to care to make a distinction there. It's a world in which non-rational ideas (like axioms of religious faith, for example) can only come about through an act of deliberate deception. Religion-as-delusion is a common enough idea in Gervais's milieu but what's odd about the world of this movie is that religious people *aren't* deluded; they've simply all been deliberately (if well-meaningly) deceived by one incredibly clever boy-a role Gervais created for himself. It's an interesting thought experiment as far as it goes but real-life people are just not that rational so it's hard to relate or pull the kind of insight out of the movie that it seems eager to impart
Thank you for helping me process the trauma of watching Click and the Invention of Lying and being the only person in my friend group who haaaated them.
There's actually a word for someone who sees themself as a master manipulator and the only person whose thoughts and feelings have any real value in a world of gullible, vapid, NPCs. Couple of words for that, in fact.
My long big but kindof irrelevant gripe was it's a world not just without lying but without falsehood entirely, no one can even be incorrect. Like if Ricky Gevais told me he was black and had no arms and legs even if I didnt know lying was possible and I thought he sincerely believed that I'd think he needed psychological help.
I think that what bothers me the most about the movie is that it has a good premise, which is a world with no lies, and then ends up feeling like a generic romantic comedy with the "no lies" stuff as a secondary quirk. Hell, it even plays "Give a Little Bit" at the end of the film.
I disagree that it's a good premise. Learning to lie is a developmental milestone that healthy children reach at age 3-4. Many other species of animals use deceptive behavior. Deception is a basic survival mechanism for any animal that relies on its intelligence for survival. There's really no way to execute this premise other than portraying everyone as empty, idiotic shells.
@@user-ro9md9wp3j movies aren’t real they don’t have to be real and being impossible does not make them bad. This movie sucks all on its own without science invalidating its premise
I thought the movie's concept was really intriguing, but after watching it a couple times, it struck me as odd how it assumes that honesty is inherently harsh and self-interested. I don't think I can recall many moments when someone was being honestly kind to anybody else, and that definitely suggests a lot on how Ricky views humanity.
Also like, obviously people can just say nothing even if they can't lie. Otherwise they would be constantly spouting technicallu true non sequiters. Walking down the street going "there is a tree to my left" and stuff. Even if lying doesn't exist withholding any comment at all would. It's like Gervais can only conceptualize honesty in the context of "vocalizing harsh truths and telling it like it is at the cost of others' feelings".
The thing that stands out to me is that a lot of characters unnecessarily volunteer embarrassing information like that they've just gone to the toilet or masturbated. It isn't "lying" to not volunteer irrelevant information or to be vague.
@@JimTheCurator ''Lying by omission is the deliberate act of leaving out important details so the truth is skewed or misrepresented. It's the counterpart of lying by commission, or using false direct statements.'' not saying you just went to the toilet isnt ''LEAVING OUT IMPORTANT DETAILS SO THE TRUTH IS SKEWED OR MISREPRESENTED'' , its irrelevant skippable info, use your brain
When I was 10 and first heard of this movie, I also thought the premise was fun and cool. I've never seen it to this day, but I've always in the back of my mind imagined a cute, silly movie with a heartwarming story about honesty in relationships. It rocked me to my core to learn what the movie actually is.
I think what I'm always hoping for in any of your work, Joel, is a moment I get to watch you completely crack yourself up. It's a genuine delight each time it happens, and I can never see it coming.
This reminds me of a book we found recently in our home library, called "What Men Don't Want You to Know" Not only did the author see women solely as sexual objects, he assumed the same of "all men." We decided to ritually burn it. I searched the exact title in a private window so that it wouldn't contaminate my search history and cookies. It is absolutely disgusting.
misogynists defending themselves with "this is just what all men think/feel/etc" when it's just them and a few other weirdos would be so funny if they weren't horrible people
One of the biggest douchebags I've ever met (a friend of a friend at the time) accused me of trying to sleep with one of my female friends because I was...talking to her at a group hangout. When I denied it and said we were just friends he said "I just don't think men and women can be friends." Like just cause you only see women as fuck toys, don't put that damage on an entire gender, pal.
The weirdest thing is that animals are perfectly capable of lying and they do it to each other all the time, so I don't know why lying is even portrayed as something intrinsically human in the first place.
in “the sandman” when people can’t lie anymore they just rip each other and themselves apart and become totally evil in some ways. but they still feel, they still want and need. i think it’s a better exploration about the idea. but it’s not just LIES, it’s DREAMS!!! lies are dreams and fantasies too. and that’s what really makes us human and soulful. i agree with your take on ricky gervais though.
I didn't like that one. There's kind of an implication that long-term goals are a form of lying. If we do not accept every intrusive thought that comes to us in the form of immediate desire, we are lying to ourselves. I don't think that makes much sense. It does kind of address this by supporting the idea of dreams, but I still don't think it makes it coherent. I think following your dreams is honesty.
@@heckoff7904the future is a form of lying. i think that’s true. any kind of long-term goal is just a reality that you’ve made up, that you’ve decided is possible for yourself. until it actually happens you’re just creating a fantasy. there’s nothing wrong with that, it doesn’t make EVERY dream unattainable. more than that, i think the episode explores people who don’t necessarily intend to do the things they wish they could do. they really are just idle daydreams, all of them. they’re meant to be kept in that space, because the actual balance of a person’s life would be thrown by getting what they want. again, this isn’t always true. but i think it’s relatable to most people, yknow. having a dream that would actually ruin your life. that you wouldn’t REALLY like if it were real. some things are better to imagine.
It's definitely a Ricky Gervais power fantasy. "I'm the only guy who tells the truth, so what if I made a movie where I'm the only person who could lie?"
My big takeaways were: 1. I do absolutely think that the movie thinks everybody IS the way the NPCs talk in the movie, but that we all lie to ourselves IRL about it. Ricky thinks all women want out of a relationship is to chase their biological clock (which is conflated with eugenics because of casual conservatism I guess). I think the biggest proof of this is in Jonah Hill's character, who must be lied to about anybody liking him to prevent his otherwise (in the movie's logic) rational suicidal tendencies. 2. I think this is trying to play largely into conservative views, especially those painted with Christian ideals of the origin and purpose of humanity. I know Ricky would insist he's smarter than being a parrot for religious conservative talking points, but the idea that the sudden blessing of choice between right and wrong to change the lives of those who do not so understand such a power, and those conditions developing a soul, purpose, and meaning in a person, might as well be straight from an evangelist sermon. Ricky is certainly not more clever than to be a parrot for these ideas. If I were to pathologize, I'd say it's because he doesn't bother to distinguish between things he feels clever about and things he has any solid grasp on. 3. The movie feeds into the conservative idealism of competition, where whomever undermines society for their own benefit is the defacto hero. They are the hero because they're so clever and everybody else was too much of a dumb, docile robot whose existence probably wasn't meaningful enough to not disrupt with our hero's self-serving bad behavior. Sure is good that him seeking to win a relationship with a woman who isn't interested is justified by her reasons for not being interested in him being defeated by the competitive edge of his invention of lying.
You are SO correct at the end of point 2. His radio shows and podcasts are basically a showcase for this. He's consistently incapable of explaining any of the things he mocks others for not understanding. He just accepts them at the surface level in order to feel superior to everyone else, at which point they've served their purpose.
Point 2. is something I think about, not specifically relating to Ricky, but this attitude many "skeptic" atheists have that they are just inherently smarter and more cleaver than everyone else, when in reality they are just as arrogant and simple minded as a lot of Christians are. Many atheist will abandon religion without putting in the work towards shaking off religious conditioning, which starts with the acknowledgement that we are not as rational as we like to believe, and that we are mostly influenced by the environment we were raised in. There is a reason why those kinds of atheists have a reputation for being unimaginably annoying.
I remember when this move was making the premium channel rounds and my whole family got around to watching it. None of us really knew what to do with it, and any discussions we had about it were like poking it with a stick before leaving it on the sidewalk we found it on.
I never saw this movie, so I had to wait until Derek to see this play out. "Derek, you are kind and smart and wonderful and brave and you smell really good, and if everyone in the world was like you Ricky...er...Derek, then the world would be a pretty magical place I reckon". Insane.
Everything Ricky Gervais has done after The Office and Extras shows that Stephen Merchant was clearly the one carrying their shows in the writing department.
The slightly pained sounding little breath Little Joel makes at 2:24 is the most appropriate reaction to this movie. That sound could have been the whole video and I would have understood.
I have always thought this same thing about that movie! Everyone used to talk about how profound the movie was and I felt like it could have been much more profound if the entire movie weren't about Ricky Gervais being better than everyone.
The movie ends up making two distinct classes of people, which is assholes and robots. Seeing people as deep down either cruel or completely hollow feels really on brand for Gervais. If you’re not viewing others with contempt, he thinks there’s something missing inside of you.
I noticed the same thing in his series afterlife. Like he plays basically himself and writes everyone's character to constantly tell him how cool and funny he is. It's very obvious and embarassing.
I guess the thing I find interesting is that this movie wants to convince you that people who don't lie couldn't possibly WANT anything. The way I see it, lying and not lying both come from wanting things. It's just that lying, in the way that Ricky Gervais is doing it at least, also comes from thinking you are /entitled/ to get things you want, even when people would say no if you stated your desire honestly. It's weird that the movie seems to see people who can tolerate not getting what they want sometimes - as not wanting anything.
“Lies are the glue that holds society together. We lie about our mileage, we lie about the weather. We lie to spare each-other’s feelings, we lie to stay in bed. We to feel important about all books that we’ve read.” Dr. Doofenshmirtz
as someone who’s never seen the movie my first thought would be that the message is supposed to be “ppl lie to themselves to imagine things beyond their reality” and “some types of lies are good for the human spirit” but i also know that ricky gervais wrote this movie so that reality is very unlikely
Gervais and McFarlane in particular are a couple of the most egregious examples of main character syndrome when it comes to comedians in movies. I swear to God, my ex's favourite movie was A Million Ways to Die in the West and it was one of the worst movies I've ever had to sit through. The fucking self-insert main character, the cool girl who smokes pot love interest (she's also super hot but also acts like one of the boys, unlike the bitchy ex), the dragged out jokes, the bitch ex girlfriend who leaves him only to get her comeuppance later.
I'm 100% sure that in a world without lying the exact opposite would happen, you'd see an 100000% increase on every single type of person we normally pretend to find undesirable being asked out for dates. Fat people, trans people, lanky nerds and small-breasted women and so on. I'm sure lots of people truly, sincerely like the jock and runway model types, I'm just saying that just as many people like the so called unpopulars, they just don't say it.
Wild that the minute someone gave him the opportunity to make a movie he took a half-decent concept and diluted it into "religion dumb and Ricky smart". Really couldn't do any better than that. I genuinely think the notion that people have no interiority if they can't create myths / lies about themselves and the world is interesting and ripe for a comedic take. But Gervais is so deeply cynical and uncreative that he went the complete weirdo route.
This was 100% my favourite movie from when I was like 16. I thought Ricky Gervais was a comedic genius. Then I rewatched it as an adult and... yeah, I could only read a narcissistic fantasy for him. At the end the only two people who are smart enough to figure out what his character did is him and his son, who looks exactly like him. I still appreaciate the fun plot and the first half, but I wish that anyone else had made the same movie.
Surprised you didn't mention the last where he uses the power of lies to tell a suicidal man not to kill himself. The only way to interpret that within the movie's logic is that the man objectively should kill himself and Ricky's character is stopping him just because he wants him to suffer
huh? have you never told anyone "its not so bad" when it actually is really bad to make them feel better?? How do you not get the concept of lies making someone feel better? How is that a criticism of the movie? I think you just revealed your lack of understanding human emotions more than anything else.
@@onurbschrednei4569the thing with the movie however is that it doesn’t say it as in lying is saying something you know to be false but as saying ”something that isn’t” and by that when he says ”you are not worthless” he is not just saying smt that he doesn’t believe but also something that objectively ”isn’t”
Clicked on this so fast. I was a really weird kid so from the ages of 10-14 I would always say this was my favorite movie. Unclear in retrospect why I liked it so much, I had much better vhs tapes
Also since u didn't bring up the strange little details, I must point out how WEIRD some of that stuff was. In particular, the scene where ricky gervais tells a woman the world will end if she doesn't sleep with him. They play out how that emotionally impacts her in devastating detail, as she processes her sudden panic and loss of agency and they get all the way to a second location before ricky decides that it would actually be too weird to r/pe this woman under the pretense of all humanity dying if she doesn't comply. Just,,,,, what the fuck man. Also the overly emotionally manipulative scenes with his mother remind me of Click somehow, just similar vibes I guess
having the camera right up in this tiny joel's face makes me feel like he's right up in my living room getting all up in my business all like "dude this movie!!! this MOVIE."
I personally think that the reason a world without lies would be so vapid is that lying is kinda part of the deal. The other edge of the sword of imagination. Like, with the ability to consider the unreal, and to consider possibility, we must accept the potential of deception. We must be able to be misled and to mislead about those possibilities to have meaningful capacity to consider them. I doubt that's what the movie was trying to say, but it makes sense to me.
In some way, I sort of agree, though perhaps I don't feel that to the extent you do. I don't think it would be vapid, but as a lover of mystery stories and magic tricks I do think it can inspire or provoke thought. Of course on the other side of that it can be used as a tool for control, as people are far more inclined to fact check the statements of people they already don't agree with but not so much with the people who they do. And on the other side of THAT lying is also a useful defense mechanism. If you are approached by someone with predatory intent, they are often likely to inquire things (verbally or non-verbally) that may determine if you are suitable prey or not. For example, it may be better to give someone the impression that you are local to an area or that you have friends just round the corner, even if that's not true.
@@jakerockznoodles I didn't articulate my thoughts very well. I also should have said "could" or "might" be vapid instead of "would". I don't mean that lying is what gives us depth, but rather that much of what gives us depth also gives us the ability to lie. You could have a world without lying wherin everyone simply chooses not to, or it doesn't occur to them to try. However, I do think that a world in which people are completely incapable of deception would necessitate the loss of the faculties we use to conduct the lying. Clumsy analogy: A world without walking could be a world where everyone chooses not to walk, or doesn't know how to walk, but to have a world where nobody is able to walk at all would require the loss of more than walking itself; legs, nerve connections, proprioception, balance. You gotta give up traits which facilitate walking to achieve that. And that's what I meant with my original comment. Not vacusousness as a result of not lying, rather not being able to lie as a result of vacuousness. And good points, I agree that deception is a tool, and therefore whether it is good or bad is circumstantial.
I’ve found the same issue with his character in After Life - he always has to be the smartest person in the room. These days Gervais is just a parody of himself - he’d fit in really well on ‘Extras’ as a heightened version of mid-2000s Ricky Gervais
I have great success on dating apps right now because I am completely open to the other person about literally every aspect of my live from trauma to sexuality and everyone so far has said that I am the most open person that they ever known, which is honestly kinda sad. But in any case, it shows that not lying is not the same as being boring or emotionless. It's the opposite really.
Why are there so many weirdly eugenicist 2000s comedies? Like, maybe not a lot but this and “Idiocracy” and shit. “If I had a nickel for every weirdly eugenicist 2000s comedies, I’d have two nickels!”
I have been watching your videos for years but have not ever been felt compelled to comment until this one. I just want to say that this is probably the most concise and insightful commentary on anything you've ever put out.
I remember this movie specifically because I entered the room midway through my brother watching it at the start of a long scene talking about eugenics and I was just so confused because this was supposed to be a funny movie about dishonesty. I guess it is on point to have the movie be a shockingly honest portrayal of one man's worldview.
I've just seen Little Joel's impression of Ricky Gervais and nothing prepares you for this. I cheered, I shouted, I fist pumped the air. I cried, I stood and cheered
I remember this movie being on in the background and passively absorbing it when I was a kid. This video made me realize the only part I remembered was the premise and not Ricky Gervais
Even as a kid, I always thought it was weird that people didn’t just assume that when you said said something stupid it meant you were crazy or mistaken. People say wrong things without lying all the time.
I'm glad you talked about this movie. there's always something weird when an actor stars in a romance they have written. No matter what, it feels a bit like wish fulfillment. See Garden State. The end, when his love interest says she loves him despite his ugliness, it feels like I'm looking directly into Ricky gervaisa's insecurities. But not in a moving way, more like when Fielder paid that woman to say that she loves him over and over
I think both things are true. Ricky is clearly a narcissist and thus has a very cynical and shallow view of humanity. Coming from a very, very dedicated listener of his earlier podcasts with Karl Pilkington and someone who has seen many of his tv and film projects
He's not just a textbook narcissist, he's an exceptionally cruel one at that. He genuinely thinks he can treat whoever he wants like total garbage, and that everything he says is automatically correct, so if he thinks someone is a twat he believes that he is correct and that person is genuinely a twat, whereas others would be aware that this was their feelings towards this person.
Fr I actually like Karl Pilkington’s thoughts and observations and he’s by far the most interesting guy on the show. But Ricky is such a cunt to him. Like never once is he just like “That’s pretty interesting Karl” it’s always like “haha your such a stupid twat haha” or some shit like that and he rarely has anything very interesting to add himself. Even when Ricky does try to be informative it’s always delivered so condescendingly. I get the sense he’s always trying way too hard to be funny but generally comes off as unlikeable and pretty annoying. Maybe that’s part of the appeal of the show somehow but Idk why Karl always puts up with it, he seems like a genuinely good person.
@@gwen9939 it's also pretty funny how he's a huge narcissist but the funniest thing he's ever done (imo) is the Karl podcast and that's thanks to Karl and Stephen Merchant. I especially like the episodes where Karl says something is gonna happen in the future and nowadays it's kinda happening but back then Ricky was like "fuck you dumbass"
@@notapplicable6985I can’t really think of any psychic moments he had but there was one episode where Karl basically thought of the plot of the black mirror episode with the bear as an idea for a movie and rick says it’s retarded even tho it wasn’t even that bad and someone else was able to turn it into something later on. In the same episode Karl says someone is “brain dead” and rick calls him a dumbass and says that isn’t real even though it’s definitely real and is a commonly known thing even at the time.
All I remember about this movie is that it had an interesting premise, and a decent first half...but then it just falls entirely off the rails in the second with the Ricky invents religion subplot, which took up WAY TOO MUCH of the run time.
I remember my family and I, years ago rented an actual copy of this movie because like you said the premise was intriguing. By the end we were just completely mystified and there was just this thick sense of regret that saturated the room.
In a real world of no lies, there would be twisted half-truths and silence. It would not be a vapid place without compassion. There would simply be more understanding and pity.
Finally we get an age reveal for little Joel. He wanted to watch it when he was 10 and the movie came out in 2009 so thus little Joel is only 23 years old.
I remember having a sleepover when I was like 11, and after everyone went to sleep, I put on this movie only to get the worst anxiety and wake up my friends mom at midnight to drive me home, thank you lil Joel for making sure I never have to finish this movie
I wonder how many people in this comment section have uttered the phrase, "That's so transactional." And I wonder how many of these are fond of discovering cultural constructs. It really is amazing how much imprinting can be done so quickly.
It's so funny that Ricky Gervais assumes we'd all be pro-eugenics if we were more fundamentally honest lmfaooooo wonder what's up with that!
reddit moment
All these pseudo intellectual guys who think critical thinking is reducing the world to some basic functional factors and ignoring *everything else* and through the simple "clarity" it brings them they feel enlightened instead of delusional and reductionist.
And they think everyone else must be wrong or just not tell the truth, and they are *so brave* for telling everyone...🙄
@@dmarsub fucking pretty much
@@luiysia Bruh why are you obsessed with reddit nobody even mentioned reddit before you this movie came out in 2009
@@SirWeirdGuydon’t you know? All Redditoids are neckbeard misogynists that reference Rick and Morty all day. I won’t deny some Redditors are like this, but the majority of redditors at least in the news articles comment sections are really progressive and sometimes straight up socialists advocating for equal rights for everyone. The type of people that you should avoid like the plague on Reddit are the people from r/wallstreetbets r/conservative r/libertarian r/neoliberalism and other right wing subs but most other places hold mostly decent people even the ones who are “apolitical” can be pretty nice.
Spoiler alert: Little Joel does an EXTREMELY offensive Ricky Gervais impression at the end of this video, please bear caution
It is extremely offensive, however that is only due to Ricky Gervais himself being extremely offensive
BEAR CAUTION???? WHERE??????
@@LuigiFuckingRocks89 oh god oh fuck
@@LuigiFuckingRocks89 bear down for midterms
@@bookshelfhoney Thats in really poor taste come on now
It's weird that they went directly from "no lies" to " openly talking about eugenics"
This is just the "I'm just saying what everybody's thinking" talking point right? Does our boy Ricky think people are against eugenics only because of political correctness???
@@dudeguyoverlord In a way, he's not wrong. A lot of people have certain ideas about society and human behavior that, if they followed them to their logical conclusion, would inevitably arrive at eugenics. They just balk at the actual practice because it's much more obviously misanthropic.
If you think people's behavior is overwhelmingly driven by their essential qualities, e.g. "criminals are simply people who choose to commit crime; 'good people' would never choose to commit crimes no matter their circumstances", you eventually arrive at the idea of "weeding out" the "bad people".
I mean it's not weird that there would be a few people like that, but I remember it bothered me that that's who he is madly in love with and there's nothing really off about to him - because "that's just how all women really are if they were being honest", right?
Also since he can lie + lacks the compulsion to explain all his motivations, he never explains why he finds her so desirable, and somehow ends up portrayed as if he's less shallow and/or eugenically minded. She wants an attractive partner bc eugenics, he wants an attractive partner bc wdym "why"? He's the male lead? Idk pissed me off
"Idiocracy" came out three years before "The Invention of Lying" and that movie was a full on argument in favor of eugenics. The 00's were an especially misanthropic decade for comedy.
If Avengers Endgame came out in the 00's I imagine it would end with the Avengers stopping Thanos from indiscriminately wiping out half of humanity so they could snap away the half the Avengers deem genetically inferior
That ricky impression was deranged and I love it
Especially cuz like, if he saw that it would probably bother him for like, literal weeks
Rickster name searches himself all the time, @ him, and he will see it, and probably be bothered for literal weeks, as well as retweeting it with some lame self-deprecating joke ";D" while really intending for his platoon of followers to dogpile you
I wish he would see it.
@@zegh8578 another reason I want Twitter to not crash is to see Gervais get mad about this.
He's so thin skinned it rules
Didn’t think I’d see the Ace Attorney dub tuber in the comment section of a Big Joel side channel. Very pleasantly surprised though.
THANK YOU! this bothered me so much-- it's such a good premise! but the movie thinks 'not lying' is the same as 'compulsively saying rude things' which is so sad and revealing
And also somehow all of the prevailing social norms are exactly the same
I think the idea was that at least some of these things would be lies of omission if they weren't said.
@@dvol I think the idea is that not everyone has rude thoughts that they're hiding.
They might have unclear, surprised first thoughts but omitting them or thinking things through before answering isn't lying
And that even people who have immediately unpleasant and clear thoughts, there's still a good chance someone would still feel bad about saying something like
"Oh wow your baby is ugly"
not because of societal pressures but because they could empathize with a person who probably doesn't wanna hear that about their kid, and regret it.
Sure, rude people would exist and honestly a movie that showing some depictions of that isn't an issue
but the very cynical and nature of the movie where everyone is awful feels very..faux-intellectual
though because it's more bitter it's more "honest"
And is completely disinterested in having a larger and genuinely difficult conversation about the complexities honesty and lying
Cause there’s no lies of omission and I guess they can’t lie to themselves about their motivations
Well, if she was concerned him and his genetics weren't attractive enough for her and her baby desires, and she couldn't lie, what could she tell him instead?
I've been saying similar shit for years! My angle has more been that it's insane to assume that in a truth-only world, everyone would constantly belittle and shit on each other. So much of human interaction is based on subjective appraisals, and it seems bonkers to assume that how we communicate has no bearing on how we form those appraisals.
For example, iirc in the opening joke reel there's a line where a lady says something like "Your baby is so ugly! It looks like a little rat!" with a huge smile on her face. But, surely that can't be "the truth" in some objective sense - it's a reflection of how she feels about the baby. It would be just as honest for her to say 'I don't think your baby is particularly cute, but that's just me'. And like, wouldn't she get enough feedback from the people she interacts with that the crueler response is unnecessary? It isn't honest to compare a baby to a rat, it's hyperbolic and mean!
The premise could've prompted a really interesting narrative about how lying corrupts - how the existence of lying is this faustian thing that lets our unfriendly attitudes fester in the dark, making us worse people in exchange for more convenient social interactions. Instead, we get "wouldn't it be lame if no one could lie? Then, how would Ricky Gervais show everyone what a clever little boy he is for seeing the ugliness in the world?"
Thanks little joel, I've long felt insane about this movie
Right?! Like I remember seeing this movie as a kid and the part with commercials that have spokes people who just low key shit on the product. Find someone who likes your product?! Describe the products actual taste maybe? People genuinely love Coke it just felt so disingenuous.
Another thing is like, why couldn't they just keep their mouths shut? It's as though the movie asserts that not telling everyone every rude thought in your head is lying. Weird, bad movie.
I think the whole point of the movie is to say that God is a lie. We create "meaning" beyond our pathetic existence because we (pathetically) want good outcomes for ourselves and our loved ones.
To make "the truth hurt," they make all the "truth-sayers" cruel. I guess it is a way of boasting that - I (Ricky) have the courage to face the cold hard truth. (perhaps)?
@@BrookeBaubles I think the no filter thing is to eliminate all lying by omission
busylivingnotdying Oh, no doubt. It's just such a shitty thesis statement, though - it doesn't really answer to any of the classic philosophical arguments for the existence of god, nor those about the origin of spirituality and religion.
For example: how did the inhabitants of truth-world interpret disease before germ theory became possible? What did they think about determinism before quantum mechanics? Did none of them really ever argue for a "final cause"?
The world in "the invention of lying" doesn't lack deceit, it lacks imagination. And then it spends its runtime pointing out what a genius ricky is for confusing the two.
“You can read it that way, you SHOULD, but I don’t…” Little Joel is one of the boldest thinkers of our time
The thing that always struck me about this movie was how bad Ricky was at explaining the concept of lying in the movie. "What if I said something that wasn't" is gibberish, and in the movie the concepts of "being wrong" and "doing something on accident" still exist, so why doesn't he just say "I said something wrong on purpose.'
Not as biting of a critique, but I have thought about this for a decade.
Because that's kind of what the movie is about; is a thing wrong if it serves one rightly, and isn't right and wrong somewhat dependant upon perspective?
@@zer0nix But in the context of lying, "wrong" means something you do not believe to be factually correct. Your comment is some epic "Instagram wisdom" fodder.
Telling someone that a dress is blue when you see it as red may "serve you rightly", but that doesn't change that you didn't see a blue dress. It's not really some philosophical quandary 😂
I'm genuinely happy for you that you had a place to share that, I know that feeling so well
The whole premise of the movie is hugely flawed and makes no sensse
@@rootfish2671 But I love the concept of the movie, its like the purge! Totally unrealistic but it's a fun idea!
SO, my first year of college, I got my nose pierced on Yom Kippur, but I still had 6 hours left in the fast. I decided to watch this movie to pass some of the time. About 30 minutes in, I felt a weird pain in my stomach. I ended up not being able to feel my arms and having hot flashes to the point where someone on my floor called security to drive me to the health center. The health center was about to close, so they sent me to the hospital, even though I insisted I was fine. I spent 4 hours in the ER because my stomach hurt but I wasn't actively bleeding or dying. They gave me a bunch of really invasive tests, but I realized I didn't have a at and my phone was almost dead. By this point, I hadn't eaten in 26 hours. I ended up calling my parents (who luckily were only like 30 min away bc they were visiting family) and they came to get me, but I hadn't told them about the septum piercing yet, so they were really angry. They gave me a bagel and sent me home. (Best bagel I've ever had.) I ended up having to get like $1500 more in tests, only for them to put me on hormone supplements. Then they thought it was IBS. I found out this year that it was probably just a particularly bad panic attack because I pierced my nose and hadn't eaten in 18 hours. I have still never finished the movie.
Thanks for telling me what it's about so I never feel the need to rewatch it. I knew it was bad. I didn't know that it got worse.
Also, 11/10 impression
Realistically all good stories about Yom Kippur should end with the hero eating a bagel
Holy shit what a story, maybe it was a psychosomatic reaction to the film.
@@samgoldstein1993 note taken. next yom kippur i will be eating a bagel as soon as the fasting is over. i shall be known across the world for my bagel eating.
Hell of a story
@@imsotiredofthiscrap2341 can confirm bagels are best break-fast food
I've never felt more betrayed by a celebrity's career than that of Ricky Gervais; from the heartfelt relatable humanity of The Office (the original UK series) to his current hateful smugness and casual bigotry.
Yeah it’s really dissappointing
Dude thinks he "knows the truth" when he shat on all those celebs at that awards show.
Extras and the most recent Afterlife were so good. So I think you're just coaxed into believing the "Ricky Gervais is problematic" story the video essayists do these days.
@@purplewine7362 na
@@purplewine7362 Afterlife looks really good and I never really watched Extras but for the Bowie scene but if he dug it I'm sure its good. Gervais's last special was right awful though, just lazy jabs at wokeness as if being anti-woke is funny in itself.
"Ricky Gervais has a husk for a soul 😆😂 Ok bye 😃"
Each day I'm more and more convinced that Little Joel is an ancient wizard that just pretends to be a normal human person for fun. And I'm here for it.
I dont think anything showcases how much Ricky Gervais needs to feel superior to everyone else than that le epic rant he did at the Golden Globes. You can’t flaunt how much better you are than all the other celebrities when you’re the one contributing to that celebrity culture by hosting this award show you find so vapid, not once, but 5 different times.
he is so delusional it's unbelievable
Dont forget while doing a speech that was preapproved by the academy. While all your celebrity friends laugh along with you. I still cant believe people ate that up as him owning the "Hollywood elites."
@@raze_ I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and believe him when he says it wasnt preapproved. My main issue is that for all of his talk about celebrity egos during that monologue there was only one person that whole show that spent minutes on end touting how smarter they were than everyone else in the room.
Well, you said it yourself: times were different (:
4:43 I began screaming because I thought Ricky Gervais himself was in my home and I was at risk of having atheism explained to me
Oh no, he's about to tell you that religious people are also atheists because they don't believe in every single deity that's ever been conceived!
Ty for the laugh 😂
I actually went to a movie theater to see the Invention of Lying and it's the most perplexing piece of cinema. Not only is Ricky's character the only person who can lie; he's the only person capable of any kind of metaphorical or abstract thought, storytelling, or metaphysical speculation. Things most children do pretty much as soon as they can speak in complete sentences
well yeah, that's the whole thesis of the movie? That creative thought is really just lying, or making things up? I think the problem is you not understanding the movie.
@@onurbschrednei4569 I can see how deception requires imagination, as an intermediate step. That doesn't make them literally the same thing. The movie just doesn't seem to care to make a distinction there. It's a world in which non-rational ideas (like axioms of religious faith, for example) can only come about through an act of deliberate deception. Religion-as-delusion is a common enough idea in Gervais's milieu but what's odd about the world of this movie is that religious people *aren't* deluded; they've simply all been deliberately (if well-meaningly) deceived by one incredibly clever boy-a role Gervais created for himself. It's an interesting thought experiment as far as it goes but real-life people are just not that rational so it's hard to relate or pull the kind of insight out of the movie that it seems eager to impart
It's a shame this isn't on Twitter cause Ricky Gervais would see it there
Ricky would block joel
What's Twitter?
Tiny Joel would never lie, would he
Tiny Joel is the embodiment of lies, for he is in fact quite big.
@@cuzned1375but this one is little, you lie?
@@stupidass69420 It’s all an act. It’s time we faced facts: we’ve been duped.
Tiny Joel would, maybe, but would Pint-Sized Joel?
Hold me closer, Tiny Joel
Thank you for helping me process the trauma of watching Click and the Invention of Lying and being the only person in my friend group who haaaated them.
There's actually a word for someone who sees themself as a master manipulator and the only person whose thoughts and feelings have any real value in a world of gullible, vapid, NPCs. Couple of words for that, in fact.
And they are?
@@jeniferjoseph9200 'Ricky Gervais', I think.
"red pilled"
@@jeniferjoseph9200 malignant narcissist
Asshole is a good one
My long big but kindof irrelevant gripe was it's a world not just without lying but without falsehood entirely, no one can even be incorrect. Like if Ricky Gevais told me he was black and had no arms and legs even if I didnt know lying was possible and I thought he sincerely believed that I'd think he needed psychological help.
If Ricky Gervais said that, he'd immediately clarify it was satire on trans people.
The whole premise is dumb and makes no sense
I think that what bothers me the most about the movie is that it has a good premise, which is a world with no lies, and then ends up feeling like a generic romantic comedy with the "no lies" stuff as a secondary quirk.
Hell, it even plays "Give a Little Bit" at the end of the film.
I disagree that it's a good premise. Learning to lie is a developmental milestone that healthy children reach at age 3-4. Many other species of animals use deceptive behavior. Deception is a basic survival mechanism for any animal that relies on its intelligence for survival. There's really no way to execute this premise other than portraying everyone as empty, idiotic shells.
@@user-ro9md9wp3j wow, we've found a real neuroscientist here, tell us why movies are wrong mr. B
@@user-ro9md9wp3j movies aren’t real they don’t have to be real and being impossible does not make them bad. This movie sucks all on its own without science invalidating its premise
I thought the movie's concept was really intriguing, but after watching it a couple times, it struck me as odd how it assumes that honesty is inherently harsh and self-interested. I don't think I can recall many moments when someone was being honestly kind to anybody else, and that definitely suggests a lot on how Ricky views humanity.
Also like, obviously people can just say nothing even if they can't lie. Otherwise they would be constantly spouting technicallu true non sequiters. Walking down the street going "there is a tree to my left" and stuff. Even if lying doesn't exist withholding any comment at all would. It's like Gervais can only conceptualize honesty in the context of "vocalizing harsh truths and telling it like it is at the cost of others' feelings".
You nailed him on the impression
We all nailed him to the cross.
I would not nail Ricky
Crucified Ricky - “erh, no. Sounds rubbish. Son of god? More like son of logs, innit? Cause ye nailed me on some logs-“
The thing that stands out to me is that a lot of characters unnecessarily volunteer embarrassing information like that they've just gone to the toilet or masturbated. It isn't "lying" to not volunteer irrelevant information or to be vague.
Yeah. Lying and withholding information are two pretty different things. If they could lie they wouldn't tell people that they HADN'T masturbated
cinemasins level criticism
@@johannamegido8465 I kinda agree tbh, but this comment itself also comes across like a cinemasins "ding" lmao.
Lying by omission, maybe?
@@JimTheCurator ''Lying by omission is the deliberate act of leaving out important details so the truth is skewed or misrepresented. It's the counterpart of lying by commission, or using false direct statements.''
not saying you just went to the toilet isnt ''LEAVING OUT IMPORTANT DETAILS SO THE TRUTH IS SKEWED OR MISREPRESENTED'' , its irrelevant skippable info, use your brain
i really like the part at 5:17 where he turns into an owl. a bold creative decision that i think really paid off
When I was 10 and first heard of this movie, I also thought the premise was fun and cool. I've never seen it to this day, but I've always in the back of my mind imagined a cute, silly movie with a heartwarming story about honesty in relationships.
It rocked me to my core to learn what the movie actually is.
I think what I'm always hoping for in any of your work, Joel, is a moment I get to watch you completely crack yourself up. It's a genuine delight each time it happens, and I can never see it coming.
This reminds me of a book we found recently in our home library, called "What Men Don't Want You to Know"
Not only did the author see women solely as sexual objects, he assumed the same of "all men."
We decided to ritually burn it.
I searched the exact title in a private window so that it wouldn't contaminate my search history and cookies. It is absolutely disgusting.
misogynists defending themselves with "this is just what all men think/feel/etc" when it's just them and a few other weirdos would be so funny if they weren't horrible people
One of the biggest douchebags I've ever met (a friend of a friend at the time) accused me of trying to sleep with one of my female friends because I was...talking to her at a group hangout. When I denied it and said we were just friends he said "I just don't think men and women can be friends." Like just cause you only see women as fuck toys, don't put that damage on an entire gender, pal.
The weirdest thing is that animals are perfectly capable of lying and they do it to each other all the time, so I don't know why lying is even portrayed as something intrinsically human in the first place.
I get trolled by my dogs sometimes so I can confirm this
bc Gervais romanticizes the likes of Locke, Hobbes, Descartes, etc. who have an anthropocentric and narrow view of the world
yeah literally just get a cat and then tell me animals cant lie 😭
Holy shit, I've never heard someone do Gervais so well. Had me looking around to make sure he wasn't in the room with me lmao
in “the sandman” when people can’t lie anymore they just rip each other and themselves apart and become totally evil in some ways. but they still feel, they still want and need.
i think it’s a better exploration about the idea. but it’s not just LIES, it’s DREAMS!!! lies are dreams and fantasies too. and that’s what really makes us human and soulful.
i agree with your take on ricky gervais though.
That whole episode was so good.
I didn't like that one. There's kind of an implication that long-term goals are a form of lying. If we do not accept every intrusive thought that comes to us in the form of immediate desire, we are lying to ourselves. I don't think that makes much sense.
It does kind of address this by supporting the idea of dreams, but I still don't think it makes it coherent. I think following your dreams is honesty.
@@heckoff7904the future is a form of lying. i think that’s true. any kind of long-term goal is just a reality that you’ve made up, that you’ve decided is possible for yourself. until it actually happens you’re just creating a fantasy. there’s nothing wrong with that, it doesn’t make EVERY dream unattainable.
more than that, i think the episode explores people who don’t necessarily intend to do the things they wish they could do. they really are just idle daydreams, all of them. they’re meant to be kept in that space, because the actual balance of a person’s life would be thrown by getting what they want. again, this isn’t always true. but i think it’s relatable to most people, yknow. having a dream that would actually ruin your life. that you wouldn’t REALLY like if it were real. some things are better to imagine.
I rented The Invention of Lying on my Xbox 360 back when it came out. As far as Microsoft is concerned it may be the only movie I've ever seen
It's definitely a Ricky Gervais power fantasy. "I'm the only guy who tells the truth, so what if I made a movie where I'm the only person who could lie?"
My big takeaways were:
1. I do absolutely think that the movie thinks everybody IS the way the NPCs talk in the movie, but that we all lie to ourselves IRL about it. Ricky thinks all women want out of a relationship is to chase their biological clock (which is conflated with eugenics because of casual conservatism I guess). I think the biggest proof of this is in Jonah Hill's character, who must be lied to about anybody liking him to prevent his otherwise (in the movie's logic) rational suicidal tendencies.
2. I think this is trying to play largely into conservative views, especially those painted with Christian ideals of the origin and purpose of humanity. I know Ricky would insist he's smarter than being a parrot for religious conservative talking points, but the idea that the sudden blessing of choice between right and wrong to change the lives of those who do not so understand such a power, and those conditions developing a soul, purpose, and meaning in a person, might as well be straight from an evangelist sermon. Ricky is certainly not more clever than to be a parrot for these ideas. If I were to pathologize, I'd say it's because he doesn't bother to distinguish between things he feels clever about and things he has any solid grasp on.
3. The movie feeds into the conservative idealism of competition, where whomever undermines society for their own benefit is the defacto hero. They are the hero because they're so clever and everybody else was too much of a dumb, docile robot whose existence probably wasn't meaningful enough to not disrupt with our hero's self-serving bad behavior. Sure is good that him seeking to win a relationship with a woman who isn't interested is justified by her reasons for not being interested in him being defeated by the competitive edge of his invention of lying.
You are SO correct at the end of point 2. His radio shows and podcasts are basically a showcase for this. He's consistently incapable of explaining any of the things he mocks others for not understanding. He just accepts them at the surface level in order to feel superior to everyone else, at which point they've served their purpose.
Point 2. is something I think about, not specifically relating to Ricky, but this attitude many "skeptic" atheists have that they are just inherently smarter and more cleaver than everyone else, when in reality they are just as arrogant and simple minded as a lot of Christians are.
Many atheist will abandon religion without putting in the work towards shaking off religious conditioning, which starts with the acknowledgement that we are not as rational as we like to believe, and that we are mostly influenced by the environment we were raised in.
There is a reason why those kinds of atheists have a reputation for being unimaginably annoying.
I remember when this move was making the premium channel rounds and my whole family got around to watching it. None of us really knew what to do with it, and any discussions we had about it were like poking it with a stick before leaving it on the sidewalk we found it on.
From my experience, the people who think that humans are innately superficial and shitty are usually the most superficial and shitty people I know.
I never saw this movie, so I had to wait until Derek to see this play out. "Derek, you are kind and smart and wonderful and brave and you smell really good, and if everyone in the world was like you Ricky...er...Derek, then the world would be a pretty magical place I reckon". Insane.
Everything Ricky Gervais has done after The Office and Extras shows that Stephen Merchant was clearly the one carrying their shows in the writing department.
The slightly pained sounding little breath Little Joel makes at 2:24 is the most appropriate reaction to this movie. That sound could have been the whole video and I would have understood.
I have always thought this same thing about that movie! Everyone used to talk about how profound the movie was and I felt like it could have been much more profound if the entire movie weren't about Ricky Gervais being better than everyone.
I watched this movie on a plane eleven years ago and I’ve never seen anyone talk about it. Sometimes I think I imagined it
The movie ends up making two distinct classes of people, which is assholes and robots. Seeing people as deep down either cruel or completely hollow feels really on brand for Gervais. If you’re not viewing others with contempt, he thinks there’s something missing inside of you.
I noticed the same thing in his series afterlife. Like he plays basically himself and writes everyone's character to constantly tell him how cool and funny he is. It's very obvious and embarassing.
I really wanted to see that movie as a dorky edgy 4chan atheist in Jr high. Never did and forgot it existed until this moment
yeah this looks right up 14-15 year old me’s wheelhouse, watching and going “heheh, this is just like me.”
Ricky Gervais is what happens when you never grow out of that phase
A terrifying thought, really
Thank you for putting into words why Ricky is so repulsive
little joel is really giving "hoowee jawly gyud shyow"
I guess the thing I find interesting is that this movie wants to convince you that people who don't lie couldn't possibly WANT anything. The way I see it, lying and not lying both come from wanting things. It's just that lying, in the way that Ricky Gervais is doing it at least, also comes from thinking you are /entitled/ to get things you want, even when people would say no if you stated your desire honestly. It's weird that the movie seems to see people who can tolerate not getting what they want sometimes - as not wanting anything.
“Lies are the glue that holds society together.
We lie about our mileage, we lie about the weather.
We lie to spare each-other’s feelings, we lie to stay in bed.
We to feel important about all books that we’ve read.”
Dr. Doofenshmirtz
as someone who’s never seen the movie my first thought would be that the message is supposed to be “ppl lie to themselves to imagine things beyond their reality” and “some types of lies are good for the human spirit”
but i also know that ricky gervais wrote this movie so that reality is very unlikely
Gervais and McFarlane in particular are a couple of the most egregious examples of main character syndrome when it comes to comedians in movies.
I swear to God, my ex's favourite movie was A Million Ways to Die in the West and it was one of the worst movies I've ever had to sit through. The fucking self-insert main character, the cool girl who smokes pot love interest (she's also super hot but also acts like one of the boys, unlike the bitchy ex), the dragged out jokes, the bitch ex girlfriend who leaves him only to get her comeuppance later.
I honestly find it pretty pathetic when someone feels themselves as superior over their movie taste.
The first reply to this sucks, your ex's taste in movies is bad
@@purplewine7362 - someone with bad movie taste
@@raccoonsandys3038 imagine the only thing you got going for you is thinking you're smarter for not liking some films
@@patrickrowan6001 lmfao too chicken to even directly reply to me
I'm 100% sure that in a world without lying the exact opposite would happen, you'd see an 100000% increase on every single type of person we normally pretend to find undesirable being asked out for dates. Fat people, trans people, lanky nerds and small-breasted women and so on.
I'm sure lots of people truly, sincerely like the jock and runway model types, I'm just saying that just as many people like the so called unpopulars, they just don't say it.
Delusional
@gtothereal why did you comment but not say anything
You can't stop laughing at yourself during your Ricky Gervais impersonation. Very method
Wild that the minute someone gave him the opportunity to make a movie he took a half-decent concept and diluted it into "religion dumb and Ricky smart". Really couldn't do any better than that. I genuinely think the notion that people have no interiority if they can't create myths / lies about themselves and the world is interesting and ripe for a comedic take. But Gervais is so deeply cynical and uncreative that he went the complete weirdo route.
This was 100% my favourite movie from when I was like 16. I thought Ricky Gervais was a comedic genius. Then I rewatched it as an adult and... yeah, I could only read a narcissistic fantasy for him. At the end the only two people who are smart enough to figure out what his character did is him and his son, who looks exactly like him. I still appreaciate the fun plot and the first half, but I wish that anyone else had made the same movie.
Surprised you didn't mention the last where he uses the power of lies to tell a suicidal man not to kill himself. The only way to interpret that within the movie's logic is that the man objectively should kill himself and Ricky's character is stopping him just because he wants him to suffer
huh? have you never told anyone "its not so bad" when it actually is really bad to make them feel better?? How do you not get the concept of lies making someone feel better? How is that a criticism of the movie? I think you just revealed your lack of understanding human emotions more than anything else.
@@onurbschrednei4569 I think you're projecting here, cause your comment shows a shocking lack of emotional intelligence.
@@onurbschrednei4569the thing with the movie however is that it doesn’t say it as in lying is saying something you know to be false but as saying ”something that isn’t” and by that when he says ”you are not worthless” he is not just saying smt that he doesn’t believe but also something that objectively ”isn’t”
Clicked on this so fast. I was a really weird kid so from the ages of 10-14 I would always say this was my favorite movie. Unclear in retrospect why I liked it so much, I had much better vhs tapes
Also since u didn't bring up the strange little details, I must point out how WEIRD some of that stuff was. In particular, the scene where ricky gervais tells a woman the world will end if she doesn't sleep with him. They play out how that emotionally impacts her in devastating detail, as she processes her sudden panic and loss of agency and they get all the way to a second location before ricky decides that it would actually be too weird to r/pe this woman under the pretense of all humanity dying if she doesn't comply. Just,,,,, what the fuck man.
Also the overly emotionally manipulative scenes with his mother remind me of Click somehow, just similar vibes I guess
Oh yeah, most 14 years old had at least one special VHS tape
having the camera right up in this tiny joel's face makes me feel like he's right up in my living room getting all up in my business all like "dude this movie!!! this MOVIE."
I personally think that the reason a world without lies would be so vapid is that lying is kinda part of the deal. The other edge of the sword of imagination. Like, with the ability to consider the unreal, and to consider possibility, we must accept the potential of deception. We must be able to be misled and to mislead about those possibilities to have meaningful capacity to consider them. I doubt that's what the movie was trying to say, but it makes sense to me.
In some way, I sort of agree, though perhaps I don't feel that to the extent you do. I don't think it would be vapid, but as a lover of mystery stories and magic tricks I do think it can inspire or provoke thought.
Of course on the other side of that it can be used as a tool for control, as people are far more inclined to fact check the statements of people they already don't agree with but not so much with the people who they do.
And on the other side of THAT lying is also a useful defense mechanism. If you are approached by someone with predatory intent, they are often likely to inquire things (verbally or non-verbally) that may determine if you are suitable prey or not. For example, it may be better to give someone the impression that you are local to an area or that you have friends just round the corner, even if that's not true.
@@jakerockznoodles I didn't articulate my thoughts very well. I also should have said "could" or "might" be vapid instead of "would". I don't mean that lying is what gives us depth, but rather that much of what gives us depth also gives us the ability to lie. You could have a world without lying wherin everyone simply chooses not to, or it doesn't occur to them to try. However, I do think that a world in which people are completely incapable of deception would necessitate the loss of the faculties we use to conduct the lying.
Clumsy analogy: A world without walking could be a world where everyone chooses not to walk, or doesn't know how to walk, but to have a world where nobody is able to walk at all would require the loss of more than walking itself; legs, nerve connections, proprioception, balance. You gotta give up traits which facilitate walking to achieve that.
And that's what I meant with my original comment. Not vacusousness as a result of not lying, rather not being able to lie as a result of vacuousness.
And good points, I agree that deception is a tool, and therefore whether it is good or bad is circumstantial.
I’ve found the same issue with his character in After Life - he always has to be the smartest person in the room.
These days Gervais is just a parody of himself - he’d fit in really well on ‘Extras’ as a heightened version of mid-2000s Ricky Gervais
I have great success on dating apps right now because I am completely open to the other person about literally every aspect of my live from trauma to sexuality and everyone so far has said that I am the most open person that they ever known, which is honestly kinda sad. But in any case, it shows that not lying is not the same as being boring or emotionless. It's the opposite really.
I hope Ricky sees this
Why are there so many weirdly eugenicist 2000s comedies? Like, maybe not a lot but this and “Idiocracy” and shit.
“If I had a nickel for every weirdly eugenicist 2000s comedies, I’d have two nickels!”
I have been watching your videos for years but have not ever been felt compelled to comment until this one. I just want to say that this is probably the most concise and insightful commentary on anything you've ever put out.
Your Gervais impression is a spot on Russell Brandon impression
I remember this movie specifically because I entered the room midway through my brother watching it at the start of a long scene talking about eugenics and I was just so confused because this was supposed to be a funny movie about dishonesty. I guess it is on point to have the movie be a shockingly honest portrayal of one man's worldview.
I've just seen Little Joel's impression of Ricky Gervais and nothing prepares you for this. I cheered, I shouted, I fist pumped the air. I cried, I stood and cheered
I remember this movie being on in the background and passively absorbing it when I was a kid. This video made me realize the only part I remembered was the premise and not Ricky Gervais
You losing it at the end fuckin got me
A world without lying is apparently a world with eugenics
The beard grows
Your Ricky impersonation is worryingly well done.
OMG that impression had me in stitches. It came out of nowhere!
5:17
Joel has been working on his Owl impression. Good work!
The whiff of delirium in this makes it even more comedic.
I like big Joel, itty bitty Joel. Mississippi Joel, inner city Joel
THANK YOU!! I remember seeing this years ago at the dawn of quality bootlegs on the interwebs. I had the same reaction to Jen Gardner's character!
Only just came to this video. I love it. You have nailed it.
that ricky gervais impression was uncanny
Even as a kid, I always thought it was weird that people didn’t just assume that when you said said something stupid it meant you were crazy or mistaken. People say wrong things without lying all the time.
I'm glad you talked about this movie. there's always something weird when an actor stars in a romance they have written. No matter what, it feels a bit like wish fulfillment. See Garden State. The end, when his love interest says she loves him despite his ugliness, it feels like I'm looking directly into Ricky gervaisa's insecurities. But not in a moving way, more like when Fielder paid that woman to say that she loves him over and over
The real question is, did he do the whistle!!??😂😂😂
I think both things are true. Ricky is clearly a narcissist and thus has a very cynical and shallow view of humanity. Coming from a very, very dedicated listener of his earlier podcasts with Karl Pilkington and someone who has seen many of his tv and film projects
He's not just a textbook narcissist, he's an exceptionally cruel one at that. He genuinely thinks he can treat whoever he wants like total garbage, and that everything he says is automatically correct, so if he thinks someone is a twat he believes that he is correct and that person is genuinely a twat, whereas others would be aware that this was their feelings towards this person.
Fr I actually like Karl Pilkington’s thoughts and observations and he’s by far the most interesting guy on the show. But Ricky is such a cunt to him. Like never once is he just like “That’s pretty interesting Karl” it’s always like “haha your such a stupid twat haha” or some shit like that and he rarely has anything very interesting to add himself. Even when Ricky does try to be informative it’s always delivered so condescendingly. I get the sense he’s always trying way too hard to be funny but generally comes off as unlikeable and pretty annoying. Maybe that’s part of the appeal of the show somehow but Idk why Karl always puts up with it, he seems like a genuinely good person.
@@gwen9939 it's also pretty funny how he's a huge narcissist but the funniest thing he's ever done (imo) is the Karl podcast and that's thanks to Karl and Stephen Merchant. I especially like the episodes where Karl says something is gonna happen in the future and nowadays it's kinda happening but back then Ricky was like "fuck you dumbass"
@@roundabout468 what was the thing?
@@notapplicable6985I can’t really think of any psychic moments he had but there was one episode where Karl basically thought of the plot of the black mirror episode with the bear as an idea for a movie and rick says it’s retarded even tho it wasn’t even that bad and someone else was able to turn it into something later on. In the same episode Karl says someone is “brain dead” and rick calls him a dumbass and says that isn’t real even though it’s definitely real and is a commonly known thing even at the time.
That impression perfectly sums up Ricky Gervais. Your service is immeasurable.
All I remember about this movie is that it had an interesting premise, and a decent first half...but then it just falls entirely off the rails in the second with the Ricky invents religion subplot, which took up WAY TOO MUCH of the run time.
I remember my family and I, years ago rented an actual copy of this movie because like you said the premise was intriguing. By the end we were just completely mystified and there was just this thick sense of regret that saturated the room.
10 stars for the impression
this is my favorite little joel video so far
In a real world of no lies, there would be twisted half-truths and silence. It would not be a vapid place without compassion. There would simply be more understanding and pity.
I love that the last sentence in this is you giggling about the state of Rickys soul
im LIVIN for that impression
i love your videos!
I remember seeing this movie young and having this exact same reaction
It's fantastic x
No lies detected. What a banger of an impersonation!
That little impression at the end is what I think the child of Ricky Gervais and Russel Brand would sound like:
Horrifying.
Finally we get an age reveal for little Joel. He wanted to watch it when he was 10 and the movie came out in 2009 so thus little Joel is only 23 years old.
This movie was shot in my home town of Lowell, Massachusetts. Sad
I remember having a sleepover when I was like 11, and after everyone went to sleep, I put on this movie only to get the worst anxiety and wake up my friends mom at midnight to drive me home, thank you lil Joel for making sure I never have to finish this movie
God, this is such a good take.
I was really into this movie as a preteen and have thought back about it with great dismay many times.
I wonder how many people in this comment section have uttered the phrase, "That's so transactional." And I wonder how many of these are fond of discovering cultural constructs. It really is amazing how much imprinting can be done so quickly.