Lazy laughs?

Ricky Gervais talks to the Guardian's Tim Adams in advance of his new series 'Extras', which begins on BBC2 on 21st July.

Given the recent debate about his show 'Politics' on Musings From Middle England, it's interesting that he is disparaging about lazy stand-up: "If a comedian tells me that sometimes politicians are corrupt or dictators are bad, my reaction will be: no shit, never thought of that before. I have no interest in telling people that George W is not all he might be. For that reason my comedy targets tend to be, you know, Gandhi or Thora Hird".

There's also a reference to a joke he cracked about Stephen Hawking at the Comedy Awards, just after the man himself had been up on stage. In my book Gervais is a very funny man indeed, but he's not immune from slipping into slightly lazy comedy territory himself.

Anyway, 'Extras' looks promising - just so long as the laughs don't come predominantly from the self-parodying involvement of the celebrities (see: 'A Bear's Tale').