Chris Rock VS. Ricky Gervais... Chris Rock Wins

Chris Rock and Ricky Gervais both headlined on HBO in December.

One hit wonder Ricky Gervais (author and star of the British The Office) is not a particularly good stand up comic. Chris Rock is. Ricky's show, like his series, gets old pretty quick. There is some good stuff in his act. Such as: "You would squint, and say, that is an average size. Well you wouldn't squint, I don't know why I said that."  When Ricky looks embarrassed, fumbling, trying to regain control, that is when it works. Unfortunately, some of  his jokes, such as those about fat people, "they eat too much" come off as unecessaraly aggressive and completely unoriginal. Might as well make fun of mullets. (Disclaimer, I'm about the same body type as Ricky).

Chris Rock's New York is closer to Canada than England. Ricky makes fun of a Wikipedia article where an author says an elephant has been caught swimming 2 miles off shore. "Caught" instead of "spotted". Well, that is a tomato/tomato situation. Not funny Ricky. Sorry. 

Chris's humour isn't sofisticated by any measure. As long as you are human you should get most of his funny gross generalisations. If you want light entertainment, Black or White, go for Chris Rock. If you want something a bit more sofisticated, watch the British The Office (which, to my chagrin, not everybody gets the humour from). David Letterman called it the funniest show ever. It certainly is up there ( I agree with Ricky that The Simpsons is better).

By the way, I like the American version of The Office. I also liked the Quebec version. Unfortunately, the Quebec version lasted even less than the British version. I also religiously watch "Everybody Hates Chris", possibly one of the best "Black" sitcoms ever.

Comparing Everybody Hated Chris to the The Office would be like comparing tomatoes to tomatoes. Comparing stand up acts is easier. Chris Rock wins.