Latest news with #TheOffice
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Is Paramount+ Sneak-Dissing ‘South Park' By Putting It in the ‘Cringeworthy' Category?
After weeks of public conflict and embarrassment, Paramount+ may retain the streaming rights to South Park after all, but there's nothing in the contract that says they can't stay pissy in the main menu. According to industry insiders, Paramount Global is in advanced negotiations with South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone over a settlement that would avoid a lawsuit between the parties and secure an extension to the lucrative overall South Park contract. After Parker and Stone publicly accused Paramount and its prospective new owners at Skydance Media of meddling in their negotiations with other streaming giants following the breakdown of the initial extension talks, the South Park creators seemed poised to go to war with Paramount and its partners on more fronts than just social media and strongly worded letters. Then, over the weekend, Hollywood insider Matthew Belloni reported that Paramount was making major strides toward settling the dispute with Parker and Stone out of court while securing the future of South Park on its home platform. At the same time, however, Paramount+ listed the entirety of its South Park offerings in the 'Cringeworthy Comedies' category, as one fan of the show pointed out in the South Park subreddit. Maybe Paramount+ is taking subtle shots at South Park after pulling the show from international streaming markets amidst the acrimonious contract dispute — or maybe they really can't get through South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut without wincing. Musicals aren't for everyone. Seriously, South Park has had some pain-inducing moments over its 26 seasons and counting — Cartman's 'red rocket' method in the Season Five episode 'Proper Condom Use' jumps out as especially hard-to-watch — but South Park is hardly cringeworthy comedy in the way that the term typically describes shows like The Office and Curb Your Enthusiasm. A 'cringe comedy' is generally accepted to mean a series that uses social awkwardness and the accidental transgression of social norms as the foundation for the humor, not one that features shockingly graphic depictions of dog masturbation by a sociopathic child. Given the bad fit, the fact that every single South Park streaming special available on Paramount+ is headlining the cringeworthy comedy category is certainly suspicious. However, the simplest explanation is that the front-and-center placement is just the algorithmic consequence of subscriber streaming habits that no human being influenced on Paramount's end. Or, alternatively, Paramount is intentionally featuring South Park in an ill-fitting and possibly insulting category because it's trying to milk every view it can out of its South Park content, just in case negotiations fall through and they lose the rest of the South Park library forever. But while that would certainly be a pathetic explanation for the puzzling category classification, it would only be the second most cringeworthy milking scheme in South Park history. Get more Cracked directly to your inbox. Sign up for Cracked newsletters at Cracked News Letters Signup. Solve the daily Crossword
Evening Standard
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Evening Standard
The Fantastic Four: First Steps finds surer ground after Superman face plant
Storm is pregnant and Reed is under pressure to figure out a new threat from space. A Silver Surfer, Shalla-Bal (Julia Garner) sweeps down to Earth as a herald for a being called Galactus, who is a planet eater; our planet is next on the menu. Cue an exciting trip up into space for the Four to speak to this Galactus, a giant machine-man god of sorts (played by Finchy from The Office, it turns out, Ralph Ineson) with a compulsion to destroy and devour holy bodies with his industrial space ship. When the Four come face to face with him, the being senses something special about Storm and Reed's unborn baby and says he'll spare the earth if they give the child to him. The superheroes barely escape back to Earth, and have to figure out what to do, for Galactus is on his way...
Evening Standard
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Evening Standard
The Fantastic Four: First Steps review: 'shows Superman how it's done'
Storm is pregnant and Reed is under pressure to figure out a new threat from space. A Silver Surfer, Shalla-Bal (Julia Garner) sweeps down to Earth as a herald for a being called Galactus, who is a planet eater; our planet is next on the menu. Cue an exciting trip up into space for the Four to speak to this Galactus, a giant machine-man god of sorts (played by Finchy from The Office, it turns out, Ralph Ineson) with a compulsion to destroy and devour holy bodies with his industrial space ship. When the Four come face to face with him, the being senses something special about Storm and Reed's unborn baby and says he'll spare the earth if they give the child to him. The superheroes barely escape back to Earth, and have to figure out what to do, for Galactus is on his way...
Telegraph
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
‘Celebrities are just like us – idiots': Ricky Gervais on Extras turning 20
Samuel L Jackson was a fan of The Office – one of many celebrity fans whom Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant encountered in the wake of their mockumentary sitcom success. Jackson had watched The Office on DVD, a concept that still amuses Merchant. 'It just seemed so weird,' he says. 'The image of Sam Jackson at home, trying to get the cellophane off of the DVD – having to get a key and scratching it off – then popping the DVD in and putting his feet up with a cup of coffee or whatever.' There was a common theme among their celebrity fans: many stars said they'd like to work with Gervais and Merchant in the future. 'It happened often enough that we thought it would be nice to take advantage of that,' says Merchant. The celebs had unwittingly cast themselves in Gervais and Merchant's follow-up sitcom, Extras, which first aired on BBC Two 20 years ago this week, on July 21, 2005. Across Extras' two series and feature-length Christmas special, A-list guest stars included Samuel L Jackson, Kate Winslet, Ben Stiller, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, George Michael, Daniel Radcliffe, Orlando Bloom, David Bowie, and Robert De Niro. Most played what Gervais and Merchant described as 'twisted' versions of themselves: egomaniacs, oddballs, fantasists, buffoons. 'It wasn't as common at the time to have these A-listers ridiculing themselves,' says Gervais. 'It was before social media – before everyone found out that celebrities are just like us. They're idiots!' But the celebs were, ironically enough, just supporting players to Extras' real lead characters: Andy Millman (Gervais) and best friend Maggie (Ashley Jensen). 'We didn't want it to be, 'look at my celebrity mates,'' says Gervais. 'They had to be bonuses, appendages. Because it was really about a guy who was struggling and selling everything for an ambition.' In the first series, Andy – a film extra and frustrated wannabe actor – scrabbles around film sets for one meagre line of dialogue, sucking up to and putting his foot in it with star names. In the second series, Andy's dreams seemingly come true when he gets his own BBC sitcom. But ratings-chasing compromises – broad gags, funny wigs and catchphrases ('Are you havin' a laugh?') – turn his modicum of celebrity into a series of humiliations. He sells any semblance of artistic integrity to cling on to fame while grumbling to Maggie that he should be higher up the showbiz ladder; that he deserves more respect. 'No matter how successful you are, you'll never be famous enough,' Maggie warns him shortly before he signs up for the ultimate profile-boosting indignity: Celebrity Big Brother. Who's who in Extras Maggie is the heart and conscience of Extras, Andy is the snark and insecurity, and his hilariously useless agent, Darren Lamb (Merchant) is the s--t-for-brains. The tragedy (and all great British sitcoms need a touch of something tragic) comes from the lower rungs of showbiz, a source of imagined desperation. Les Dennis lays his personal and professional woes bare (while also baring his backside) and Shaun Williamson – best known as Barry off EastEnders – plays himself as a down-on-his-luck sad-sack. He's so unable to shake the EastEnders image that even his agent, Darren, calls him Barry and describes him as having 'an undercurrent of tragedy'. Looking back, Gervais remembers an old sketch idea that now feels like a precursor to Extras. It was a Braveheart-like scene, with a Mel Gibson-like star, in which a camera would pan across the battle lines until one extra suddenly asked, 'What time's lunch?' 'Imagine being at the bottom of the pile and ruining it,' says Gervais. 'That was the funny seed.' Gervais likens it to a moment that sums up the first series, when Andy tries to edge into a shot – in the background of a Ross Kemp period drama – then hears the director say, 'Cut before that fat little extra gets his face in.' 'It was an absurd world' Extras was also inspired by the fact that Gervais and Merchant were, at the time, new to show business. 'It was such an absurd world that we'd entered,' says Merchant. 'It was bizarre encountering award ceremonies and film sets and celebrities. It was hard not to think of that as a fun subject. We felt like outsiders.' 'I worked in an office for nine years, so I wrote about it,' says Gervais. 'After that, my job was sort of show business. It's irresistible to write about your own job. Write what you know.' Merchant recalls that they originally planned to use A-listers as actual extras. 'They'd literally be walking around in the background,' he says. 'You'd see Sam Jackson or Kate Winslet, but they'd say nothing. They were just extras in the show. At some point, we thought if we got them all the way to the set, it seems silly to squander them. We started to think about how they could interact with the characters.' It wasn't a new idea. The Larry Sanders Show and Curb Your Enthusiasm had featured Hollywood stars playing fictionalised versions of themselves. In Extras, the celebrities are there to make Andy squirm under the backstage power dynamic and to hold up the cracked mirror of fame – they reveal themselves as out-of-touch with reality, or as massively out-of-step with their public persona. 'Famous people behaving badly' Ben Stiller turns his hand from comedy acting to directing a war drama. But he's a tyrant, threatening to shoot a child actor's mum in the face and screaming about Meet the Fockers' box office take. 'When I sent Ben Stiller the rough idea, he said, 'You've tapped into my inner soul,'' says Gervais, laughing. In another episode, Kate Winslet plays herself as a foul-mouthed nun in a Second World War film. She dishes out advice on dirty phone calls and admits that she's only doing a Holocaust drama for an Oscar. 'And then she wins an Oscar for a Holocaust film!' says Gervais, in reference to The Reader (2008). As smart as Extras is – tinkering with multiple levels of the fourth wall and playing out the John Updike quote that 'celebrity is a mask that eats into the face' – Gervais agrees there was some childish glee in getting their A-listers to say and do outrageous things. 'It was famous people behaving badly,' Gervais says. 'That's what it could have been called.' 'The more that these people said that they were interested, the more it became a game of what would be the most unpleasant or funniest version of themselves – the one that was most incongruous with their public image,' says Merchant. He adds: 'Normally, we'd get a tentative yes and we'd write a script with them in mind to see if they were happy. They almost all were. I think Kate Winslet had a couple of lines that were particularly offensive that she wouldn't say, but other than that she was game for it. They were just game for a laugh. There was very little push-back. It was surprisingly easy.' A personal favourite from the first series is Patrick Stewart, who begins by bellowing out a speech from The Tempest then tells Andy about a script he's written himself, in which he controls the world with the power of his mind – a power he mostly uses for making ladies' clothes fall off. ('Even before she can get her knickers back on, I've seen everything ... I've seen it all.') 'One of the most dignified Shakespearian actors in the world talking about knickers,' sniggers Gervais. Another highlight is Ross Kemp, who lies about feats of hard-nuttery ('I headbutted a horse once') and boasts he could batter Vinnie Jones – until Vinnie turns up to show him what being hard is all about. There's a touch of melancholy to Kemp – a wounded, lip-quivering Billy no-mates. 'He was a little bit nervous,' says Gervais. 'He did talk about portraying himself and going too far. He said, 'Well, it's OK if you're Sam Jackson!' He was very conscious and worried about perception. But he still did it!' Les Dennis goes close-to-the-bone The celeb who played the riskiest version of themself was Les Dennis. The episode is daringly close-to-the-bone, portraying the former Family Fortunes host as a washed-up has-been who – between panto performances – showers a much-younger girlfriend with £50 notes and calls up Heat magazine to report celebrity sightings of, well, himself. The lowest moment comes when Les discovers his girlfriend is cheating. He slumps into his dressing room chair, traumatised and naked. Gervais rates it as the best episode. 'It was the one where we sailed very close to the wind as to the public perception of him,' says Gervais. 'As opposed to playing against type or making something up.' 'It was a way of exploring how celebrity works,' says Merchant. 'It chews you up and spits you out.' It came after Dennis's real-life divorce from Amanda Holden and a maudlin stint on Celebrity Big Brother that made him a tabloid target. One headline read, 'Is this the most pathetic man in Britain?' 'My agent called to say Ricky Gervais wants you to call him,' says Dennis. 'I thought, 'What? Why would Ricky Gervais want me to call him?' It wasn't long after Big Brother. The phone wasn't exactly ringing at the time. Ricky asked me if I wanted to play a 'twisted, demented' version of myself.' Dennis visited their office to talk about the episode. 'They said, 'How far can we go?' and I said, 'Go as far as you like!' On the way out, Ricky said, 'How do you feel about the arse shot?' I said, 'What?' He said, 'You'll be naked in the dressing room. Do you want a double?' I said, 'No I'll do it myself.'' When they shot the scene, he wore nothing but a cricket box. 'Ricky said, 'I'm not having Les's offal in my face! I want him to wear something!'' Dennis recalls, laughing. 'There were tea and biscuits around and Ricky picked up the ginger nuts.' Dennis's friends were concerned about him taking the role – they were suspicious that it might be a Brass Eye-type set-up – but Dennis knew he had to do it. 'At the time I was known as 'Les Miserables,'' he says. 'I came out of the Big Brother house and had a lot of stuff going on. People thought I was grumpy, but I just didn't like being invaded by the press. I thought, just go for it and show you've got a sense of humour about all this stuff that's being written.' Dennis came up with lines to ridicule himself even more. For one climactic scene – in bed with a woman he's just pulled – Dennis suggested blurting out his Family Fortunes catchphrase: 'If it's up there, I'll give you the money me-self.' Dennis remembers that Gervais was laughing so much filming the scene that Merchant ordered him off set. 'He said, 'Ricky, you've ruined the take, you've laughed over the dialogue, you've got to go out,'' says Dennis. 'He got thrown out of the room by Stephen.' The role changed the public perception of Dennis and boosted his theatre career. 'They helped me reinvent myself,' he says. Orlando Bloom told us to 'go harder' Dennis wasn't the only celeb insisting they go more extreme. Orlando Bloom told Gervais and Merchant to 'go harder' when he's trying to prove he's a bigger heartthrob than Johnny Depp. 'Orlando Bloom said, 'Go harder, let me go after Johnny Depp harder, make it worse!'' says Gervais. 'Willy Wonka? Johnny w-----r! ' says Bloom, trying to impress Maggie on the set of a courtroom drama. In other ridiculous celebrity appearances, Daniel Radcliffe plays himself as a randy teenager and accidentally flicks an unravelled condom onto Dame Diana Rigg's head. Gervais had to delicately position the condom on Rigg's head himself. 'When Daniel Radcliffe flicks it, we had to get it to land,' says Gervais. 'So, at one point I was putting it over her eye a little bit. I was saying, 'Can you see? Is that alright?' She said, 'Yeah. That's alright.' And I just thought, that's a weird day at work.' Elsewhere, they cast George Michael as a kebab-chomping, joint-smoking troublemaker. The much-treasured singer uses his community service lunch break to scout Hampstead Heath for sexual encounters. 'What a performer,' says Gervais. 'Just willing to be cottaging, smoking a joint, eating a kebab … He'd just done that community service, so we had him in trouble with the police.' In the episode, George is in trouble for fly-tipping a fridge freezer with Annie Lennox. Sting grassed them up to the council. 'Because he's a f----er do-gooder,' says George. Gervais and Merchant were, of course, the new darlings of British comedy at the time. Stars wanted to be involved. 'We had a blank cheque of kudos that we could cash-in,' says Merchant. 'Ronnie Corbett said his grandchildren told him, 'You've got to do this,'' says Gervais. 'And then we've got him in the toilets at the Baftas taking coke! It's mad what they were willing to say and do.' 'Two celebrities turned us down' Gervais and Merchant can only remember two celebs who turned them down. One was Syd Little of Little and Large. 'He read the script and thought it was too much, the swearing or whatever. He was an old family entertainer,' says Gervais. The other was Orville the Duck ventriloquist Keith Harris, who thought the show was some kind of wind-up. 'But I think Ian McKellen said he thought it was a wind-up,' says Gervais. Looking back now, do Gervais and Merchant have favourite celebrity appearances? For Merchant, it's the one and only Robert De Niro, who appears briefly with Merchant in series two. 'We were making the show and kept on referring to Robert De Niro without knowing if he was going to do it,' says Merchant. 'Finally, he gave us an hour. Because of my giant height [6ft 7in] and his relatively normal human size, there's a wide shot where I look three times as big as him – because of the weird perspective. There were conspiracy theories that we were never in the same room. I was like, 'Are you kidding me?! We worked so hard to get me in the same room!'' Merchant adds: 'Ricky was behind the camera and gave me a couple of notes. Robert De Niro said, 'Any notes for me?' We just started laughing! ' Yeah, we're giving you notes!'' Gervais chooses Bowie. 'Working with my hero David Bowie – writing a song with my hero David Bowie – is off the charts.' In the episode, Bowie listens to Andy's complaints about the sitcom, at which point Bowie bursts into his song. Gervais admits it's a bit surreal in contrast to other celebs. 'You meet David Bowie and then he writes a song!' says Gervais. 'It's almost like cheating, that. But it was well done and I think we were allowed. If you've got David Bowie for the day and he's written a song, he's allowed to sing it!' Twenty years on, Gervais is still amused by the idea that their A-listers were – to quote When the Whistle Blows – very much up for having a laugh. 'Surprising,' Gervais says. 'Just surprising that they said yes and then went along with it.'
USA Today
a day ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
From Love Island to live sports, streaming on Peacock is getting a bit more expensive
Starting tomorrow, it's going to cost a few bucks more each month to stream Law & Order, The Office and yes, even Love Island. Peacock, NBC's streaming platform, is raising their prices for both monthly and annual plans. The price increase will go into effect officially on Wednesday, July 23. Here's a breakdown of the price increase, as well as everything you need to know about Peacock: How much will Peacock cost under the new pricing? The monthly ad-supported Peacock Premium subscription plan will now be $10.99/month (up from $7.99). The ad-free Premium Plus Plan will now be $16.99/month (up from $13.99). Annual plans are also impacted with Peacock Premium going from $79.99 to $109.99 per year. Premium Plus will soon cost $169.99, instead of $139.99. New subscribers on July 23 will pay the new prices, while existing customers can expect the price to increase on the first billing cycle after July 23, depending on the date of your renewal. Stream TV, movies & sports on Peacock Peacock gives you access to award-winning movies, top TV content and live sports. Stream top movies on Peacock What is Peacock? Peacock is a streaming service from NBC. It offers popular movies and TV shows, original content, current NBC and Bravo hits, as well as live sports including Sunday Night Football and Premier League. Most popular Peacock shows In addition to Sunday Night Football, check out these other extremely popular TV shows that can be streamed on Peacock Hit movies on Peacock right now Some of the best movies of the year are are available to stream on Peacock. Don't miss 'Oppenheimer' on the platform and some of our other favorite Peacock movies: Stream top content on Peacock
