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Ricky Gervais Sheds Light on the Bible

In a colorful, hilarious take on Genesis

by
Hadara Graubart
November 24, 2009
Gervais at the L.A. premiere of his The Invention of Lying, September.(Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Gervais at the L.A. premiere of his The Invention of Lying, September.(Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

The blog Effect Measure, focused on public-health issues, over the weekend turned up a YouTube video of modern-day biblical scholar Ricky Gervais holding forth on the book of Genesis. The British comedian casts God as a brilliant magician who screws up and “goes mental,” and the snake in the Garden of Eden as the lucky bastard who got away. He also revives a little-known passage that got scrapped in the first edit: “And lo, Gervais was not only a handsome man but also a funny fucker.” It’s a little bit old, sure, but it’s awfully funny:

Hadara Graubart was formerly a writer and editor for Tablet Magazine.