Make Ricky Gervais Laugh

Make Ricky Gervais Laugh is a feature that premiered during Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s Xfm radio show during the Pre-Capital era.

Origins

Steve came up with the idea after their producer at the time, Emma, brought some bottles of beer that had an image on the label that Steve was confident would make Ricky laugh. It did, and Steve decided to turn this into a competition where listeners would fax in pictures or jokes to try and make Ricky laugh. If they succeeded, they would win a prize. Ricky was skeptical about the feature, and often mocked Steve about how uninteresting this feature must be for listeners who could not see the pictures.

Pre-Capital Xfm

This feature appears on the Pre-Capital tapes provided by Jezoc which were most likely broadcast in mid to late June of 1998. The origin of the feature can be found on Tape 3 Side A. In these early tapes, Ricky and Steve would not explain or describe the pictures to the listeners. The picture used for this feature on Tape 2 Side A reminded Ricky of one of his nephews that had mumps. The picture from Tape 2 Side B was not sent in by a listener, it was a drawing done by Steve.