Ricky Gervais

Fighting talk from Jim Shelley on the Guardian Arts blog:

It's hard to say exactly when Ricky Gervais stopped being the endearing, ingenious wit behind The Office and became the tiresome embarrassment he is today.

There were the endless, nauseatingly matey, appearances on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross; his mediocre episode of The Simpsons; his mutual appreciation society with overrated US comics Ben Stiller and Larry David.

Fawning anecdotes in which he would call Extras' guest Robert De Niro "Bob" were another giveaway. His cameo in A Night At the Museum (with Stiller) was sub-sitcom standard and, like The Simpsons, another example of him re-hashing Brent. After years refusing to "do" The David Brent Dance, these days you can hardly stop him.