I'm American (albeit 1st generation, with an English mother), and I think it's hilarious. Ricky Gervais' ability to behave like such a complete and utter prat, with apparently *no* threshold for embarrassment (resulting in laughter and cringing in equal proportion for the audience), qualifies him as an absolute genius in my opinion.

That said, I do think that by & large there are some significant differences in what people consider funny either side of the pond. I was particularly struck by this when the show won a Golden Globe the other night & Gervais made his remarks essentially in character, only to be met with relative silence from the Hollywood audience. Alas, I think that that sort of low-key, tongue-in-cheek, politically incorrect humour is largely lost on American culture, which on the whole has a sad tendency to take many things too seriously.

D.