Ricky Gervais On Why He Isn’t Scared Of Dying…

Your new show coming to Netflix, Rick, on December the 30th, Mortality, you scared of dying? Uh, yeah, I don't like the idea of it. I mean, I don't care about being dead like a lot of people because I obviously, I think, I know that it feels nothingness. I always say it feels like you did the 13 and a half billion years before you were born, doesn't worry, but knowing that's the worst fear, I go being told I've got six months to live. Yes. I'd rather not know. Exactly, this is what I bang on about all the time because I'm just going to spend that six months ******* panicking. Yeah, well, I had this argument with Sam Harris, he wants to know, he said he'd, because I think, I said, would you rather not know when you're going to die, or know you're going to die, but it's actually a few years longer. He said, without that caveat, I'd always want to know when I was going to die. If I knew that I could prepare things, but you can't, what's the point? I just want to, my favourite way to die would be in my sleep. Yeah, yeah. I don't think, I think if everyone died in their sleep, I don't think we'd have any stress in the world. Well, we would, we'd worry about going to sleep. Yeah, but you wouldn't, would you, because you always woke up so far. Yeah. You go out, you have a good time, then just not wake up. But you know one of them, it's like someone said, if you're going to die eating a Cornetto, every time you have a Cornetto, you'd probably stop having Cornettos, wouldn't you? Well, no, not if, but you might die, you're going to die after your last meal. True. Doesn't stop you eating. Yeah, true. You'll definitely die, you're going to die after your last breath. But my worry would be that he died in his sleep, but he was having a terrible nightmare. Spiders were crawling into his face. Hitler got into the bin with him. Would you rather know how you're going to die, or the date you're going to die? You'd rather know how you're going to die. This is horrible, isn't it? When it comes to it, that's the thing. That's the thing. I know I'm going to die. I don't care. I think it's a good thing. I think it's a good thing that we live and die. Because the alternative is worse. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. 200 years in that bin. It gets to a point where you go, this isn't living. And I want to get out before that. So if someone said to me, if there was a God and he said, don't worry about it, you won't even know you died. I'd go, fine. I wouldn't give a **** about anything anymore. I wouldn't give a ****. But yeah. If you knew you were immortal. How would you want to die if you could? Probably... Hang wank. What? It's weird how well you know him. It's bang on. Probably... I don't know. I was going to say mental. I was going to say drowning. What? Apparently it's not that bad. I thought that was peaceful. You go into a state of like... I thought that was known to be one of the horrific ones. I wouldn't want to be burnt. It's not the actual drowning. It's the bit before in it when you're going, it's that bit. If it's like, if you could... Well, I don't know about this, but apparently if once you do it and then you can't... Who knows that? That's bullshit. It's probably ******* horrible. Yeah. Because no one's come back to tell you. There's only one. There's only the fastest death or like how they put down a cat. That's got to be the best, isn't it? Smack. What, just loads? Yeah, probably. Yeah. Probably shouldn't put this out. Christmas special. Christmas special. Well, I don't think you're allowed... I don't think you're meant to discuss the best ways to kill yourself. No, no, no. I don't think the Samaritans like that. No. I think they're okay with it. I think we're... No, I think we're all right. I water tortured myself, waterboarded myself once. Did you? Yeah, to see what that felt like. How did you do that? I laid in the bath, put a towel over me, got some water, poured it on, because you see it in the movies. It's ******* horrible. Why can't you breathe? Because the water's going into your... I don't know, because I don't think the water really goes into your mouth. Because you can't get air in. You can't get air in and you feel like you can breathe through it and then all of a sudden it sort of feels like it's sucked out. Why do they do that as opposed to a plastic bag on your head? Because it doesn't kill you, basically. Yeah, I think it's just horrific torture and you've gone home and gone, I'm going to try that. Is that the stress of it then? It's not the pain, is it? It's the fear. It's the real panic of not being able to get it in your lungs. Yeah, I think. I think. But anyway, Rick... No, let's talk about this. Yeah, there's... I think I'm going to die choking. On food? Yeah. Or on nothing. A couple of near misses I've had. Have you? So has he. What food? Because I almost died a couple of years ago. I remember nut dust. Nut dust? He's got dusty nuts. Like you have a handful of peanuts. Once, right, I had a smoothie. I was going off to do a film and it was like a Sunday and I had a smoothie before I go because I was like, that's really done. And I must have... And it went down the wrong hole. And I thought, this is it. And I was going, Damien's hitting me. Just going to I laid on the floor and I thought, this is it. This is when I die. And then... And I was like, oh, it's ******* horrible. And that's happened. That was once, right? On a smoothie? On a smoothie, yeah. It must have been a little thing that your throat closes and you can't... ------- hell. I know. And I think sometimes I eat too fast and I talk and I think, oh, it's going to be that. Or I drink a drink of water and breathe that way. It's... You've just got to relax. I've had it once when I was jogging. I must have breathed in some... Breathed in a ******* fly or something like that. And I go... And I think, what am I going to do? Am I going to flag down a car? What am I going to do? Yeah. And I just sit there and I have to control... I have to just control it. I mean, it's happened five times and it's like, it probably happened to everyone, but I just think, oh, that would be horrible. Yeah. I almost died on Norwich Market a few years ago eating a crackling. A what? Crackling. Oh, God. What? Like a... Yeah. What? Just stuck in your throat? Stuck in my throat. Yeah. I thought I was... This isn't even that. This is just... It must be something... It must be... I mean, it's 50% panic. Yeah. I think. Yeah, it is. When you think of all the things, the near misses you had... Yeah. Like walking along a wall when you were pissed up when you were 18. You think, well, I could have fallen and that would have been a different life, wouldn't it? Yeah. Fall on your head. It's like, there's so many near misses. I can't believe we live this long. No. I can't believe everyone just doesn't die when they're about eight. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's a mad ******* world. It is. It's incredible. Yeah. Apparently, if you live to about 60, you'll probably make old age. Oh, really? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Oh, right. Is that just because you stopped doing stupid things at that age? You might stop doing stupid things. Some of the things that cue you before that don't happen so much. Like, I'm relieved now that I'm out of testicular cancer. Yeah. Straight into arse cancer. Yeah, straight into... Overlap like that. Like, oh, testicles, testicles, testicles.