Editorial
Ricky Gervais, who recently weighed in on Johnny Depp’s defamation trial against Amber Heard, responded to the backlash his comedy special has received over its ‘transphobic’ jokes.
The comedian appeared on The One Show and explained that his sketches ‘don’t mean anything’ and he likes to discuss ‘taboo subjects’.
Chatting to the show’s hosts, Gervais said: “So I deal with everything. And I think we second guess the audience too much.”
Find out more about the Ricky Gervais backlash in the clip below…
Referring to whether his audience can handle his jokes, he continued: “Of course they can. Real-life is much worse. These are just jokes. They don’t mean anything. They’re just for you to laugh for an hour or so. So that’s why I deal with taboo subjects.
“I think that’s what comedy is for, really—to get us through stuff, and I deal in taboo subjects because I want to take the audience to a place it hasn’t been before, even for a split second.
“Most offence comes from when people mistake the subject of a joke with the actual target. … [A stand-up] starts and they go, ‘What’s he going to say?’ I tell the joke. Phew, they laugh. It’s like a parachute jump – it’s scary, but then you land and it’s all okay.”
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Gervais’ Netflix special sparked a backlash as it briefly focused on trans women.
At one point in the sketch, the 60-year-old said: “The new ones we’ve been seeing lately. The ones with beards and c***s. They’re as good as gold, I love them.”
Elsewhere in the show, he added: “Like, the worst thing you can say today – to get you cancelled on Twitter – the worst thing you can say today is, ‘Women don’t have penises,’ right?”
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