Ricky Gervais says he never made 'deeply shocking' joke nurse was suspended for

Ricky Gervais has responded to claims a nurse was repeating one of his jokes when he was suspended for the 'deeply shocking' remark.

James Murray worked as a nurse for 20 years when he made the disturbing comment 'if they bleed, they can breed,' during a conversation about sexual maturity with a colleague.

The medical professional, who worked at St Andrews Hospital in Fife, was suspended for six months

for misconduct after attempting to defend himself by claiming he was simply repeating the 'joke' he'd allegedly heard from Ricky Gervais.

Now, The Office creator has responded to the claims, saying the comment is not one of his 'jokes' and that he's never said anything like it.

Replying to a news story on X, Gervais said: "Not that it matters, but I'd just like to point out that this isn't 'my joke' either. I've never said anything like this in a sketch, a screenplay, stand up or privately."

The comedian has denied having anything to do with the 'joke' (Ricky Gervais/X)

Murray made the claim during his tribunal with the Nursing and Midwifery Council to discuss the incident which took place in July 2022.

The nurse, who had an otherwise clean record, became embroiled in a dispute which resulted in him shouting offensive language at a female nurse and sticking two fingers up at her.

According to the colleague, she was left being 'belittled' following the abuse, which took place in front of a number of other members of staff.

Murray was reprimanded by a manager for his actions, before going on to complain to another colleague about the woman he'd had the disagreement with.

Speaking during the tribunal, which took place last week, he acknowledged that his 'behaviour was highly unprofessional, was quite rightly seen to be intimidating and could potentially be seen as bullying,' however maintained this was not his intention.

The panel rejected this idea, believing he has requisite conscious objective or desire to bully, intimidate, or undermine’ his colleague, according to tribunal reports.

Later the same day, Murray is said to have continued to have 'highly inappropriate and unprofessional conversation of a sexual nature involving children’ with another colleague while within hearing distance of patients on the ward.

The nurse claimed his disturbing comment was a Ricky Gervais joke (Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)

One witness described the conversation as 'deeply shocking and inappropriate.' The exchange involved the nurse telling a colleague, who also happened to be his friend, that he had probably caught Covid from him, to which his friend responded: "Yeah, probably when I s***ed you up the a***."

The conversation then progressed into making crude comments about children, with Murray saying: "If they bleed, they can breed."

Defending himself in front of the panel, the nurse said: "I think [my colleague] had started talking about it and then, you know, we were teasing each other with stupid answers. Neither myself nor [my colleague] were the authors of this.

"We didn’t make this particular joke up. We were repeating the joke or interpreting the joke."

However, this defence didn't wash with the panel, who said 'such language has no place in a professional healthcare setting,' adding that he'd known a 'serious lack of judgement.'