Ricky Gervais says there's only one group of people he can 'safely' mock without facing backlash

Ricky Gervais has revealed the one group of people he believes comedians can mock without receiving backlash.

The comedian is back on our TV screens once again with his latest Netflix special, Mortality, a follow-up to 2023's Armageddon – aka, the show which landed him in hot water for making jokes about terminally ill children.

Mortality is now available on Netflix for viewers to watch, with the 64-year-old currently doing the rounds on the state of comedy.

This led The Office co-creator to reveal the only group he feels comedians can 'safely' take the mickey out of - working class people.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's This Cultural Life, Gervais said he believes people think it's fine to be 'very disparaging about the working classes' and receive 'no blowback at all'.

Gervais believes it's still acceptable to mock working class people (Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)

"People understand most power struggles," he explained.

"They understand why racism, homophobia and misogyny are wrong, but they are very disparaging about the working classes. It's the one thing that it seems to be fine to take the mickey out of with no blowback at all."

Gervais himself had a working class upbringing on a council estate in Reading, previously revealing that his family had 'no money growing up' in a 2023 post on Facebook.

Gervais also reflected on causing offence during his long-running comedy career, admitting that while he tries to avoid poking fun at disadvantaged people nowadays, he doesn't regret his past.

"You're a product of your time, and you do make things for people of your time. I'd put trigger warnings on things, but I wouldn't go back and change something," he said.

"Do I regret anything? No. Would I do things differently now? Probably."

Gervais has faced backlash over his comments multiple times in his career, with jokes about trans people, AIDS and branding people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis 'lazy'.

The comedian is back with his new comedy show Mortality (Matt Crockett/Netflix)

His comments follow an admission from The Office producer Ash Atalla, who revealed that he now felt uncomfortable when looking back on the repeated jokes Gervais made about his disability.

"I felt a little bit uncomfortable. There was a period of late Nineties comedy with the likes of Ricky Gervais, Jimmy Carr and Frankie Boyle, where the game was to see what you could get away with and then reverse intellectualise it," he explained in a 2021 interview with The Times.

"Those jokes didn't bother me at the time, but they would if they happened now."

However, it doesn't appear that Gervais has toned down his routine entirely, with a promotional clip from Mortality seeing the After Life creator labelling the term 'hate crime' - a crime motivated by hostility or prejudice - a 'buzzword'.