James Corden accused of ripping Ricky Gervais' famous joke 'word for word' on national TV

James Corden has been accused of ripping off a Ricky Gervais joke 'word for word' on The Late Late Show.

It's been a difficult few weeks for Corden, after a New York restaurant owner barred him and labelled him a 'tiny cretin of a man' over his alleged treatment of staff.

The incident took place on 9 October but the story has rumbled on since, with Corden initially denying he'd done anything wrong before issuing an apology, and owner Keith McNally flitting between forgiveness and contempt.

But just as the news cycle was moving on, it looks as though Corden might have landed himself at the centre of a fresh scandal.

On the latest instalment of his talk show, the 44-year-old was discussing Elon Musk's Twitter takeover and the billionaire's frequent references to the social media platform as the 'digital town square'.

"It isn't," Corden said. "Because if someone puts up a poster in a town square that says 'Guitar lessons available,' you don't get people in the town going 'I don't wanna play the guitar! I wanna play the piano you piece of s**t!

"Well then that sign wasn't for you, it was for somebody else. You don't have to get mad about all of it."

The analogy landed some laughs in the studio - but it wasn't long until people on Twitter called out Corden's musings on Twitter as very similar to a Ricky Gervais bit about Twitter.

The routine in question was part of his 2018 Netflix special Humanity, in which he talks about about humanity's tendency to think the world revolves around them, particularly on Twitter.

"They can be following me without me knowing, choose to read my tweet, and then take that personally," the 61-year-old said.

"That's like going into a town square, seeing a big noticeboard, and there's a notice for guitar lessons, and you go 'But I don't f***ing want guitar lessons!'"

Inevitably, someone took the liberty of splicing the two clips together - and the similarity is quite shocking:

The clip has gone viral, and the response has been pretty unanimous.

One person wrote: "James Corden has literally ripped off Ricky Gervais' very widely shared 'guitar lessons' bit live on his show with no reference to Gervais.

"Surely he didn’t think he could do it without anyone (Gervais included) picking him up on it?"

Another said: "James Corden basically does a Ricky Gervais joke word for word."

A third added: "I truly believe that Corden must have p****d off one of his writers who then gave him a section of a hugely watched Ricky Gervais stand-up routine - So that Corden himself would get the flack for doing so…"

Naturally, we're all now wondering what Gervais makes of this, and he's thankfully already offered up a brief comment.

Asked on Twitter if Corden had asked permission to use the joke, he replied: "No. I reckon one of the writers 'came up with it' for him.

"I doubt he would knowingly just copy such a famous stand up routine word for word like that."

LADbible has contacted The Late Late Show for comment.