Ricky Gervais has doubled down on his stance on offensive comedy, yet again.
Comic Robin Ince wrote on Twitter: "What I find odd about the offensive comedy debate is it seems to say 'comedy must be allowed to be offensive but it is wrong for people to be offended' – make up your mind."
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Gervais agreed, adding: "Everyone is allowed to offend and everyone is allowed to be offended. It’s a good system."
The controversial British comic faced backlash following his latest Netflix special, Super Nature, and he isn't backing down over his right to offend.
In one part of the show, Gervais spoke about the transgender community, the social commentary about them and urged trans women to 'lose the c**k'.
"Oh, women. Not all women, I mean the old-fashioned ones. The ones with wombs. Those f**king dinosaurs," he said during the Netflix special.
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"I love the new women. They’re great, aren’t they? The new ones we’ve been seeing lately. The ones with beards and c**ks."
Later in the special, Gervais explained his reasoning behind his trans jokes.
"Full disclosure: In real life of course I support trans rights. I support all human rights, and trans rights are human rights," he said.
The Netflix special was dubbed 'dangerous' by LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD for 'anti-trans rants masquerading as jokes', according to the The Independent.
After his Netflix special copped flak from critics and across social media, Gervais defended his right to joke about 'taboo' topics.
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"I think that’s what comedy is for really, to get us through stuff and ideally taboo subjects, because I want to take the audience to a place it hasn’t been before, even for a split second," he said as per the The Independent.
He also sat down with The Spectator to chat about the backlash.
"My target wasn't trans folk, but trans activist ideology. I've always confronted dogma that oppresses people and limits freedom of expression," Gervais said.
"It was probably the most current, most talked about, taboo subject of the last couple of years. I deal in taboo subjects and have to confront the elephant in the room."
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In light of the criticism, a clip from fellow comedian James Acaster's 2019 show Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999 went viral while he was battling criticism for his jokes in Super Nature.
"No one tells them what they can and can’t say," Acaster said.
"They walk straight on stage, top of their specials sometimes, and do 10 solid minutes just slagging off transgender people."
Topics: Ricky Gervais, UK News
Rachel Lang