Comedian speaks out over allegations 'Ricky Gervais stole his joke'

A comedian has addressed claims that Ricky Gervais poached one of his punchlines for his Netflix show Mortality.

Millions of people have tuned into the Golden Globe-winning stand-up special since it made its debut on the streaming platform in late December, and a few viewers noticed that one part in particular sounded quite familiar.

According to a number of comedy fans, one of the gags that earned Gervais a load of laughs is suspiciously similar to a joke that was made by London-based funnyman Andy Field over five years ago.

In Mortality, the actor and comedian makes a wisecrack about a legendary line from the 1973 supernatural horror film, The Exorcist.

Describing it as his 'favourite horror film of all time', Gervais reminded the audience of the memorable scene where a priest is trying to rid Linda Blair's character of the demon possessing her.

In a bid to distract him from the exorcism at hand, the young girl savagely tells the man of the cloth: "Your mother sucks c*cks in Hell!"

Discussing what he thought of this, The Office star Gervais said during his Netflix stand-up special: "If scientists actually found the Devil, I’d want to meet him.

"And I’d meet the Devil, and he’d try to hurt my feelings...and he went, 'Your mother sucks c*cks in Hell!' I’d go, 'Pfffft I don’t care'. One, she’s dead. Two, she was heterosexual.

"Three, she never had her teeth in towards the end, so…But it’s Hell! Think of all the terrible things that could be happening to her - being raped by red-hot pokers, rats eating her eyes.

"My mum gets c*ck duty, go on girl! Who’s getting their c*ck sucked in Hell? That’s what I want to know, because we’re there for punishment, and that’s a little treat."

Obviously, the crowd found this gag quite hilarious, but some comedy fans claimed that it was a cut-and-paste job of a joke made by Field back in 2020.

During his set that aired during the BBC's Stand Up for Live Comedy in 2020, the comedian also made a joke about this scene in The Exorcist...and we'll let you decide who's you thought was funnier.

Field said: "Has anyone seen The Exorcist? 'Your mother sucks c*cks in Hell!' And you’re supposed to go, 'Oh no, that sounds awful!'

"But I don’t know, I think that sounds fine. It’s Hell, isn’t it? It’s where the worst imaginable things [happen], there’s a million people burning for eternity in a lake of fire, constantly blistering in agony.

"My mum’s down there sucking d**ks, good on you, Lindsey. Whose d**k’s getting sucked in Hell anyway? That seems like a weirdly positive thing to be happening."

After getting wind of the claims that Gervais might have copied his wisecrack, Field has shared a video on social media explaining whether he believes the 64-year-old swiped his gag.

He spliced clips of both their sets together to highlight the similarities and pointed out that they are 'pretty close', before saying: "I cut those bits together to make them look close.

"But the idea that there's so many bits that are so close is kind of weird, isn't it? If I'm honest, what I think happened here is that Ricky Gervais had the same idea as me, independently, on his own, at a different time.

"People love a bit of drama, love a bit of joke-stealing...I don't really think that's what happened here, most likely."

In Field's eyes, it is an 'easily have-able idea', as he explained: "We've never met. I know I did that bit on BBC One, but no one watched it. I had that idea ten years ago, Ricky Gervais had it quite recently.

"I don't think he stole my bit, I think we just have very similar bits."

Field instead took the opportunity to highlight how many 'talented people [are] out there' with Gervais-levels of hilarity, while explaining that these lesser-known comics just don't have a huge platform to tell their jokes on.

"Lots of people, myself included, can make stand-up of that level," he went on. "There's not space in the public consciousness for that many successful comedians, but there are that many talented people out there.

"So if you're a big Ricky Gervais fan but you don't go to your local comedy club, or you don't check a bit more grassroots, a bit closer to home - maybe you should.

"Because there are loads of people out there doing so much great stand-up that wouldn't be out of place on a Golden Globe-winning stand-up special. For my part, I'm working on a new show this year...and if you're lucky, you might see a bit of stand-up that ten years of now, Ricky Gervais could think of on his own."

Field also told Metro that he 'never thought' Gervais had pinched his joke, adding: "I think if you’re going to unpick the logic of something, stand-up comedians are going to end up kind of going down similar avenues."

LADbible has contacted Gervais' representatives for comment.