Ricky Gervais is defending his comedy routine in the wake of a change.org petition that is attempting to remove his content from Netflix.
In this show, I talk about sex, death, paedophilia, race, religion, disability, free speech, global warming, the holocaust, and Elton John. If you don’t approve of jokes about any of these things, then please don’t watch. You wont enjoy it and you’ll get upset. pic.twitter.com/kYXBlZRggW
— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) December 19, 2023
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the joke in question was made during his soon-to-be-released “Armageddon” special which drops Christmas Day.
Gervais pokes fun at serious situations like terminally ill children receiving support from the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
In the pre-recorded special he said, “I’ve been doing video messages recently for terminally ill children — and only if they request it, obviously.”
“I didn’t burst into hospitals and go, ‘Wake up, baldy!’ Watch me twerking on TikTok,” he went on.
Then he added, “They give these dying kids they’re like one wish. If it’s me, I always say yes, and I always start the video the same way.”
“I go, ‘Why didn’t you wish to get better? What, are you fucking r—— as well?’” he said.
Gervaise immediately offered his own disclaimer stating, “These are all jokes, OK? I don’t even use that word in real life, the R-word.”
“That’s not real life, is it? I’m playing a role,” he also noted.
Despite explaining the joke directly after saying it, it has offended the mother of a terminally ill child, named Anna Villa, who created the petition to have the special removed.
She called Gervais’s joke “distasteful” and “heartless” as well as a “slap in the face to not only the children battling these serious illnesses but also their parents and families who stand by them.”
Gervais fired back at the criticism during an interview on the BBC Radio 5 Live’s “Headliner” podcast, per the Hollywood Reporter.
He said, “It’s a joke. No one thinks that with puns. These things didn’t really happen. Two blokes didn’t really walk into a pub. A chicken didn’t really cross the road.”
“Just because I deal in realism and taboo subjects, they think I mean it more than I would if I was doing a silly playground joke,” he added.
He also pointed out, “They’re allowed to hate it. They’re allowed to not come to the show, but it’s not going to stop me doing what I love.”
“I’m not going to stop it at the expense of all the other people who love it. No one has to watch this,” he concluded.