Ricky Gervais responds to backlash over Netflix special joke

Comedian has been called out for a joke in which he mocks terminally ill children and uses an ableist slur against them

Ricky Gervais has claimed that the people complaining about a controversial joke in his forthcoming Netflix special “aren’t really offended”.

The Emmy Award-winning British comedian, 62, stars in a new comedy special, Armageddon, due to air on Christmas Day.

A teaser for the show previews a section about his work with the Make-a-Wish Foundation, in which he jokes about how he approaches messages for terminally ill children who ask for him. He also uses an ableist slur against them.

Appearing on BBC Radio 5 Live, Gervais hit back at those who expressed their upset over the joke.

“I’m literally saying in the joke that I don’t do that. But people have a reaction. They don’t analyse it,” he said. “They feel something – that’s what offence is. It’s a feeling. That’s why ‘I’m offended’ is quite meaningless. What do you want me to change?”

Gervais said he believes that “99 per cent” of the reaction was “faux offence”.

“They’re not really offended. They just want to be heard,” he said.

“Of all the millions of people that watched it and loved it, only a few don’t like it. If I give them special attention and try and placate them, I’ve annoyed the other millions of people that got the joke. They go, ‘No, you’ve ruined it for us!’”

He continued: “I’ve got a duty to the people that like it and get it. I wouldn’t sit down with a heckler would I? If I’m playing to 20,000 people, I wouldn’t stop the show and explain to them. I ignore them.”

“I’ve been doing video messages recently for terminally ill children – and only if they request it, obviously,” Gervais begins in Armageddon. “I didn’t burst into hospitals and go, ‘Wake up baldy!’ Watch me twerking on TikTok.’”

Ricky Gervais claims people ‘aren’t really offended’ by his joke (2020 NBCUniversal Media, LLC via)

Gervais then claims that he always starts his videos the same way: “I go, ‘Why didn’t you wish to get better? What, are you f***ing r*****d as well?'”

Immediately after this remark, Gervais states that he has never actually said this to any Make-a-Wish child: “These are all jokes, OK? I don’t even use that word in real life, the R-word. ‘You just used it, Rick.’ Yeah, in a joke. That’s not real life, is it? I’m playing a role,” he said in a mock conversation.

“‘You sounded pretty convincing.’ Yeah! Because I’m good.”

He then goes on to compare his work as a comedian to acting, while repeating the ableist slur: “You wouldn’t go up to Sir Anthony Hopkins and go, ‘Saw you in Silence of the Lambs. You a cannibal, are ya?'” he says.

“‘No, I was playing a role.’ ‘Seemed pretty convincing.’ Yeah, he’s good, and I’m good.”

He continues: “Imagine if I came out here and did things not very well, so you knew I was joking. That’d be f***ing r*****d.”

Ricky Gervais pictured at the National Television Awards in October 2022 (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Gervais tweeted a content warning about the material in Armageddon this week, ahead of its release: “In this show, I talk about sex, death, paedophilia [sic], race, religion, disability, free speech, global warming, the holocaust, and Elton John,” he said.

“If you don’t approve of jokes about any of these things, then please don’t watch. You won’t enjoy it and you’ll get upset.”

Earlier this month, disability charity Scope warned that “language like this has consequences” and that “the people this kind of language impacts are real”.

“Language like this has consequences. The stage is real. Netflix is real. The people this kind of language impacts are real,” their message read. “‘Joking’ about this kind of language trivialises it. It risks normalising the abuse that many disabled people face on a day-to-day basis.”

The charity later said that it had been forced to turn off comments on its X/Twitter account due to the abuse they had been receiving in response.