Speaking to BBC One's 'The One Show', the 60-year-old comedian insists his jokes are 'irony' after receiving criticism from LGBT community GLAAD, which brands his comedy 'dangerous.'
- May 26, 2022
AceShowbiz - Ricky Gervais has defended his "taboo" jokes. The comedian has insisted his jokes are "irony" after his new Netflix special "SuperNature" was labeled anti-trans.
The comic defended himself after his show on the streamer was branded "dangerous" by a LGBT rights group. He told BBC One's "The One Show", "I think that's what comedy is for, really, to get us through stuff, and I deal in taboo subjects because I want to take the audience to a place it hasn't been before, even for a split second." He added, "Most offence comes from when people mistake the subject of a joke with the actual target."
Ricky opened his hour-long "SuperNature" with a caveat he's "satirizing attitudes." During his performance, the 60-year-old comic joked "old-fashioned women... the ones with wombs" are now "f**king dinosaurs" compared with trans people "who have beards and cocks."
Ricky added on the newly released show, "The worst thing you can say today is, 'Women don't have penises.' " There was also a section where he pretended to have transitioned to being a woman and seduces a lesbian.
Ricky, who is "After Life" and "The Office" creator and lives in London with his long-term writer partner Jane Fallon, continued, "In real life, of course I support trans rights." He further noted, "I support all human rights and trans rights are human rights. Live your best life, use your preferred pronouns, be the gender that you feel that you are. It's mad to think that joking about something means you're anti-it."
Criticism came from LGBT rights groups, including GLAAD, which claimed the show was "full of graphic, defending dangerous, anti-trans rants masquerading as jokes." Robbie de Santos of U.K. group Stonewall, added that Ricky had chosen to use "his global platform to make fun of trans people."
"SuperNature" rated 18, comes with a content warning for "language, crude humour, discrimination."
In October, Netflix staff staged walkouts after Dave Chappelle made remarks about transgender people on the streaming giant. Netflix said the show did "not translate into real-world harm."
The row came as more than one in 10 young women in the U.K. now identify as lesbian, bisexual or "other," according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
