Ricky Gervais created an awkward moment on BBC’s The One Show on Tuesday as he spoke about his own mortality.
The 60-year-old English comedian left hosts Alex Jones and Jermaine Jenas speechless as he told them he was ‘fat and old’ and insisting he’s ‘going to die soon.’
The After Life creator appeared on the latest installment of the show to discuss his new Netflix special SuperNature.
Uh-oh: Ricky Gervais created an awkward moment on BBC’s The One Show on Tuesday as he spoke about his own mortality
Alex and Jermaine questioned Ricky on the nature of his comedy and his willingness to address ‘taboo’ topics after his new Netflix special was branded anti-trans.
The chat took a dark turn when the actor said: ‘I’m fat and old and I’m going to die soon.’
Alex quickly corrected him by saying ‘no you’re not’ but Ricky insisted ‘I am,’ before adding: ‘I’ve brought it down haven’t I?’
Jermaine jokingly said ‘lift it back up’ but Ricky refused to let it go and openly said: ‘Every day I’m closer to death.’
Dark: The 60-year-old English comedian left hosts Alex Jones and Jermaine Jenas speechless as he told them he was ‘fat and old’ and insisting he’s ‘going to die soon.’
Alex jumped in and stated: ‘Well we’re all a bit closer to death. Every day is a bigger percentage of the rest of your life and we don’t know what percentage that will be. If I die tomorrow today was 50 per cent.’
Jermaine admitted: ‘I didn’t see this coming. This is not a part of the show I thought was going to happen,’ before Alex finally changed the subject.
The Office star then told viewers what his new Netflix show is about:
‘I debunk the supernatural and conclude nature is super enough. We don’t need unicorns, we’ve got the octopus. It’s nature, humanity, warts and all. The best and worst things about being alive.’
Speaking out: Alex and Jermaine questioned Ricky on the nature of his comedy and his willingness to address ‘taboo’ topics after his new Netflix special was branded anti-trans
Ricky has insisted his jokes are ‘irony’ after his new Netflix special was branded anti-trans.
The comic defended himself after his show ‘SuperNature’ on the streamer was branded ‘dangerous’ by a LGBT rights group.
Later on The One Show he revealed: ‘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.
‘Most offence comes from when people mistake the subject of a joke with the actual target.’
Dark humour: The After Life creator appeared on the latest installment of the show to discuss his new Netflix special SuperNature
He jokes ‘old-fashioned women… the ones with wombs’ are now ‘f****** dinosaurs’ compared with trans people ‘who have beards and c****’.
Gervais adds on the newly released show: ‘The worst thing you can say today is, ‘Women don’t have penises’.’
There is also a section where Gervais pretends to have transitioned to being a woman and seduces a lesbian.
Criticism came from LGBT rights groups including America-based Glaad, which claimed the show was ‘full of graphic, defending dangerous, anti-trans rants masquerading as jokes’.
Robbie de Santos, of UK group Stonewall, added Gervais had chosen to use ‘his global platform to make fun of trans people’.
Outraged: Criticism came from LGBT rights groups including America-based Glaad, which claimed the show was ‘full of graphic, defending dangerous, anti-trans rants masquerading as jokes’
‘SuperNature’, rated 18, comes with a content warning for ‘language, crude humour, discrimination’.
In October, Netflix staff staged walkouts after US comedian Dave Chappelle, 48, made remarks about transgender people on the streaming giant.
Netflix said the show did ‘not translate into real-world harm’.
‘After Life’ and ‘The Office’ creator Gervais, who lives in London with his long-term writer partner Jane Fallon, 61, has said: ‘In real life, of course I support trans rights. 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’.
The row comes as more than one in 10 young women in the UK now identify as lesbian, bisexual or ‘other’, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
‘After Life’ and ‘The Office’ creator Gervais, who lives in London with his long-term writer partner Jane Fallon, 61, has said: ‘In real life, of course I support trans rights. I support all human rights and trans rights are human rights
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