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Ricky Gervais claims there’s just ‘one thing it’s fine’ to joke about ahead of Netflix stand up
Ricky Gervais has claimed that working-class people are the only group that comedians can make jokes about without facing backlash.
The star, who created seminal sitcom The Office, also revealed he no longer makes quips at the expense of disadvantaged people – and would do things differently if he could go back in time.
Gervais reflected on the current state of comedy during a forthcoming episode of Radio 4’s This Cultural Life, saying: “People understand most power struggles. They understand why racism, homophobia and misogyny are wrong, but they are very disparaging about the working classes.”
The comedian, who was raised in Reading by working-class parents, said “it’s the one thing that it seems to be fine to take the mickey out of with now blowback at all”.
Gervais also said he would avoid making jokes about disadvantaged people as times have changed – but said he doesn’t have any regrets.
“You are a product of your time and you do make things for people of your time. I’d put trigger warnings on things, but I wouldn’t go back and change something.”
“Do I regret anything? No. Would I do things differently now? Probably.”
Gervais’s new stand-up show, Mortality, will be released on Netflix on Tuesday (30 December), three years after he faced significant backlash for making jokes about transgender people in the streaming service’s special titled SuperNature.
LGBTQ+ advocacy organisation GLAAD called his remarks “dangerous, anti-trans rants masquerading as jokes”.
The comedian defended his right to joke about “taboo subjects” following the uproar, arguing that comedy should make viewers uncomfortable.
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“I want to take the audience to a place it hasn’t been before, even for a split second,” he said on The One Show.
“Most offence comes from when people mistake the subject of a joke with the actual target. So it starts, they go, ‘What’s he gonna say?’ I tell the joke. Phew. They laugh.”
He continued: “It’s like a parachute jump. It’s scary, but then you land and it’s all OK. And I think that’s what comedy is for, getting us over taboo subjects. They’re not scary anymore. So I deal with everything.”
While being honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in May 2025, Gervais claimed a victory over cancel culture.
“We’ve had a few weird years of cancel culture – people telling you what you can and can’t laugh at or talk about – but we pushed back and we won until the next time,” he told a crowd gathered on the streets of Los Angeles.
