Ricky Gervais has lashed out at critics in his new Netflix special Mortality, released on Tuesday. The comedian, 64, filmed the stand-up show at the London Palladium earlier this year, during which he called out what he described as “middle-class” and “elitist” critics of his work.
Addressing the live audience, Gervais said: “It’s great to hear this sort of laughter again, because you probably don’t notice it as much as comedians, but we’ve had a really weird 10 years where we’re really second-guessing jokes. People find anything offensive, but we pushed back and we won. So f*** them.”
He added: “It’s always these sort of educated, middle-class, privileged, elitist, sort of people telling ordinary working-class people what they can and can’t do and say and laugh, not realising how important comedy is to ordinary people.”
Gervais’s comments come after his 2022 special Supernature was condemned for jokes targeting trans people, and his 2023 special Armageddon prompted a petition calling for Netflix to cut material about young people with cancer. Comedian Nish Kumar had previously criticised Gervais in 2019, saying: “F*** Ricky Gervais. What he’s doing isn’t edgy or interesting… he is the same as every other rich white dude comedian who gets too successful, runs out of ideas and decides to s*** on the latest minority group.”
Acknowledging criticism from fellow comedians for “punching down”, Gervais said in his new show: “They’ve always failed. I’m too old now not to say what I want.” His new special covers topics including disability, paedophilia, racism, and child killers. At one point, he joked about slavery, saying: “I’m willing to admit that if I’d have been born 300 years ago and I was white and wealthy, I’d have probably owned slaves. I’d be nice to them, so shut up, right?”
