The British comedian Ricky Gervais has never been afraid to speak out against cancel culture. He did so once again last night while appearing on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” where he shut down the cancel culture mob by saying that “smart people” don’t get offended by jokes.
Daily Mail reported that Gervais was on the show to promote his upcoming Netflix special “SuperNature,” which is set to drop on the streaming platform next Tuesday. In it, Gervais has revealed that he takes on such “taboo” subjects as Adolf Hitler and AIDS.
When asked if the long touring break he had to take during the COVID-19 lockdowns forced him to change his material, Gervais replied that “It was always evolving.”
“There was a thought, ‘Will this be out of date?’ And then I realized that when you’re dealing with, you know, famine, AIDS, cancer, Hitler, those dudes are evergreen,” he explained. “Yeah, so they’re not going to, they don’t date.”
Related: Ricky Gervais Obliterates Cancel Culture – Perfectly Compares It To ‘Road Rage’
When Colbert said that “you don’t go to a Ricky Gervais concert for just feel good,” the comedian disagreed with him.
“No, they do feel good, and the aim is to make them laugh and they do laugh, but they know that I deal with taboo subjects,” he said. “But I deal with taboo subjects because I want to take the audience to a place it hasn’t been before and there is a tension.”
Gervais went on to make his point that “smart people” don’t actually get offended by jokes.
“And I think people get offended when they mistake the subject of a joke with the actual target, and smart people know you can deal with anything, particularly when dealing with something like irony,” he continued.
Gervais then said that he kicks off his Netflix special by explaining what irony really is to his audience.
“Humor gets us over bad stuff,” he said. “That’s why I laugh about terrifying bad things. You know, that’s why comedians are obsessed with death because, you know, it gets us through… t’s an inoculation to the real things that are going to happen.”
Related: Ricky Gervais Torches Smug Celebrities Who Lecture ‘Normal Nobodies’ About Coronavirus
Check out Gervais’ full comments on this below.
This comes after Gervais recently revealed that unlike the vast majority of celebrities, he actually wants to get “canceled.”
“One thing I’ve decided to definitely do, and can’t wait to start on, is my new stand-up show, which is going to be called Armageddon,” he said. “I’m treating it like it’s my last one ever. It won’t be, but I want to put everything into it. I want to try and get canceled. No, I just want to go all-out there.”
“It’s about the end of the world and how we’re going to destroy ourselves for lots of reasons, whether it’s media stupidity, or the actual end of the world,” Gervais added.
Most celebrities are far too terrified of cancel culture to speak in this way, so Gervais’ attitude is incredibly refreshing at this time. We can’t wait to both see his standup special, and who gets offended by it!
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