Ricky Gervais’ new Netflix special has been criticised for hosting ‘dangerous’ jokes that are ‘anti-trans’ and ‘anti-gay’, and also target women and Aids.
Early on in the hour-long routine, titled SuperNature, Gervais, 60, jokes, “I love the new women. They’re great, aren’t they? The new ones we’ve been seeing lately. The ones with beards and cocks.” Before this, he’d described women with wombs as “f*****g dinosaurs”.
Gervais also does a skit on the origins of Aids, in which God creates the disease to punish gay men. He describes Aids as “amazing” in its heyday, back when men would make life-or-death decisions about oral sex. “Now it’s, ‘Give it here. I’ll take pills for the rest of my life.’”
GLAAD, a US-based LGBT rights group labelled the jokes “dangerous”, “anti-gay” and “anti trans”.
Early on in the special, which came out on Tuesday, Gervais explains that many of his jokes are ironic. “When I say something I don’t really mean, for comic effect, you, as an audience, you laugh at the wrong thing because you know what the right thing is. It’s a way of satirising attitudes.”
He also clarifies that for each joke, he takes whatever stance would make it funnier and that the gags do not represent his actual views. “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,” he said, before adding a punchline about trans women.
Speaking to the Spectator after the release of SuperNature, Gervais said “My target wasn’t trans folk, but trans activist ideology. I’ve always confronted dogma that oppresses people and limits freedom of expression.”
GLAAD also claims that Netflix “refuses” to enforce its own policy, banning any content “designed to incite hate or violence”. Netflix reiterated its internal guidance, stating that it supports artistic expression and does not censor comedians.
