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Netflix is under pressure to remove scenes of ‘ableist slurs’ from Ricky Gervais’ new stand-up show Armageddon after watching the comedian’s ‘Make-A-Wish’ parody where he called children with cancer ‘bald’.
In his new Netflix show, premiering on Christmas Day, Gervais said he had been making videos for terminally ill children in hospitals with the charity Make-A-Wish.
In a snippet that Gervais, 62, posted on Twitter, he joked that kids were “cursed” for not “wanting to get better.”
The comedian has since faced fierce backlash and there are calls for Netflix to remove the scenes, which a UK disability charity has criticized for containing “ableist slurs”.
In the comedy sketch, Gervais explained that he had been making videos for terminally ill children during the pandemic.
He joked: “Then I stormed the hospitals and said, ‘Wake up bald.’” Watch me twerking on TikTok.’ The audience laughed out loud during the stand-up show, which will be released as a Netflix series.
Netflix is under pressure to remove scenes of ‘ableist slurs’ from Ricky Gervais’ new stand-up show Armageddon after watching the comedian’s ‘Make-A-Wish’ sketch where he called children with cancer ‘bald’.
In a clip that Gervais, 62, posted on Twitter, he joked that the kids were “screwed” for not “wanting to get better.”
He went on to say that he made a lot of videos during the pandemic with the Make-A-Wish foundation, which grants a wish to terminally ill children.
‘I always say yes (to their requests). And I always start the video the same way,” says Gervais. I say, ‘Why didn’t you want to get better? What, you’re a fucking retard too.’
Then Gervais laughs and jokes: “I don’t do that either, okay.” These are all jokes, okay. I don’t even use that word in real life. The R word.
‘I used it in a joke, that’s not real life, is it? I’m playing a role.’
But British disability charity Scope criticized Gervais for the joke, warning that “language like this has consequences”, while a mother with a terminally ill son created a petition calling for Netflix to remove the play.
“We would like to be surprised by reports that Ricky Gervais has used ableist slurs in his new Netflix special,” Scope said on December 5.
“Language like this has consequences and we simply do not accept the explanation that Gervais uses to try to justify this language.”
‘He maintains that he would not use this language in ‘real life.’ But his stand-up routine doesn’t exist in a parallel universe. The scenario is real. Netflix is real. The people who are impacted by this type of language are real.”
Two days later, Scope said he had been forced to disable his responses on Twitter after receiving hateful messages, adding that “we’re not here to dictate what anyone should or shouldn’t find funny.”
‘Comedians who use the R slur encourage others to use it. We’ve seen this first-hand this week, with disabled people being abused directly in the responses to our post. This is real life, regardless of whether or not Gervais would use the insult out of his routine.
The charity added: “We’re not here to dictate what anyone should or shouldn’t find funny.” But we cannot pretend that this comedy exists in a vacuum. This week he showed it.”
In the comedy sketch, Gervais explained that he had been making videos for terminally ill children during the pandemic.
Then Gervais laughs and jokes: “I don’t do that either, okay.” These are all jokes, okay. I don’t even use that word in real life. The R word.’
But British disability charity Scope criticized Gervais for the joke, warning that “language like this has consequences”, while a mother with a terminally ill son created a petition calling for Netflix to remove the play.
Meanwhile, Twitter users criticized Gervais for his sketch.
Meanwhile, Twitter users criticized Gervais for his sketch. One wrote: ‘This is the vilest attempt at “comedy” I have ever seen. Sick and dying children want a video of him and he makes fun of them like this?
‘Shame on you, Ricky Gervais. Children fighting for their lives are no laughing matter. I have no respect for this man.
Another wrote: “For a man who benefited so much from a TV show that had cancer as a central plot point, this feels really strange,” referring to Gervais’ hit TV show ‘After Life.’
Meanwhile, Sess Cova, a mother who says her daughter Katy “bravely fought cancer,” launched a petition urging Netflix to remove the “offensive parody from its platform.” Since then it has received more than 5,000 signatures.
“We believe that comedy should never come at the expense of another person’s pain or suffering, especially when it involves innocent children battling life-threatening illnesses.”
Gervais is no stranger to backlash for his jokes. Last year, the comedian responded to critics after Twitter’s ‘woke brigade’ attacked Gervais for mocking cancel culture with jokes about transgender people, Adolf Hitler and AIDS in his Netflix special ‘SuperNature ‘.
He begins the show with a warning about irony when he describes the concept of comedy to the audience as “basically a guy talking”, before deliberately not recalling any “funny female comedian”.
In ‘SuperNature’, Gervais wastes no time pointing out the ‘dominant mobs’ and ‘virtue signallers’ who are quick to criticize just to ‘bring people down and raise their own status’.
But his jokes were later described as “dangerous” material by an American LGBT rights group, while Stonewall accused him of “mocking trans people”.
In response, Gervais told The Spectator at the time: “My target was not trans people, but trans activist ideology. I have always faced dogmas that oppress people and limit freedom of expression.’
Last night he hit back at critics again when he told The One Show that comedy should be used as a tool to “help us get over taboo topics so they’re no longer scary.”
He said: “I think that’s really what comedy is for: to help us get through things, and I deal with taboo subjects because I want to take the audience to a place they’ve never been before, not even for a split second.”
“Most offenses arise when people confuse the subject of a joke with the actual target.”
And he added: “I think that’s what comedy is for: to help us overcome taboo topics so that they’re no longer scary.” Then I take care of everything. And I think we question the audience too much.