Ricky Gervais Claps Back At People Who Claim To Be Offended By New Special: 'Ignore Them'

It wouldn't be a Ricky Gervais comedy special release without some kind of ridiculous controversy. Now, the British comedy great has a message for people who want his special cancelled because they still can't discern the difference between the target and the subject of a joke.

And that's if they're truly offended. As Gervais rightly pointed out in a recent interview, they probably aren't.

Gervais has a new special coming out on Netflix called Armageddon and despite being one of the biggest voices in comedy for 25 years, dumb people are still flabbergasted by his edgy style.

He's one of the best at it too. I mean, Michael Scott is great, but give me David Brent morning, noon, and night. And his series Extras? If you can track that down go and watch right now after you've checked out a bunch more articles, videos, and podcasts on this here website,

The latest problem for Gervais stemmed from a bit in the special about doing video messages for terminally ill kids.

Well, you can probably see where the issue is.

However, even though Gervais says after the joke that it is, in fact, a joke, some people too dense to understand that the target of the joke is Gervais himself and not terminally ill children got upset.

So upset...

How upset are they?!

They got so upset that thousands of people signed a meaningless petition to get the special pulled.

Gervais Gives Perfect Response To Those 'Offended'

Gervais himself responded to that petition and the accompanying "outrage" during a recent interview on BBC Radio 5 Live.

“I’m literally saying in the joke that I don’t do that. But people have a reaction. They don’t analyze it," Gervais said, per Deadline. "They feel something – that’s what offense is. It’s a feeling. That’s why ‘I’m offended’ is quite meaningless. What do you want me to change?”

He couldn't be more right. They're offended. Now what? Nothing.

So it's not worth wasting time placating the easily offended, especially when they're an overwhelming minority by comparison to the people who understood the joke. And that's only if they're truly offended. As Gervais noted most of the time they're not.

“They’re not really offended. They just want to be heard," he said. “Of all the millions of people that watched it and loved it, only a few don’t like it,” he added. “If I give them special attention and try and placate them, I’ve annoyed the other millions of people that got the joke. They go, ‘No, you’ve ruined it for us!’

“I’ve got a duty to the people that like it and get it. I wouldn’t sit down with a heckler would I? If I’m playing to 20,000 people, I wouldn’t stop the show and explain to them. I ignore them.”

Be More Like Ricky Gervais

More performers should take this approach. Someone getting "offended" because they didn't get the joke is completely meaningless. Fortunately, Gervais gets that and has been on the vanguard of it for years.

I mean, he's the only human being that can make the Golden Globes appointment viewing. Take this joke for instance about Jodie Foster's movie The Beaver that I can't not include in any article about Ricky Gervais. It's that good.

We need more people like Ricky Gervais. People who champion the majority of people who get the jokes. Not the few who didn't get enough attention as children and want to complain about it to be heard.

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