TWIBS: Ricky Gervais Is Too Challenging for Me
The famously mean spirited comedian had a brief explanation for his bad behavior in an interview, and I have some thoughts on what an annoying twerp he is.
Humor by Aly Gibbs
This Week in Barrel Scraping (TWIBS) is Assigned Media’s longest running column! Every Friday, Aly Gibbs digs deep from the well of transphobia and finds the most obnoxious, goofy thing transphobes have said or obsessed over during the week and tears it to shreds.
On a January 1 episode of BBC audio series This Cultural Life, Ricky Gervais was prompted to remark on his frequently offensive standup routines and declared that he has “a right [to talk about] those things,” making himself—and only himself—laugh, an experience he is intimately familiar with.
Gervais, mostly famous for co-creating British mockumentary and TV sitcom The Office (not to be confused with its more popular and enduring American adaptation, The Office) alongside Stephen Merchant, is no stranger to controversy. You could argue that Gervais’ entire career has been propped up chiefly by his pigheaded meanness on stage, as opposed to any measure of actual comedic talent, if you wanted to be uncharitable, which is why I’m arguing that Gervais’ entire career has been propped up chiefly by his pigheaded meanness on stage, as opposed to any measure of actual comedic talent.
Some highlights of Gervais’ pot stirring include a 2017 tirade against Caitlyn Jenner (can we acknowledge that The Guardian here printed the word transgendering? Brian Logan, you stupid bastard, issue an apology to the English language), a 2020 meltdown directed at a Twitter parody account, and a 2022 standup special in which he described trans women as “the new women… the ones with cocks and beards.”
Tasteful comedy for an enlightened era.
In his This Cultural Life interview, Gervais tells John Wilson, “What I do is, I try and get more offensive, so when I look back I go, aw, wasn’t I kind when I was 45?” Wilson doesn’t immediately respond and so, with as much insecurity as he can muster, Gervais adds, “That’s a joke!” and guffaws alone at his own hilarity.
It’s interesting to me that, here and now, Gervais’ defense is that he simply has a right to his material. I suppose he’s right about that, everybody’s allowed to speak from their heart as ignorantly and meanly as they want, but I would counterargue that (in his own nation’s parlance) it makes him an annoying twat. This defense, at least, is more brief and less grating than his previous bleating about being some sort of feminist icon for (in his own nation’s parlance) slagging off the transgenders.
During that 2019 social media rant, Gervais claimed that he was “[protecting] the rights of women,” and labeled the trans rights movement a “dogma with its own blasphemy laws” with the express goal of “labelling people bigots to shut them down, ostracise them and even have them fired.” Funnily enough, I can’t recall many instances of people being ostracised or put out of work for simply being called a bigot… though I guess being a bigot can, on occasion, result in personal consequences. Still, I’m much more familiar with social ostracization and job loss for people who have spoken out against Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, or even just correctly identified Charlie Kirk’s professed beliefs and ideology.
Ricky Gervais and annoying self-righteous dweebs like him are really fond of imagining the backlash against their bigotry as “canceling,” but Dave Chappelle, Louis CK and Gervais are all still wealthy working men. Being shitty about trans people in front of an audience is neither heroic nor dangerous. These guys aren’t putting their lives on the line for firmly held beliefs; they’re being jerks because it gets them the attention they desperately seek, for personal and financial reasons.
Ricky, you aren’t a free speech crusader. You’re a comedian. Your job is being funny. Since you aren’t, you should simply shut the fuck up. Thank you for understanding.
Aly Gibbs (She/They) is a trans writer who reports on news important to the queer community.
