Row breaks out over Ricky Gervais trans jokes in new Netflix special
24 May 2022, 16:54 | Updated: 24 May 2022, 17:06
Ricky Gervais has been slammed for mocking trans people in his new Netflix special.
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The comedian, who four minutes into Supernature discusses people in the trans community, has been condemned as a "coward" who is "making cheap, nasty stereotypes out of a minority group".
People have taken to social media to urge viewers not to watch his show and to cancel their Netflix accounts.
In the show, Gervais declares: "Oh, women. Not all women, I mean the old-fashioned ones. The old-fashioned women, the ones with wombs. Those f****** dinosaurs.
"I love the new women. They're great, aren't they? The new ones we've been seeing lately. The ones with beards and c****. They're as good as gold, I love them.
"And now the old-fashioned ones say, 'Oh, they want to use our toilets.' 'Why shouldn't they use your toilets?' 'For ladies.' 'They are ladies - look at their pronouns! What about this person isn't a lady?' 'Well, his penis.' 'Her penis, you f****** bigot!' 'What if he rapes me?' 'What if she rapes you, you fucking TERF w****?'"
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One Twitter user responded: "Ricky Gervais has a new stand up show out on Netflix today. 5 minutes in and he's making jokes about trans women attacking & raping people in public bathrooms. To him we exist only as a punchline, a threat, something less than human."
Another added: "Ricky Gervais New Stand Up Show #SuperNature makes jokes about trans women attacking & raping people in public bathrooms. This isn't comedy. This is making cheap, nasty stereotypes out of a minority group. Please, if you're Transgender or Support Trans lives, don't watch this."
"In honour of Ricky Gervais and his 2-4-1 rant on trans people and cancel culture, I am in fact, cancelling. Thanks @netflix", wrote another person.
And another said: "Ricky Gervais could go after the governments, banks, billionaires. The ones causing actual harm to ordinary people all over the world on an unfathomable scale every single day. But he goes after trans people instead. Yeah Ricky, son, you speak your truth to power. Coward."
However, others have defended the controversial comedian.
One person wrote: "Ricky Gervais takes us back to the time where we were allowed to laugh at the absurd, the dark, the silly and the harsh reality of this world. A breath of fresh air and the most full belly laughs I've had in the space of an hour and a bit, in years."
Another, claiming to be trans, said: "Just watched supernature - f****** hilarious. the "meet me halfway ladies, lose the c***" had me in stitches as someone who does cop a lot of that shit irl your clarification that you believe trans rights are human rights was appreciated. comedic legend."
Gervais gives his reasoning for trans jokes near the end of his special, saying, "Full disclosure: 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 you are. But meet me halfway, ladies. Lose the c***. That’s all I'm saying."
It comes after US comedian Dave Chapelle sparked controversy with his show The Closer, in which he said "gender is a fact" and shared his backing for JK Rowling, who has also attracted criticism for her comments about the concept of biological sex.
He also said LGBT people were "too sensitive".
