BBC comedian blasts Ricky Gervais for ridiculing London crime crisis in banned drinks ad: ‘False narrative!’

The outspoken comedian has mocked the capital in a series on billboard promotions

Ricky Gervais’s controversial ad campaign for his drinks company, Dutch Barn, has been criticised by fellow comedian Asim Chaudhry.

Mr Gervais recently claimed Transport for London (TfL) had rejected his billboard promotions, which feature slogans taking aim at the capital as well as Mayor Sadiq Khan.

TfL claimed recently that it hadn’t censored the After Life star’s adverts after all, despite what the 64-year-old had claimed in a furious rant, with the government body stating the posters were “never referred to TfL.”

The comedian has continued to post pictures of the posters on his X account, and some of the tamer ads have started being spotted in London Underground stations this week. However, actor and comic Mr Chaudhry seemingly doesn’t find the posters funny.

Asim Chaudhry hit back at the comic’s ad campaign

Some of the tongue-in-cheek ads have begun to show up in the city, with one fan replying to Mr Gervais’s call to share any billboards Londoners spot, having sent a snap of one which stated: “Welcome to London. Hold on to your phone.”

The ad took a dig at the capital’s high phone theft rate, and others shared by Mr Gervais, which don’t seem to have been given the green light, included one saying: “Welcome to London. Don’t forget your stab vest.”

Sharing the latter, Mr Gervais tweeted: “Sadly, you won’t be seeing this one.”

One of Mr Gervais’s latest X posts features a poster that states: “Please give your seat to an elderly person or pregnant woman. Have some f***ing class.”

Asim Chaundhry branded Ricky Gervais’s London digs a ‘false narrative’

In the post, The Office star had written: “I’m trying to bring back good old fashioned values.”

Firing back, Mr Chaudhry re-shared the post and added: “Bored of this false narrative that my city is a s***hole.

“If you actually live in London and get the tube then you know people give up their seats for elderly people or pregnant women 99% of the time.” (sic)

The star of the BBC comedy People Just Do Nothing sparked a debate within his own comments section about London’s reputation.

Ricky Gervais’s ads have been spotted in London

One X user responded: “Not really. Most just put their heads down apart from the working class workers who give up seats.”

In response, the comedian argued: “Bulls*** m8. I get the train everyday and I’ve never seen an elderly person or pregnant woman not being offered a seat.”

Someone else also took a similar view to Mr Gervais though, writing: “Dunno about that; I see a lot of people give up their seats (probably the majority) but I’ve also seen loads of people do nothing.

“Also when I had to commute on the tube with a broken leg, I was offered a seat once in 6 weeks. The other occasions I had to ask.”

Ricky Gervais is no stranger to controversy with his humour | NETFLIX

“I mean there’s every chance your point is true, although I’m not sure you’ve done your research to that level of accuracy. But if the advert encourages it who cares,” someone else hit back.

Another noted: “On his old radio show, Ricky tried to start a story with ‘I heard this guy talking on a train’ or something and Stephen Merchant immediately called him out on never using public transport. That must’ve been about 20 years ago.”

Also criticising Mr Gervais, another wrote: “This series of ads has been embarrassingly s***, on top of the weird right-wing hatred of London, a great city.”

“Like Ricky Gervais actually gets the tube,” another pointed out. (sic)