Ricky Gervais says there is only one group left he can mock without backlash

Ricky Gervais has claimed that the only people that he can mock are the working class as there is little chance of him being on the receiving end of huge backlash

View 3 Images

Ricky Gervais believes the working class are the only group safe to poke fun at(Image: 2020 NBCUniversal Media, LLC via Getty Images)

Comedian Ricky Gervais is best known for his close to the bone sense of humour. But now, it looks as though the TV star believes there is only one group of society that comedians can still poke fun at without facing huge backlash – and that he says is the ‘working class’.

The creator of The Office, 64, who has yet another comedy special on Netflix titled Mortality, said that comedians’ wings have been clipped over the years but making fun of those lower down the socioeconomic ladder, is a safe bet.

Ricky’s comments were made during an interview on BBC Radio 4’s This Cultural Life podcast. The former host of The Golden Globe Awards believes that there are now more subject matters that are likely to offend people than before.

He revealed: “People understand most power struggles. They understand why racism, homophobia and misogyny are wrong, but they are very disparaging about the working classes. It’s the one thing that it seems to be fine to take the mickey out of with no blowback at all.”

View 3 Images

Ricky Gervais believes the working class are the only group safe to poke fun at(Image: NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

View 3 Images

The cast of hit TV show The Office(Image: WireImage)

Ricky holds no regret over things he has said in the past: “You’re a product of your time and you do make things for people of your time. I’d put trigger warnings on things, but I wouldn’t go back and change something. Do I regret anything? No. Would I do things differently now? Probably.”

One person who does hold regret is The Office producer Ash Atalla, who claimed earlier this year that he felt he “sold a bit of himself” when he allowed Ricky to poke fun at his disability. He spoke out in relation to comments Ricky made at The British Comedy Awards in 2001.

When accepting the award for The Office, Ricky joked that Ash, who is in a wheelchair, was the show’s runner. He also made reference to him as “my little wheelchair friend” and joked that Ash was the same as Stephen Hawking “but without all the clever stuff.”

While on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs Ash said: “People in wheelchairs weren’t on stages back then. That started the double act of that material on stage.” He continued: “I think when I look back on it, maybe I realise, or I feel I sold a bit of myself in that moment. “

“I put the wheelchair front and centre, because I knew it was something that would set me apart, in that instance, set me apart in a good way,” he added.

He then said: “And just in recent years, as I’ve thought about it, it’s made me consider whether I was sort of right to do that.” At the time of the British Comedy Awards, Ricky continued to mock Ash.

He also said: “That’s Ash, the producer. He wanted me to tell you that so you didn’t think he’d won a competition. Thanks very much for this to the British Comedy Awards. You’ve done a wonderful thing – not for me, but look at his little face.”

Ash has previously said that Ricky’s jokes about disability had made him feel “uncomfortable.” In an interview with The Times in 2021, Ash explained: “I felt a little bit uncomfortable. “

He went on to say: “There was a period of late Nineties comedy with the likes of Ricky Gervais, Jimmy Carr and Frankie Boyle where the game was – see what you could get away with and then reverse intellectualise it.”

The TV producer continued: “Those jokes didn’t bother me at the time, but they would if they happened now. I wouldn’t allow so many jokes to be made about my wheelchair, I wouldn’t want to be defined by that.”