Oh, the Humanity.
Ricky Gervais delivers withering wisecracks from the stage of London's Hammersmith Apollo in Ricky Gervais: Humanity (on Netflix Tuesday). But as the quipster tells it, the purpose of his humor isn't to offend. "I've always wanted people to know they can laugh at bad things without being bad people," he says to the audience.
Even with the disclaimer, it's likely some will interpret what the British comedian intends as wit to be wrongdoing instead.
In one controversial bit, Gervais turns back the clock to the 2016 Golden Globes when he, as the show's host, delivered a joke about Caitlyn Jenner that some slammed as transphobic.
"I’ve changed. Not as much as Bruce Jenner, obviously … now Caitlyn Jenner," Gervais told a star-studded audience at the time. "What a year she’s had. She became a role model for trans people everywhere, showing great bravery in breaking down barriers and destroying stereotypes. She didn’t do a lot for women drivers, but you can't have everything, can you?"
"I'm playing with the notion of stereotypes," Gervais says in Humanity. "I start off saying she's a real woman... and I go, 'Oh, well, she's a real woman, I hit them with the old-fashioned reactionary stereotype: She must be a bad driver then.
"The target of the joke is a celebrity killing someone in their car," he continues, referencing the fatal, multi-vehicle accident Jenner was involved in near Malibu, Calif. in 2015. "Let's not forget that, shall we? A celebrity killing someone in their car, running home and popping on a dress — that's the target of the joke, just so we're clear."
(Note: This trailer is NSFW.)
Of course, the Jenner joke isn't the only of his past remarks to garner criticism. The humorist couldn't resist trolling the author of what he calls "the most stupid tweet I ever got." Gervais, an atheist, suspects the tweet was in response to a post he shared about scientific facts.
"I looked at his profile, and sure enough, he's a gentleman from Texas, he's a fundamentalist creationist Christian — which is fine, he loves God," Gervais says. "He loves God and fetuses, mainly. He loves the fetus from conception till when it turns out gay."
Gervais shared the NSFW tweet with his followers in 2013, and which he says in the special sparked a debate with another Twitter user about rape jokes.
But as the entertainer tells it, a joke doesn't necessarily condone a bad thing. And in a classic non-apology, encourages his audience to laugh it off.
"If you can laugh in the face of adversity," he tells them, "you're bulletproof."
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