Ricky Gervais resorted to tired anti-trans jokes in his new Netflix special. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
It takes Ricky Gervais less than two minutes to crack cheap jokes about trans people in his new Netflix special.
The comic opens Ricky Gervais: SuperNature, which was released on Netflix on Tuesday (24 May), with a 15-minute-long segment about trans people and “cancel culture”.
“The worst thing you can say today is:’ Women don’t have penises’, right?” Gervais says in the special. “Now, no one saw that coming … We didn’t think we f**king had to.”
Just as he did with his 2018 Netflix special Humanity, Gervais uses SuperNature to hit back at critics who have slammed him for his over-reliance on cheap jokes about trans people by cracking more cheap jokes about trans people.
From AIDS to gender-affirming healthcare, Gervais “jokes” at the LGBTQ+ community’s expense throughout the show.
“Women,” he says, “I mean, the old-fashioned ones. The old-fashioned women. Oh God! You know, the ones with wombs. Those f**king dinosaurs.”
There are many reasons why a cis woman might not have a womb. About one in 5,000 women are born without a uterus because of a condition known as Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser, others have them removed for various medical reasons.
But Gervais is more concerned with trans women.
“No, I love the new women. They’re great, aren’t they?” he says. “The new ones we’ve been seeing lately. The ones with beards and c**ks. They’re as good as gold, I love them.”.
Ricky Gervais spends Netflix special tearing into ‘trendy’ trans people
After turning his attention to trans women’s access to public toilets – “What if he rapes me? What if she rapes you? You f**king TERF whore” – Gervais began attacking so-called cancel culture.
Using Kevin Hart as an example, Gervais claims the “dominant mob” decide who can be “cancelled” and that people can no longer “joke” about “identity politics”.
Hart was due to host the Academy Awards in 2019 until his historic homophobic tweets resurfaced. He initially refused to apologise but did so after being pressured to step down.
Despite claiming he’s no longer allowed to punch down, Gervais spends much of the special punching down at trans people.
“Ironically” struggling to name “female comedians” during the opening jokes, Gervais names Eddie Izzard to laughs from the audience.
“She’s brilliant, isn’t she?” Gervais says. “She’s not only a great comedienne, she’s also a great actress, isn’t she?
“She was brilliant in that thing as that man.”
Wondering what life would be if he were a teenager in these “woke times”, Gervais, of course, says he would “self-ID” as trans because he is “trendy”. He also cracks jokes about gender-affirming healthcare.
“I’d have a big f***y,” he says, adding: “I’d be a real woman … I’d be a little lesbian fella called Vicky Gervais.
“I’d probably be a butch lesbian ’cause of all the testosterone till then.”
It’s far from the firs time Gervais has resorted to relying on anti-trans “jokes” for his comedy.
In 2016 he was criticised for taking shots at Caitlyn Jenner while hosting the Golden Globes. Two years later, in his first Netflix special, he spent 15 minutes rehashing the controversy while deadnaming multiple times Jenner.
In SuperNature, Gervais claims that his comedic style is to “pretend” such gags are his views.
“OK, full disclosure, in real life, of course, I support trans rights,” Gervais says.
“I support all human rights and trans rights are human rights. Live your best life. Use your preferred pronoun.”
Trans viewers – if any – would find this hard to believe as seconds later Gervais adds: “But meet me halfway, ladies. Lose the c**k. That’s all I’m saying.”