Ricky Gervais Under Fire for Anti-Trans Jokes in Netflix Special: “A Disgrace”

Ricky Gervais is facing backlash for anti-trans jokes in his latest Netflix special, Supernature. Although the title just dropped on the streamer earlier today, it has already garnered widespread criticism from the LGBTQ community and allies, who have slammed Gervais’ material as insensitive and harmful, Variety reports.

The comedian’s latest Netflix title includes multiple jokes about trans people, specifically trans women. Gervais rails against cancel culture, pronouns and gender identity, making jokes about “old-fashioned women” and “new women.”

He begins one joke by saying, “Oh, women! Not all women, I mean the old-fashioned ones. The old-fashioned women, the ones with wombs. Those fucking dinosaurs. I love the new women. They’re great, aren’t they?,” per Variety. “The new ones we’ve been seeing lately. The ones with beards and cocks. They’re as good as gold, I love them.”

Gervais continues, “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 fucking bigot!’ ‘What if he rapes me?’ ‘What if she rapes you, you fucking TERF whore?’”

Later in Supernature, Gervais laments the unpredictability of “the dominant mob,” telling the audience, “You can’t predict what will be offensive in the future,” per Variety. Gervais adds, “You don’t know who the dominant mob will be. Like, the worst thing you can say today, get you canceled on Twitter, death threats, the worst thing you can say today is, ‘Women don’t have penises,’ right? Now, no one saw that coming. You won’t find a ten year old tweet saying ‘Women don’t have penises.’ You know why? We didn’t think we fucking had to!”

He concludes his special with a disclosure, claiming to viewers, “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 cock. That’s all I’m saying.”

Following the Supernature release, critics slammed Gervais’ jokes on social media, with one Twitter user writing, “Ricky Gervais is a disgrace, he is going to cause hate crime and ultimately the death of Trans folk. Anyone who needs to vilify minorities to get a laugh is the most evil hateful soul and seriously needs mental help.”

Another added, “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.”

When reached for comment by Decider, Netflix did not respond by time of publication.