Celebrities
Harry Fletcher
May 26, 2022
BBC
A 2018 clip of comedian Nish Kumar slamming Ricky Gervais has resurfaced online following backlash against the trans jokes made in Netflix special SuperNature.
Just as footage of James Acaster criticising Gervais has also been widely shared following the show, Kumar explicitly called out the comedian in a stand-up routine from a few years ago.
SuperNature sees Gervais speak about “old-fashioned women”, going on to say: “They’re the ones with wombs. Those f****** dinosaurs. I love the new women. They’re great, aren’t they? The new ones we’ve been seeing lately. The ones with beards and cocks.”
He later says in the show: “Full disclosure: 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 that you are. But meet me halfway, ladies: lose the cock. That’s all I’m saying.”
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\u201c\u201cWhy can\u2019t we do jokes about trans people? What makes them so special?\u201d\n\nYou can. This is how you do jokes about trans people without being a down-punching cock. It\u2019s not hard.\n\nSound on, and pray to whatever god you believe in to bless Nish Kumar.\nhttps://t.co/gOcJkvZxMl\u201d— Fancy Brenda \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f (they/them) (@Fancy Brenda \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f (they/them)) 1653507705
People are now returning to a clip from a Kumar show, in which he says of Gervais: “All he is, is just the same as every other rich white dude comedian who gets too successful, runs out of ideas, and so just s***s on the latest minority group.
“I cannot stand there and another dogsh** comedian say, ‘If a woman can identify as a man, maybe I can identify as a chair?’ How about you identify as a good comedian you hack motherf*****.”
The comedian's 2018 comments have resurfacedGetty
It comes after Piers Morgan waded into the discourse by tweeting: “Watching #SuperNature on @netflix – absolutely outrageous, fabulously offensive, hilariously funny & already enraging all the right people like @MrNishKumar who are too woke, humourless & dumb to understand the comedy. Brilliant work @rickygervais.”
Glaad is one of the organisations to hit out at Gervais’s stand-up show, saying in a statement: “We watched the Ricky Gervais ‘comedy’ special on Netflix so you don’t have to. It’s full of graphic, dangerous, anti-trans rants masquerading as jokes. He also spouts anti-gay rhetoric and spreads inaccurate information about HIV.”
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