During Tuesday’s The One Show, BBC hosts Alex Jones and Jermaine Jenas welcomed comedian Ricky Gervais and Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert onto the show. Alex and Jermaine spoke to Ricky about his new Netflix stand-up comedy special called Super Nature. The programme sees the comedian making fun of cancel culture with jokes about trans people, Hitler and AIDS.
Discussing why he titled his show Super Nature, the comedian began: “A couple of reasons.
“One, I sort of debunk the supernatural through everything from religion you know, believing in crystals or fairies, all that sort of stuff.
“And I conclude that nature is super enough and we don’t need unicorns, we’ve got the octopus.”
He went on to say: “It is nature and humanity, warts and all. All the best and worst things about being alive.”
“It’s a privilege to be alive. You know, I say, we don’t exist for 13 and a half million years and then we have these 80 or 90 years if we’re lucky to then never exist again. So make the most of it.”
“That’s deep, isn’t it?” Alex asked before Ricky joked: “There are gags that aren’t so deep.”
After playing a clip from Ricky’s new comedy show, Jermaine praised the comedian for being able to create awkwardness and tension within the audience.
Discussing his controversial jokes, which have faced backlash in the past, the After Life star said comedy is to help people get through life.
“That is what comedy is for,” the 60-year-old added. “Getting us over taboo subjects [because] they’re not scary anymore.
“So I deal with everything, you know and then I think we second guess the audience too much.
“Even in narrative stuff, like After Life, people are saying, ‘The audience take this’, of course, they can, real life is much worse.
“These are just jokes, they don’t mean anything, they’re just for you to laugh for a few hours or so.”