Calls to cut 'offensive' scenes from Ricky Gervais' new Netflix show

Netflix is under pressure to cut 'ableist slurs' scenes from Ricky Gervais' new stand-up show Armageddon after viewers baulked over the comedian's 'Make-A-Wish' skit where he called children with cancer 'baldies'. 

In his new Netflix show, set to be released on Christmas Day, Gervais said that he had been making videos for terminally ill children at hospitals with the Make-A-Wish charity. 

In a snippet Gervais, 62, released on Twitter, he joked that the children were 'f***ing r*******' for not 'wishing to get better'. 

The comedian has since faced fierce backlash with a mother of a terminally ill child setting up a petition to get the skit removed by Netflix. And a UK disability charity has slammed the sketch for having 'ableist slurs' in it. 

In the comedy sketch, Gervais explained he had been making videos for the terminally ill children during the pandemic. 

He joked: 'I then burst into hospitals and go 'Wake up baldy'. Look at me twerking on TikTok.' The audience roared with laughter during the stand up show, which is being released as a Netflix series.

He went on to say he did a lot of videos during the pandemic with the Make-A-Wish foundation, which gives terminally ill children one wish. 

'I always say yes [to their requests]. And I always start the video the same way,' Gervais says. I go: 'Why didn't you wish to get better? What, you f***ing retarded as well.'  

Gervais then laughs and quips: 'I don't do that either, okay. These are all jokes, alright. I don't even use that word in real life. The R word.

'I used it in a joke, that's not real life is it. I'm playing a role.' 

But British disability charity Scope slammed Gervais for the joke, warning that 'language like this has consequences' while a mother with a terminally ill child set up a petition to get the skit removed by Netflix.

'We wish we were surprised by reports that Ricky Gervais has used ableist slurs in his new Netflix special,' Scope said on December 5.

'Language like this has consequences and we're just not accepting the explanation that Gervais uses to try and justify this language.'

'He argues that he wouldn't use this language in 'real-life'. But his stand-up routine doesn't exist in a parallel universe. The stage is real. Netflix is real. The people this kind of language impacts are real.'

Two days later, Scope said it had been forced to turn off its replies on Twitter after receiving hateful messages, while adding that 'we aren't here to dictate what anyone should or should not find funny.' 

'Comedians using the R-slur emboldens others to use it. We've seen this first hand this week, with disabled people being abused directly in the replies to our post. This is real life, whether or not Gervais would use the slur himself outside of his routine.'

The charity added: 'We aren't here to dictate what anyone should or should not find funny. But we can't pretend that this comedy exists in a vacuum. This week has proven that.' 

Meanwhile, Twitter users slammed Gervais for his sketch. One wrote: 'This is the most vile attempt at "comedy" I've ever seen. Sick and dying children wish for a video from him, and he mocks them like this? 

'Shame on you Ricky Gervais. Children fighting for their life are no laughing matter. I have no respect for this man.' 

Another wrote: 'For a man who profited so heavily from a TV programme that had cancer as a central plot point, this feels really weird,' referring to Gervais' hit TV show 'After Life'.  

Meanwhile, Sess Cova, a mother who says her child Katy 'bravely battled cancer', launched a petition urging Netflix to remove the 'offensive skit from its platform'. It has since received more than 5,000 signatures. 

'We believe that comedy should never come at the expense of someone else's pain or suffering - especially when it involves innocent children battling life-threatening illnesses.' Netflix has been contacted for comment. 

Gervais is no stranger to backlash over his jokes. Last year, the comedian hit back at critics after Twitter's 'woke brigade' turned on Gervais for mocking cancel culture with jokes about transgender people, Adolf Hitler and AIDS in his 'SuperNature' Netflix special. 

The kicks off the show with a warning about irony as he describes the concept of comedy to the audience as 'basically a bloke talking', before purposely failing to recall any 'funny female comedians'. 

In 'SuperNature', Gervais wastes no time singling out the 'virtue-signalling' and 'dominant mobs' who are quick to criticise just to 'bring people down to raise their own status'.

But his jokes were later described as 'dangerous' material by an American LGBT rights group, while Stonewall accused him of 'making fun of trans people'.

In response, Gervais told The Spectator at the time: 'My target wasn't trans folk, but trans activist ideology. I've always confronted dogma that oppresses people and limits freedom of expression.'

He again retorted against woke critics last night as he told The One Show that comedy should be used as a tool for 'getting us over taboo subjects so they're not scary any more'.

He said: 'I think that's what comedy is for, really - to get us through stuff, and I deal in taboo subjects because I want to take the audience to a place it hasn't been before, even for a split second.

'Most offence comes from when people mistake the subject of a joke with the actual target.'

He added: 'I think that's what comedy is for - getting us over taboo subjects so they're not scary anymore. So, I deal with everything. And I think we second guess the audience too much.'