Ricky Gervais somehow thinks he found the one group you can be ‘very disparaging about’ and still get ‘no blowback at all’

Comedian Ricky Gervais has sparked fresh debate after claiming there is one group that can still be mocked openly without triggering widespread backlash: the working class. As highlighted by LADbible, the comments came as Gervais discussed the state of modern comedy while promoting his latest Netflix special, Mortality.

The remarks land at a time when entertainers across different industries are facing intense scrutiny for their public statements and creative choices. From comedians to pop stars and YouTubers, backlash can arrive quickly and from unexpected directions, as seen recently when Nicki Minaj’s political posturing spiralled into controversy and even prompted a petition calling for her deportation.

Against that backdrop, Gervais suggested that class remains an exception. He argued that audiences broadly understand why jokes rooted in racism, homophobia, or misogyny are now off-limits. However, he said people still seem comfortable being “very disparaging about the working classes,” adding that it is “the one thing that it seems to be fine to take the mickey out of with no blowback at all.”

It was a revealing comment about where he thinks the cultural fault lines now sit

This claim raised eyebrows given his own background. Gervais has spoken openly about growing up working class on a council estate in Reading and has said his family had “no money” when he was young. Rather than avoiding the subject, he appears to believe that history gives him license to joke about it.

Gervais also reflected more broadly on his career and the backlash he has faced. He has previously been criticised for jokes about trans people, AIDS, and for referring to people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, also known as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, as “lazy.” Those controversies have followed him through multiple specials, including 2023’s Armageddon, which drew particular anger over material involving terminally ill children.

Despite this, Gervais has said he does not regret his past work. He described himself as “a product of your time” and argued that comedy inevitably reflects the era in which it is made. While he acknowledged that he would probably approach some material differently today, he was clear that he would not rewrite or erase old routines. Instead, he suggested that adding trigger warnings to older content would be more appropriate than changing it outright.

The same tension between past behavior and modern expectations has played out well beyond stand-up comedy. Online creators have faced similar reckonings, including MrBeast, whose hugely popular content recently came under fire after behind-the-scenes allegations emerged from participants in one of his large-scale videos.

Others who worked closely with Gervais have been more critical in hindsight. Ash Atalla, who produced The Office, has spoken about feeling uneasy when looking back at repeated jokes Gervais made about his disability. He described a late-1990s comedy culture where performers pushed boundaries simply to see what they could get away with, stressing that those jokes would feel very different if made today.