It’s the opinion the world’s been waiting for: Ricky Gervais has offered his thoughts on the Will Smith and Chris Rock Oscars situation in a very Ricky Gervais manner.
After firstly defending Rock’s “tamest joke”, the British comedian double down by making his own jokes about disabilities.
For anyone who’s forgotten, Rock’s Oscar joke involved telling Will’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith that he was excited to see her star in a sequel to G.I. Jane due to her shaved head look (the original G.I. Jane starred Demi Moore with a shaved head). What Rock didn’t know, however, is that Jada has alopecia, and she shaved her head as a result last year.
“You don’t hit people over a joke, however bad it is. And it wasn’t bad!” Gervais insisted during a live Twitter Q&A. “That was like the tamest joke I would ever have told.
Someone said it was joking about her disability. Well, I’m going a bit thin, so I’m disabled. That means I can park right up next to (British supermarket) Tesco now. And I’m fat. That’s a disease, isn’t it? I’m fat and balding. I should get fucking benefits.”
It’s actually not the first comments The Office icon has made about The Slap. “I’ll get it out of the way. I have not got any Will Smith material,” he said during a London show after the incident took place last week. “I trended when that happened and I was not even there. What has it got to do with me? People were going: What would have happened if Ricky Gervais had been (hosting the Oscars)? Well, nothing as I would not have made a joke about his wife’s hair. I would have made a joke about her boyfriend.”
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