James Gordon
Frankie mentioned his cartoon buddy (photo: Rex).
Frankie Boyle arrested Ricky Gervais for his lazy jokes about transsexuals.
After Boyle, 48 years old, saw a routine that included jokes about transsexuals, he attacked his co-actor and asked him why the star of Office didn’t have the same respect for society as he did for animals.
The Scottish star appeared on Grounded with the podcast of Louis Theroux when he commented.
Mr. Boyle said: If you stand there and look at him, you feel: Oh, it’s someone making a version of what we do.
But in reality, that’s what I saw him doing in his routine on transsexuals, and I thought it was very lazy.
I want him to treat transsexuals with the same respect he gives to animals. I don’t think he’s worth much.
The actor, who is also known for his own controversial jokes, said: We know Ricky Gervais, he’s a brilliant actor, a brilliant writer, he’s not a damn stand-up comedian!
Just because Ricky Gervais calls himself a stand-up comedian, doesn’t mean I have to say he’s one of them? It’s the damn political correctness that’s gone mad!
Frankie says Ricky is not a stand-up (Picture: /Zeppotron, member of the Endemol Shine group).
Gervais, 59, has been criticized in the past for his jokes about transgender women, especially after he targeted Caitlyn Jenner in her monologue for the 2016 Golden Globe.
He said: I’ll be polite tonight. I’ve changed. Not as much as Bruce Jenner. Of course you do.
And now, of course, Caitlyn Jenner. What a year she’s had! She has become a role model for transgender people all over the world and has shown extraordinary courage in breaking down barriers and stereotypes. She didn’t do much for the drivers. But you can’t have it all, can you? Not at the same time.
In his Special Humanity Gervais continues: It’s a clever joke, and I’ll tell you why. It’s a multi-layered system. The theme of this joke is stereotypes, I play with the concept of stereotypes. Then I’ll start talking: She’s a real woman. Some would say a liberal-progressive stance.
He went on to say that he had been criticized for using the name Caitlin, who died: I saw him at the Olympics. He won a medal. It was on TV the whole time. A great and famous man. A big one, I don’t know. I would never call her dead. But when she was a man. I would never call her dead, but it sounds like a memory. Cause that was his name, wasn’t it, years ago? I believe he’s carried that name for 58 years.
Ricky named Caitlin after Caitlin in his comedy special (Photo: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)
He used Caitlin’s old name 15 times in a stand-up routine.
Other comments were also made: She still identifies herself as a woman. That means it’s a woman. Okay, if that’s the rules. If you feel like a woman, you’re one. I’m not a fanatic who thinks science has gone too far.
Actually, I don’t think it goes far enough. Because I’ve always identified myself as a chimp, haven’t I? Well, I’m a chimp. When I say I’m a chimp, I’m a chimp for surgery. But don’t ever tell me I’m dead. Don’t call me Ricky Gervais anymore. From now on, you call me Bobo. I’ll be a legal chimp…. I’m gonna be able to use the chimp bathroom.
The creator of After Life also made a joke in 2019 about not having to wax his big hairy balls to dress up as Jessica Yaniv, a transsexual activist, for Halloween, making remarks that were considered transphobic in response to a parody article two months later.
He tweeted: Those horrible biological women will never understand what it’s like to be a beautiful woman so late in life. They take their privilege as girls for granted. Women win at sports and have their own bathroom. All right, that’s enough, that’s enough.
Ricky denied being transphobic (Photo: Paul Drinking Water/NBCUniversal Media, LLC via Getty Images).
Read more: Caitlyn Jenner
Yet Gervais denies his transphobia, and says to the Hollywood Reporter: I think the crime is a collateral damage to freedom of speech, and that’s no reason not to have freedom of speech. Here, I’d say it’s the lesser of two evils.
Having freedom of speech and for some people to get angry about it is the lesser of two evils, because not having freedom of speech is terrible.
Boyle is not the only star who criticizes Gervais’ approach to comedy, as Kumail Nanjiani once said on the Roundtable on Comedy : If you make a joke that of course you don’t believe in, but as far as the joke is concerned, it’s a good thing that these people are marginalized, I think that can normalize ideas that would otherwise be considered harmful in society.
Based on Louis Theroux is available on Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
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