Ricky Gervais is defending his controversial Golden Globes joke about Caitlyn Jenner.
As Extreme Entertainment reported, Jenner was one of the many celebrities Gervais made fun of during his monologue for the 2016 Golden Globe Awards last Sunday. The former Olympian, of course, came out as transgender last year and transitioned from Bruce to Caitlyn. And during the opening, Gervais said he himself had changed, before adding, “Not as much as Bruce Jenner, obviously. Now Caitlyn Jenner, of course.”
“What a year she’s had! She became a role model for trans people everywhere, showing great bravery in breaking down barriers and destroying stereotypes,” continued the comedian. “She didn’t do a lot for women drivers. But you can’t have everything. Not at the same time.”
While the star-studded crowd laughed heartily, Gervais has received enough blowback over the last two days to tweet a defense on Tuesday morning. “Suggesting a joke about Caitlin Jenner is automatically transphobic is like suggesting a joke about Bill Cosby is automatically racist,” wrote the British star.
Gervais did joke about Cosby, too, during the awards ceremony. And in his defensive Twitter spree, the British star relayed an imaginary conversation with a protester: “Viewer: I’m offended by a joke you made. Me: So? Viewer: You gonna apologise? Me: No. Viewer: Then I won’t watch you again. Me: Correct.”
“In the future, everyone will be offended by me for 15 minutes,” Gervais went on to tweet. “You have every right to be offended. Just don’t cry when no one cares.” He further revealed, “Hosting The Globes has made me want to do a new stand up show next year. Now THAT’S when you’re allowed to be offended. You whiney c*nts :)”
But that still wasn’t all. Gervais added a few hours later, “Do people not realise that when they say they are offended by a joke it makes that joke even funnier for the rest of us.” He even said, “If jokes caused the easily offended to bleed internally, I’d do more stand up.” Gervais continued to drive home his point about Jenner as another person tweeted an objection.
“Re: Ricky Gervais’s defence of his Caitlyn Jenner joke. If your joke is about a person’s transition, it’s probably transphobic,” wrote Rachel McGrath. Gervais responded, “What if it was about her killing someone with her car? Would that be ok?” McGrath replied back, “Yeah, but the joke was in two parts. That bit: fair game but the ‘Bruce Jenner changes…’ bit was about her transition.”
Gervais then clarified, “But it WAS Bruce Jenner who changed. Into Caitlyn Jenner. And I respect that. Just not her driving.” He went on to quip, “I made a joke about Caitlyn Jenner killing someone in her car. I’m #TransportPhobic.” Gervais also tweeted a link to watch the monologue, and encouraged followers, “Judge for yourself.” For her part, Jenner hasn’t weighed in at all.
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