Ricky Gervais, who has been plugging his new Netflix special, SuperNature, set to be unleashed onto the streaming platform next Tuesday, insisted that “smart” people won't get offended by jokes on “taboo” subjects as they will understand the “irony".
Appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on 17 May, the 60-year-old UK comedian explained that he had added new material to his show, which he had taken out on tour before the COVID-19 pandemic.
When asked if he had to change jokes because of a long touring break, Gervais said:
“It was always evolving. There was a thought, 'Will this be out of date?' And then I realised that when you're dealing with, you know, famine, AIDS, cancer, Hitler, those dudes are evergreen. Yeah, so they're not going to... they don't date,” said the comedian.
When the host said that there was “no audience that isn't going to love that,” Gervais quipped, “Boo! Not Hitler! It was a long time ago.”
“Get over it!” chimed in Colbert.
When the host noted that people attending the comedian’s shows didn’t go for the “feel-good” atmosphere and could expect “offensive subjects” being broached, Gervais responded:
“No, they do feel good, and the aim is to make them laugh and they do laugh. But they know that I deal with taboo subjects. But I deal with taboo subjects because I want to take the audience to a place it hasn't been before and there is a tension.”
The creator of The Office, a British television mockumentary sitcom, added:
“And I think people get offended when they mistake the subject of a joke with the actual target, and smart people know you can deal with anything, particularly when dealing with something like irony.”
The comedian explained that humour “gets us over bad stuff”.
“That's why I laugh about terrifying bad things. You know, that's why comedians are obsessed with death because, you know, it gets us through ... it's an inoculation against the real things that are going to happen.”
Netflix has set 24 May for the premiere of SuperNature, the second stand-up special from Emmy winner Ricky Gervais for the streamer. After performing half of it on tour before being shut down by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Gervais resumed 18 months later.
Ricky Gervais also revealed that the show was titled SuperNature because he tries to “debunk the supernatural".
“I don't believe in anything supernatural. I believe that anything that exists is by definition part of nature and is explainable. If not now, but then eventually,” Gervais said.