Ricky Gervais is pissing everyone off again

Ricky Gervais is back in the news for his latest attempt at tired shock-comedy. After his last Netflix special faced backlash for lazy transphobic “jokes,” his upcoming special has advocates for disabled people and parents of terminally ill children calling out the comedian for directing the r-slur at Make-A-Wish patients.

The special, titled ​​Armageddon, releases Christmas day on Netflix, but Gervais has shared promotional clips on social media. In one viral video, he starts out by calling terminally ill cancer patients “baldies,” and it only gets worse from there. “Why didn’t you wish to get better? What, you fucking re****ed as well?” he said.

Scope, a UK charity for disabled people, put out a statement condemning the clip.

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“We wish we were surprised by reports that Ricky Gervais has used ableist slurs in his new Netflix special,” the organization began.

“He argues that he wouldn’t use this language in ‘real-life’. But his stand-up routine doesn’t exist in a parallel universe. 

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“The stage is real. Netflix is real. The people this kind of language impacts are real.”

Two days later, the charity reported that they were flooded with abusive messages directed towards disabled people in response to their X/Twitter thread.

“We aren’t trying to ‘police’ comedy, or speak on behalf of all disabled people. But it’s important to talk about the real-life consequences of language like this,” the charity said.

“Comedians using the r-slur emboldens others to use it. We’ve seen this first hand this week, with disabled people being abused directly in the replies to our post.”

One parent of a young cancer patient, Sess Cova, petitioned Netflix to remove the content. As of this writing, the petition has over 4,000 signatures.

“[Gervais’s special] mocks the courage and resilience of these young fighters who face their illness with grace and beauty despite their baldness,” Cova wrote, referencing the “baldies” line.

“They are a slap in the face to not only the children battling these serious illnesses but also their parents and families who stand by them through this difficult journey.”

“This is why we demand that Netflix remove this offensive skit from its platform immediately,” Cova concluded. “We believe that comedy should never come at the expense of someone else’s pain or suffering – especially when it involves innocent children battling life-threatening illnesses.”