“I asked one question myself on this… ‘Is James Corden in it?’”
Ricky Gervais’ new Netflix special is finally here, and viewers have been left stunned after his ‘brutal’ joke about fellow comedian James Corden.
The show, called Armageddon, had been making headlines for weeks before its release after a preview clip caused a huge backlash online.
It showed Gervais making a joke about terminally ill children and using an ableist slur that led to the creation of a petition to cancel the special.
However, the show still went ahead, and the jokes were as outlandish as expected.
In one bit, the comedian was explaining how he discovered a website where animal lovers can check ahead to see if any animals are hurt in films before they watch them.
“People love their dog so much, they won’t even watch a fictional thing where a dog gets hurt. And I get that! There’s a website, it’s a real website, it’s called doesthedogdie.com.
“It was set up because people would watch a film or a programme with a dog in it and something would happen to the dog and they’d turn it off. It would ruin it for them, it would ruin their day.
“So this website was set up, you could go to it you could put in any film or TV show and ask, ‘Does the dog die?’
“Someone would answer you, ‘No’, or whatever. It’s become a thing for anyone’s phobias. Anything you don’t want to see in a film, you just look up the film and they answer your question, right? I looked up one film on here – Schindler’s List.”
Schindler’s List is a film based on the true story of Oskar Schindler, who is credited with saving the lives of over a thousand Jews during the Holocaust.
“First question: ‘Does a dog die?’ No. ‘Does a cat die?’ No. ‘Are any animals abused?’
“Someone answers, ‘There is a chicken that’s handled roughly but otherwise unharmed’,” Gervais says of the film’s listing on the site.
He went on to explain how the site was founded in 2010, and that it is evident from the comments on the site the cultural changes since then.
“The later questions start reflecting the times we live in now and they get more and more fragile and narcissistic. ‘Is there any fat jokes?’ Someone asks, ‘Is there hate speech?’ Yeah… suck it up buttercup.”
The comedian then added: “I asked one question myself on this… ‘Is James Corden in it?’”
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