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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Joel Leaver

James Corden responds to accusation he 'copied' Ricky Gervais joke on talk show

James Corden has addressed recent criticism that he appeared to have 'copied' a joke from Ricky Gervais.

The talk show host, 44, made the gag while addressing Elon Musk 's takeover of social media platform Twitter during CBS' The Late Late Show with James Corden on Monday.

As reported earlier, during the recent episode, Corden reacted to the platform being compared to a town square, with the presenter dismissing such on his late night show.

Corden commented: "It isn't. Because if someone puts up a poster in a town square that says 'guitar lessons available', like you don't get people in the town go 'I don't wanna play the guitar! I wanna play the piano you piece of s***!'"

He concluded: "[But] that sign wasn't for you, it was for somebody else. You don't have to get mad about all of it."

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The comment attracted attention on social media, with some people stating that it was similar to a joke made by Gervais, 61, in his Netflix stand-up special Humanity in 2018.

Addressing the response on Tuesday, Corden tweeted: "Inadvertently told a brilliant Ricky Gervais joke on the show last night, obviously not knowing it came from him."

He continued in the tweet, which was posted through his show's account: "It's brilliant, because it’s a Ricky Gervais joke. You can watch all [his] excellent specials on Netflix. J x"

Gervais reportedly pointed out similarity between Corden's remark and his own joke in a now-deleted tweet. He later shared his thoughts on the situation in a follow-up post.

It came after the comedian was asked whether he had been approached for permission to reference the joke, with Gervais suggesting in a tweet that this was not the case.

He had responded: "No. I reckon one of the writers 'came up with it' for him. I doubt he would knowingly just copy such a famous stand up routine word for word like that."

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