As Netflix continues to deal with criticism for platforming Dave Chappelle and his transphobic rhetoric, Ricky Gervais has arrived with the same jokes.
The 60-year-old English comedian’s new special, “Supernature,” hit the streaming service Tuesday, chock full of the same anti-trans jokes that caused staff to walk out last fall.
“Oh, women! Not all women, I mean the old-fashioned ones. The old-fashioned women, the ones with wombs. Those f—ing dinosaurs,” Gervais said early in the special.
“I love the new women. They’re great, aren’t they? The new ones we’ve been seeing lately. The ones with beards and c--ks. They’re as good as gold, I love them. And now the old-fashioned ones say, ‘Oh, they want to use our toilets.’ ‘Why shouldn’t they use your toilets?’ ‘For ladies!’ ‘They are ladies — look at their pronouns! What about this person isn’t a lady?’ ‘Well, his penis.’ ‘Her penis, you f—ing bigot!’ ‘What if he rapes me?’ ‘What if she rapes you, you f—ing TERF w—e?’”
TERF stands for Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists, or feminists who ignore trans people in their activism or belief systems.
Later in the episode, Gervais, using Kevin Hart’s old homophobic tweets as an in, again returns to trans people.
“You can’t predict what will be offensive in the future,” he said.
“You don’t know who the dominant mob will be. Like, the worst thing you can say today, get you canceled on Twitter, death threats, the worst thing you can say today is, ‘Women don’t have penises,’ right? Now, no one saw that coming. You won’t find a 10-year-old tweet saying ‘Women don’t have penises.’ You know why? We didn’t think we f—ing had to!”
Gervias offered one final comment to wrap up “Supernature,” claiming that he “of course” supports trans rights “in real life.”
“I support all human rights, and trans rights are human rights,” he said. “Live your best life. Use your preferred pronouns. Be the gender that you feel you are. But meet me halfway, ladies. Lose the c—k. That’s all I’m saying.”
The backlash was swift, within hours of the special’s release on Netflix.
“To him we exist only as a punchline, a threat, something less than human,” one woman tweeted.
“Ricky Gervais is just an incredibly lazy comedian who hasn’t worked out that just because you’re offensive it doesn’t mean you’re funny,” someone else tweeted. “His fans now seem to consist of right wing twats who think cruelty is funny simply by virtue of it being cruel and ‘triggering the libs.’”
“It’s insane that Ricky Gervais’ whole bit is screeching and cackling at marginalized groups being brutally murdered daily, before turning to the camera, making a sad face, and saying ‘some people put lip stick on bunnies,’” tweeted another, referring to Gervais’ animal rights advocacy.
Representatives for Netflix did not immediately return a request for comment from the Daily News Tuesday.
The new controversy echoes and doubles down on the discourse last October after Chappelle’s own transphobic special, which drew ire from GLAAD, viewers and even Netflix employees.
Netflix boss Ted Sarandos repeatedly defended Chappelle, insisting that “content on screen doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm.”
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