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‘Here we go!’ Ricky Gervais stirs trans hornets’ nest with jokes about ‘old-fashioned women’ with wombs

May 24, 2022 | | Print Article

With satire getting labeled as misinformation, comedians getting slapped by actors finding offense in a joke, and social justice snowflakes demanding boycotts against outlets that air performances that no one required them to watch, it feels like a rare thing to witness someone walk clear-eyed into the fray to demonstrate that comedy is the ultimate expression of free speech.

In his new Netflix special “SuperNature” standup phenom Ricky Gervais did exactly that with a few irreverent jokes at the expense of the “trans” community. Of course, within hours of the special’s premiere Tuesday, activists were already calling out his “hateful” rhetoric that they concluded would surely lead to acts of violence and the “killing” of members of their community.

“Trans people are going to end up getting killed over this. We need international help,” one person cried out to the denizens of the internet.

https://twitter.com/DRAmRoberts/status/1529026783806476288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1529026783806476288%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fvariety.com%2F2022%2Ftv%2Fnews%2Fricky-gervais-trans-jokes-netflix-special-supernature-1235275966%2F

How did Gervais so expertly poke the woke hornet’s nest? In a mock dialogue with an activist, he highlighted the absurdity of how far culture had devolved.

“Oh, women! Not all women, I mean the old-fashioned ones,” he began i one segment of his Netflix comedy special “SuperNature.”

“The old-fashioned women, you know the ones with wombs. Those f*cking dinosaurs. 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*cks. They’re as good as gold, I love them,”  he said to audience laughter.

“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*cking bigot!’ ‘What if he rapes me?’ ‘What if she rapes you, you f*cking TERF whore?'” he ended, using the slur against traditional feminists – Trans-exclusionary Radical Feminist.

**Warning for language**:

As the crowd roared with laughter throughout the entire skit, Gervais went into a brief monologue on the subjectivity of humor and the problem with “woke comedy.” It exists, and it involves comedians signing a waiver before a performance promising that they aren’t going to offend anyone. Aside from recounting how terrible it is, his subjective opinion, he explained the paradox of attempting to make an audience laugh without risk.

“You can’t predict what will be offensive in the future. 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 ten-year-old tweet of someone saying, ‘Women don’t have penises.’ You know why?” he asked. “We didn’t think we f*cking had to!”

Whether Netflix required him to do so, or he just saw fit to explain that jokes are not necessarily an expression of sincerely held beliefs, before the special concluded Gervais noted, “Full disclosure: In real life of course I support trans rights. I support all human rights, and trans rights are human rights. Live your best life. Use your preferred pronouns. Be the gender that you feel that you are. But meet me halfway, ladies: Lose the c*ck. That’s all I’m saying.”

So, naturally, the boycott against Netflix was renewed again.

This is precisely why Gervais explained in his special that apologizing to the woke mob is useless. It did no good for Kevin Hart when he was canceled from hosting the Oscars. After Dave Chappelle’s surprise appearance during John Mulaney’s comedy tour, and with the likes of Bill Maher finding a line in the sand that needs to be drawn somewhere, there is hope yet that common sense will win out over victimhood culture.

As Maher said, “The answer can’t always be that anyone from a marginalized community is automatically right; trump card, mic drop, end of discussion.”

Kevin Haggerty
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