Ricky Gervais is probably one of the greatest comedians of the modern era. Joe Lycett? Not so much. Still, we all have our critics, and Lycett went on The News Agents podcast the other night to share his disappointment with Gervais’s more recent shtick.

Lycett hit out at Gervais’s ‘comedically weak’ Netflix special Supernature, and said it’s a waste of his skills to be ‘attacking minorities’ and ‘wokeness’:

“The real tragedy for me was [Gervais’s standup] was comedically weak.”

“He’s skilled… what a waste of that skill to attack minorities.”

Coming to @GlobalPlayer@lewis_goodall | @joelycett pic.twitter.com/y4Zk4g0Vpd

— The News Agents (@TheNewsAgents) February 23, 2024

‘Somebody literally said to me a few months ago, “Oh it must be so hard being a comedian, don’t you miss being racist and homophobic,” those were their actual words. And I was like, funnily enough, I don’t miss that really. I think we’ve just got more interesting as an industry and doing more interesting things.

The key thing is, it’s not for everyone and if you don’t think it’s funny or don’t think it’s interesting, don’t watch it, that’s fine. But there is an audience for it. I would never say that Gervais shouldn’t do what he does, he can say whatever he wants, we live in a free society.

What I think is perhaps disappointing about Gervais and the people like him that are doing this sort of “I’ll just say how it is,” and the last show he did, the real tragedy for me was that it was comedically weak. If you removed the Gervaisness of it, and you gave it to a new stand-up, they’d struggle in a club with the material he had. Anyone who gets a bit of telly can get a bit complacent, myself included.

The thing about Gervais and people like him, who are doing material which is attacking trans people and wokeness, however they see it, is that they are very skilled. Gervais has done amazing, amazing, work, and what a waste of that skill to attack minorities. That’s how I feel about it.

I’m not going to say he shouldn’t do it, do whatever he wants, I don’t want to get involved in his creative process, but I would prefer to see him use that skill and that wit to attack people who possibly need to be attacked more than the trans community.’

Well, fair enough really. That’s his opinion and he expressed it well without coming off as a hater. Still, I’m not sure you can have a go at Ricky Gervais for attacking any group or collective, given how many times he’s called out powerful celebrities for their greed and attempts to influence the public, often to their faces and in front of millions of viewers. Seems no group is safe from his comedy, which is the way it should be.

Meanwhile, Joe Lycett pretends to burn a load of money if David Beckham doesn’t do what he says. So who’s comedically weak?

Still, you’ve got to hand it to Joe Lycett. He once made a joke so ‘offensive’ that an audience member called the police on him. I’m not sure even Ricky Gervais can claim that.