It’s a weird time to be a comedian. After all the ‘cancel culture’ drama of the last couple years, you would have thought that going through an actual, real world pandemic would make people chill out, see how ridiculous things are getting, and learn how to take a joke.

Well, sadly not. And now it looks like Ricky Gervais has had it with the culture of everyone being offended by words comedians say. So much so that he now wants to push the boundaries as far as possible and ‘try and get cancelled’ on his next standup show.

The 60-year-old told Heat:

I’m treating it like it’s my last one ever. It won’t be, but I want to put everything into it. I want to try and get cancelled. I just want to go all-out there.

It’s about the end of the world and how we’re going to destroy ourselves for lots of reasons, whether it’s media stupidity, or the actual end of the world.

In another interview with the Wall Street Journal yesterday, Gervais said:

There’s no subject you shouldn’t joke about. It depends on the joke. As a journalist, there’s nothing you wouldn’t write about. It depends on your angle, right? I think a lot of this pious offence comes from people mistaking the target of the joke with the subject.

You can joke about anything, but it depends on what the actual target is. If you use irony and people see that at face value and think you’re saying one thing but you’re actually saying the opposite.

Indeed. The motivation isn’t to be cruel or nasty or hateful; it’s to bring levity and laughter to the world at the expense of everybody. Equal opportunity p*ss-taking – isn’t that what true equality is all about? Sometimes a joke is funny because we know we’re not supposed to laugh. Sometimes a situation is so awful that humour is all we have!

Anyway, I don’t think Ricky Gervais will succeed in being cancelled because he’s so successful and unapologetic that he’s immune to it at this point. It might be amusing to watch people try though. Watch this space.