James Corden has responded to backlash, after copying a famous Ricky Gervais joke.
During Monday night’s episode of his popular US talk show The Late Late Show, the English comedian addressed Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover.
But fans noticed that his joke was remarkably similar to one told by fellow comedian Ricky in his 2018 stand-up show Humanity, and took to Twitter to call James out.
In which James Corden basically does a Ricky Gervais joke word for word pic.twitter.com/8MfkrBo8Y0
— Rupert Myers (@RupertMyers) November 1, 2022
James said: “When you see Elon Musk talk about Twitter he does this thing where he goes, ‘Well, it’s the town square’. But it isn’t.”
“Because if someone puts up a poster in a town square that says ‘guitar lessons available’, you don’t get people in the town going, ‘I don’t want to play the guitar! I want to play the piano, you piece of s**t!’
“Well, that sign wasn’t for you, it was for someone else. You don’t have to get mad about all of it!”
James Corden Caught Stealing Jokes! from Ricky Gervais ! #DramaAlert
PS – I stole this video. pic.twitter.com/CsqrBxF4Nj
— KEEM 🍿 (@KEEMSTAR) November 2, 2022
In Ricky’s 2018 sketch, he said: “They choose to read my tweet, and then take that personally.”
“That’s like going into a town square, seeing a big notice board and there’s a notice – guitar lessons – and you go, ‘But I don’t want f***ing guitar lessons’.”
“Fine, it’s not for you then, just walk away. Don’t worry about it!”
Is James Corden guilty of plagiarism or flattering Ricky Gervais?@rickygervais | @JKCorden pic.twitter.com/BErHjb6y24
— TalkTV (@TalkTV) November 2, 2022
When a fan asked Ricky on Twitter whether James had permission to use his joke, the After Life star 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.”
James then took to Twitter to address the criticism, denying that he intentionally stole the joke.
He wrote: “Inadvertently told a brilliant Ricky Gervais joke on the show last night, obviously not knowing it came from him. It’s brilliant, because it’s a Ricky Gervais joke. You can watch all Ricky’s excellent specials on Netflix. J x”
Inadvertently told a brilliant Ricky Gervais joke on the show last night, obviously not knowing it came from him. It’s brilliant, because it’s a Ricky Gervais joke. You can watch all Ricky’s excellent specials on Netflix. J x
— The Late Late Show with James Corden (@latelateshow) November 1, 2022
