Ricky Gervais has defended his Netflix comedy special, SuperNature, after including several controversial jokes in the show.
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Appearing on The One Show on Wednesday night, the comedian and actor said that comedy is for "getting us over taboo subjects".
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When asked by one of the BBC show's presenters, Jermaine Jenas, if he has always worked on creating a "feeling of tension" in the audience, Ricky responded: "Well, I think that's what comedy is for really, to get us through stuff and ideally taboo subjects, because I want to take the audience to a place hasn't been before even for a split second.
"And you know, most offence comes from when people mistake the subject of a joke with the actual target, so it starts there. 'What's he gonna say?' I tell the joke. They laugh."
He continued: "You know, it's like a parachute jump. It's scary, but then you land and it's all okay.
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"And I think that's what comedy is for, getting us over taboo subjects. They're not scary anymore. So, I deal with everything you know."
Ricky has received backlash over some of his jokes
He added: "And then I think we second guess the audience too much. Even in narrative stuff, like After Life, you know, people saying, the audience hate this, of course they can, real life is much worse. These are just jokes.
"They don't mean anything. They're just for you to laugh for an hour or so. So that's why ideally taboo subjects. Yeah."
Since the show aired on Netflix, the comedian has faced backlash over jokes made about trans people that have been dubbed "dangerous".
© Photo: NetflixRicky stated that he supports trans rights in his special
While Ricky has stated that he is in support of trans rights, the 60-year-old has attracted criticism from US LGBTQ rights group Glaad.
"We watched the Ricky Gervais 'comedy' special on Netflix so you don’t have to," Glaad said in a statement on Tuesday night. "It's full of graphic, dangerous, anti-trans rants masquerading as jokes. He also spouts anti-gay rhetoric and spreads inaccurate information about HIV."
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