James Corden has addressed accusations he copied a joke made by Ricky Gervais, saying he delivered it “inadvertently.” The host of the US talk show The Late Late Show gave a monologue during Monday’s episode addressing Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover and told a gag which viewers noted was almost identical to one from Ricky's 2018 stand-up show Humanity.
Many viewers - including Ricky, 61 - took to social media to draw attention to the similarities. In the joke, James says: “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!’”
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“Well that sign wasn’t for you, it was for someone else. You don’t have to get mad about all of it!”
In the joke from Ricky’s stand-up routine, he says: “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!”
The Gavin and Stacey star, 44, responded to the accusations on Tuesday (November 1), tweeting from The Late Late Show account: “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)
Ricky defended James earlier in the day after a Twitter user asked if Corden asked for permission to use the joke. @Drew_1981 asked him: “Didn't deliver it like you though. I assume he asked to use that joke?”
Ricky replied: “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.”
This is the second time in a matter of weeks James has found himself embroiled in controversy, having been barred from a New York restaurant.
James later acknowledged he had been “ungracious” during the incident but said it was “never my intention” to upset staff. He said: “I didn’t call anyone names or use derogatory language, I’ve been walking around thinking that I haven’t done anything wrong.
“But the truth is I have made a rude, rude comment. And it was wrong. It was an unnecessary comment, it was ungracious to the server.”
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