Ricky Gervais left The One Show hosts surprised on Tuesday as he changed the conversation to an unlikely sombre topic.
The After Life comedian, 60, sat down with hosts Alex Jones and Jermaine Jenas to discuss his new Netflix special SuperNature.
At one point in the interview, the controversial comedian left the BBC presenters lost for words as he brought up his own mortality on the programme.
The comedian responded to Alex and Jermaine’s questioning on the nature of his comedy and his willingness to address “taboo” topics.
But the chat then took a sombre turn as Gervais commented: “I'm fat and old and I'm going to die soon.”
A shocked Alex refused to accept his comment and corrected him, saying: “No you're not.”
But Gervais was staunch in his position and replied: “I am,” before adding: “I've brought it down haven't I?”
Jermaine then cracked a joke as he urged Gervais to “lift it” back up.
But Ricky continued with the subject, saying: “Every day I'm closer to death.”
“Well we're all a bit closer to death,” Alex told him before adding: “Every day is a bigger percentage of the rest of your life and we don't know what percentage that will be. If I die tomorrow today was 50 per cent.”
A stunned Jermaine admitted: “I didn't see this coming. This is not a part of the show I thought was going to happen,” before Alex finally changed the subject.
When explaining what the new Netflix show is about, Gervais said: "I debunk the supernatural and conclude nature is super enough.
“We don't need unicorns, we've got the octopus. It's nature, humanity, warts and all. The best and worst things about being alive."
When asked how the audience lap up jokes about the comedian’s wealth, he explained it's because “they know what I'm doing”.
He said: “I go out with bad jeans, drinking out of a can of beer. We're jesters so we have to be down with the audience laughing at the king.
“I do that in two ways. One I let them peek behind the curtain. I say all the terrible things that happen to me, the terrible tweets, the terrible press. I also do it by talking about things where they're better off than me.”
The After Life creator has come under fire over controversial graphic jokes about transgender people in his new Netflix comedy special.
Gervais dedicated a significant chunk of his new Netflix special to commenting on the trans community, joking that ‘old-fashioned women’ are ‘the ones with wombs’ and that he’s transitioning to become ‘Vicky Gervais’.
Shortly after Netflix dropped the Ricky Gervais special on the platform, social media users took to Twitter to slam the jokes, declaring they were "not comedy" and were just "making cheap, nasty stereotypes out of a minority group".
One tweeted: "Ricky Gervais has a new stand up show out on Netflix today.
"5 minutes in and he’s making jokes about trans women attacking & raping people in public bathrooms. To him we exist only as a punchline, a threat, something less than human."
