Ricky Gervais’ “stupid Reading accent” means people make assumptions about his intelligence, the After Life star revealed on Sunday.

In a Twitter Live Stream the creator of the acclaimed The Office series said the way he talks mean others wouldn’t guess he has a Bachelor’s Degree in philosophy from a ‘top university’.

The comments came after a member of the public asked him what he thought ‘consciousness’ meant during a social media Q and A.

“What people don’t realise is because I talk to f****** cats and dogs and I say stupid sh** and I look like a bag of sh*** as well and I’ve got a stupid Reading accent and I look f****** thick and old and drunk and sh**, they don’t realise that I have got an honours degree from a top university in Philosophy.”

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Gervais went on to reference René Descartes' famous dictum ‘I think therefore I am’: The philosophers proof that certainty is possible because even if everything a man saw was a dream, the fact he could dream means at the very he least he knows he exists.

“Consciousness is an individuals awareness of oneself in the world," said Gervais.

Read more: 21 signs you know you're definitely from Reading

“It’s the fact that we’re feeling we’re alive. Maybe it’s not even self-awareness, because loads of animals are conscious but they’re not thinking ‘ooh I’m a nice little frog’.”

“Even if you can’t put it into language it’s the awareness of being, I’d say.”