Reading's Ricky Gervais has hit back at critics who turned on him for mocking 'cancel culture' with jokes about transgender people in his new 'SuperNature' Netflix special.
The Whitley born comedian spoke about trans rights, identity politics and cancel culture during new Netflix comedy show.
He kicked off the show with a warning about irony as he describes the concept of comedy to the audience as 'basically a bloke talking', before purposely failing to recall any 'funny female comedians'.
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His jokes have been branded as 'dangerous' by an LGBTQ+ group and Stonewall accused him of 'making fun of trans people'.
Ricky Gervais hit back at critics, speaking to the Spectator about it.
The Daily Mail quoted his comments to the magazine, where he said: 'My target wasn't trans folk, but trans activist ideology. I've always confronted dogma that oppresses people and limits freedom of expression."
He also spoke to The One Show about his 'dark humour'.
"I think that's what comedy is for, really - to get us through stuff, and I deal in taboo subjects because I want to take the audience to a place it hasn't been before, even for a split second.
"Most offence comes from when people mistake the subject of a joke with the actual target."
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