James Corden Pisses People Off Further By Stealing A Ricky Gervais Joke
"Inadvertently told a brilliant Ricky Gervais joke on the show last night, obviously not knowing it came from him."
Watching James Corden’s entry restrictions to NYC restaurant Balthazar change each day has been something of a spectator sport lately.
In case you missed it, the star was recently banned from the fine dining spot after allegations he behaved like a “cretin” in a past confrontation with staff over an omelette. He was then unbanned for publicly apologising, before swiftly being re-banned for an interview over an interview he did with The Times.
But if watching Corden apologise is your thing, you’ll be happy to know that the Carpool Karaoke presenter has fallen on his sword once more: this time for UK comedian Ricky Gervais, who accused Corden of stealing material from his 2018 stand-up special.
Corden copped flack for a joke in the opening monologue of the The Late Late Show which riffed on Elon Musk’s recent takeover of Twitter, which viewers quickly noticed was almost identical to a joke told by Gervais in his 2018 stand-up special, Humanity.
Plagiarism? I don’t know what people are talking about, these two jokes by @JKCorden and @rickygervais are barely similar pic.twitter.com/9kYOHiOiLj
— Paul Anthony (@PaulFI9) November 1, 2022
In a since-deleted tweet, Gervais shared the clip of Corden’s recitation of the joke with a caption mockingly praising it as “brilliant”.
When asked by commenters if Corden had given permission to use the bit, Gervais speculated that plagiarism in the show’s writers room had led to the mistake.
“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,” Gervais wrote in a since deleted tweet.
Corden formally apologised to Gervais on Twitter shortly afterwards, acknowledging that he had “inadvertently” repeated the joke by accident.
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) November 1, 2022
Whether Corden will be forced to apologise again in the future for screaming at the offending writer — with the fury of a millionaire deprived of his perfect omelette — is yet to be seen.