Comedian Ricky Gervais, who has made a career out of challenging aspects of political correctness, further distinguished his views, clarifying that there’s a distinction between being held accountable and being in danger of cancellation.
On the podcast “SmartLess” with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett published Sunday, Gervais said cultural differences in the future could have a serious effect.
“The misunderstanding about cancel culture is some people think you should be able to say anything you want without consequences and that’s not true because we’re members of society and people are allowed to criticize you,” he said. “They’re allowed to not buy your things … they’re allowed to turn the telly off. What they’re not allowed to do is to bully other people into not going to see you.”
The British comedian and creator of “The Office” and “After Life,” lamented the form that cancel culture is taking.
“No one looks at the argument anymore; they look at who’s saying it,” he said. He added that doctors are “getting fired” for “a bad joke they made on Twitter.” Gervais underscores the importance of deciding for yourself what to consume.
“The scary thing is being canceled if you say the wrong thing and suddenly Netflix can take you off their platform,” Gervais remarked. “You could be the most woke, politically correct stand-up in the world at the moment, but you don’t know what it’s going to be like in 10 years’ time. You can get canceled for things you said 10 years ago because you don’t know what it’s gonna be like in 10 years’ time.”
During an August interview with The Metro, Gervais said, “If you don’t agree to someone’s right to say something you don’t agree with, you don’t agree with freedom of speech.”
Add comment