Those holding their breath for a Ricky Gervais apology should probably exhale right about now.
There isn’t any sort of Mea Culpa on the way.
As usual, the comedian found himself in pretty hot water after hosting the 2016 Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night, mostly for jokes made during his monologue… and specifically for one joke he made about Caitlyn Jenner.
“I’ve changed. Not as much as Bruce Jenner, obviously – now Caitlyn Jenner, of course,” Gervais cracked.
“What a year she’s had. She became a role model for trans people everywhere… She didn’t do a lot for women drivers, but you can’t have everything.”
This was a quip about a fatal car accident in which Jenner was involved in early 2015, back when he still went by “Bruce.”
Gervais has faced a lot of backlash for the remark, prompting him to defend the joke on Twitter as follows:
“Suggesting a joke about Caitlin Jenner is automatically transphobic is like suggesting a joke about Bill Cosby is automatically racist.”
That’s true.
This joke was not about Caitlyn Jenner having become a woman. It was about a motorist being killed in a car crash.
You can go ahead and decide which is more offensive.
As you can see via the above video, Gervais offended quite a few people with his monologue.
But he doesn’t appear to feel very badly about it.
“In the future, everyone will be offended by me for 15 minutes,” he also Tweeted, adding: “You have every right to be offended. Just don’t cry when no one cares.”
Gervais also embarrassed Mel Gibson (below) at the event.
So even if you were offended by his Caitlyn Jenner joke, perhaps this evened everything out in the end.
