Ricky Gervais Defends His Drink Drive Joke  Ricky Gervais |
British comedian, Ricky Gervais has defended his craft by insisting that his joke about drink-driving is ‘justified comedically’. The controversy came into light after a reviewer picked up on a punchline about the consequences of driving a car while drunk.
Ricky Gervais claimed that the reviewer has misrepresented what was said and twisted its meaning.
Ricky Gervais said, “I do the following joke live when talking about the perils of drink-driving: 'I've done it once and I'm really ashamed of it. It was Christmas - I'd had a couple of drinks and I took the car out. But I learned my lesson. I nearly killed an old lady. In the end I didn't kill her. In the end, I just raped her. The joke clearly revolves around the misdirection in the term "nearly killed", suggesting "narrowly avoided". But, as it turns out, "nearly killed" means something much, much worse. A big taboo I'll admit, but justified comedically I feel”.
"This is how a journalist in The Independent recounted the joke: 'I nearly knocked this old woman over... but I didn't. I raped her.' He then went on to say how disgusting and unfunny that joke is. He's right. It is both disgusting and unfunny. But that's his joke, not mine. It's nothing like mine. It contains no joke at all. He has shown how qualified he is to talk about humour”, he added.
