Ricky Gervais Defends Chris Rock’s Oscars Joke By Calling It ‘The Tamest Joke I Would Ever Have Told’

After indirectly weighing in on Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars with a clip from The Office, comedian Ricky Gervais has now directly commented on the second biggest pop culture story of the year. (The biggest remains this tweet.)

“You don’t hit people over a joke, however bad it is. And it wasn’t bad! That was like the tamest joke I would ever have told,” The Office co-creator said during a live Q&A session on Twitter that he recently shared to his TikTok account. Gervais believes people are overreacting to Rock’s G.I. Jane crack about Jada Pinkett Smith. “Someone said it was joking about her disability,” he continued before snickering. “Well, I’m going a bit thin. So I’m disabled. That means I can park right up next to [British supermarket] Tesco now. And I’m fat. That’s a disease, isn’t it I’m fat and balding. I should get f*cking benefits.”

Gervais’ comments sparked a spirited discussion under his post. While there appeared to be general agreement that it was not a disability, there were disagreements over whether alopecia should be seen as something to be mocked. “I agree Will shouldn’t have slapped Chris but you need to understand how emotionally important a woman’s hair is; it is devastating to lose it,” said one of the star’s followers.

For someone who supposedly doesn’t care about pop culture…

— Daniel (@Clark1995Clark) April 2, 2022

… Gervais sure has a lot to say about what happened at the Oscars.