A clip from Ricky Gervais’ upcoming Netflix special has already raised a few eyebrows online. Probably not for the reasons he was hoping, though.
On Christmas Day, the divisive comedian is due to unveil his latest comedy special, the dramatically-titled Armageddon.
He joked: “For the next 2,000 years people will remember the 25th December as the day ‘Armageddon’ was released on Netflix.”
Netflix has previously described the show as a “taboo-busting comedy special about the end of humanity” that sees Ricky “dishing out controversial takes on political correctness and oversensitivity”.
That’s not quite what we got in the first preview take, though, which sees Ricky claiming that human beings are “no more evolved” than slugs or snails, before going into the differences between the two.
“The snail is basically a slug with a shell on it,” Ricky claims towards the end of the clip. “But if you pull the shell off the snail, it starts giving it all, ‘oh, I’m dying’, and the slug is like, ‘welcome to the real world, cunt’.”
Cutting edge stuff we’re sure you’ll agree.
Since the teaser was shared on Monday, it’s been at the centre of much conversation, with one X user questioning: “Is this the sort of stuff he keeps saying he’s not allowed to say?”
Another joked: “Remember that if the WOKE PC POLICE had their way, you wouldn’t be able to see this kind of brave, free-thinking comedy EVER AGAIN.”
Armageddon is the third Ricky Gervais special to be streamed on Netflix.
Last year, the Office creator was met with a widespread backlash over his special SuperNature, over jokes made about the transgender community during his set.
Defending his humour, Ricky later told The One Show: “I deal in taboo subjects because I want to take the audience to a place it hasn’t been before, even for a split second. Most offence comes from when people mistake the subject of a joke with the actual target.”
He added: “I think that’s what comedy is for – getting us over taboo subjects so they’re not scary any more. So I deal with everything. And I think we second guess the audience too much.”