On this, Ricky Gervais and I will never agree

There’s plenty to like about Ricky Gervais: his acerbic wit, his fierce advocacy for animals, his merciless skewering of celebrities during his Golden Globes hosting gig and his emotionally intelligent and empathetic writing in great shows like After Life and Derek.

I can say with unabashed star-struckedness (or at least I could if that was a word) that one of the highlights of my experience on X (then Twitter) was when he responded to one of my tweets about his unerring depiction of dementia on After Life.

But there are some issues where we are decidedly not in the same lane.

I don’t like his anti-trans jokes.

I don’t share his fascination with the four-letter C-word.

And I completely disagree with his social media post about the 2026 Grammy Awards, held Feb. 1.

The high-profile celebration of music was particularly notable this year for its political content. Multiple artists — including Canadians Joni Mitchell and Justin Bieber — wore “ICE out” pins as a means of signalling their opposition to the recent thuggery of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, while other artists used their moments in the winner’s circle to get their activist messages out.

“From acceptance speeches to red carpet accessories, the ceremony became a co-ordinated display of opposition to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown,” Forbes reported the day after the show in an article by Hannah Abraham aptly headlined Every reference to ICE at the 2026 Grammy Awards.

From Billie Eilish’s unadorned “F—k ICE” to Bad Bunny’s heartfelt “We’re not savages, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens, we are humans and we are Americans,” artists used the spotlight to illuminate ICE activities. And no wonder. Around 70,000 people have been detained as of early January 2026 — “the highest level in recorded history,” Forbes reported.

In response to all of this political messaging, Gervais tweeted a quote from his 2020 Golden Globes monologue in front of Hollywood royalty: “If you do win an award tonight, don’t use it as a platform to make a political speech. You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything. You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg.”

Gervais prefaced the Feb. 2 post with the words “They’re still not listening” and a “face with tears of joy” emoji.

But guess what? A lot of people who may have been laughing then aren’t laughing now.

As of this writing, the post had been retweeted 56,000 times (not that that’s a clear indication of support for or opposition to Gervais’ original statement) and had garnered close to 7,000 responses — many of them in agreement, but some pointing out his hypocrisy.

From someone who sells out arenas with his wildly popular standup act, the British comic seems to have failed somewhat in his reading of this room.

“Privilege is a helluva drug,” someone with the X handle BrooklynDad_Defiant! posted. “Imagine being so unaffected by the plight of those less fortunate than you that a few words said on behalf of them seem more unbearable than the reality of those things (that) are happening.”

@GretaGrace20 commented: “We now have state-sponsored assassination of American citizens. Your once-funny line is two murders past its expiration date, dude,” in reference to the shooting deaths of ICE observers/protesters Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis at the hands of an ICE officer and border patrol agents, respectively.

Gonzalo wrote: “Does this apply to you, Ricky? Or just to the rest of showbiz personnel.”

Now, everyone knows that being an artist and being intelligent are not mutually exclusive, so I’ll ignore Gervais’ Thunberg crack. It’s a cheap joke and he’s done much better.

But the rest of what he said is troubling.

Gervais has used various platforms for political discourse on many occasions, speaking out on topics that include animal cruelty, policies that encourage homeless people to abandon their pets, censorship (in the context of ads for his Dutch Barn vodka), atheism and wokeism. More power to him.

So why shouldn’t he expect angry artists with a microphone and an audience numbering in the millions to do the same?

Does Gervais himself reflect his knowledge of the “real world” when he posts photos of his newish multi-million-dollar Hampstead Heath mansion on X? I, for one, don’t begrudge his posh digs, but could it be that he has become so accustomed to the trappings of fame that he sometimes forgets we aren’t all living in La-La Land?

I would expect someone as outspoken and free-thinking as Gervais to encourage artists not to play it safe and to call out intimidation, oppression and state-endorsed violence whenever they have the opportunity.

And perhaps he should revisit this quote of his: “How arrogant are you to think that you deserve to go through life with no one ever saying anything that you don’t agree with or like?”

Pam Frampton lives in St. John’s. Email pamelajframpton@gmail.com | X: @Pam_Frampton | Bluesky: @pamframpton.bsky.social