James Corden recently found himself in a bit of a comedic conundrum when he was accused of borrowing a joke that Ricky Gervais had made back in 2018. However, Corden, 44, quickly took to Twitter to address the situation and deny any intentional wrongdoing.
In his tweet, Corden admitted that he had “inadvertently told a wonderful Ricky Gervais joke on the program last night, obviously not knowing it was from him.” Corden further acknowledged the humor of Gervais’ jokes, inviting fans to enjoy Ricky’s entertaining comedy specials on Netflix.
The joke in question occurred during Monday’s episode of “The Late Late Show” when Corden playfully riffed on Elon Musk’s comparison of Twitter to a town square. Corden’s punchline was that townsfolk wouldn’t exclaim, “I don’t want to learn the guitar!” upon seeing a sign offering guitar lessons. He humorously added, “I’d love to learn how to play the piano!”
The online community was quick to point out the similarities between Corden’s joke and a bit from Ricky Gervais’s 2018 Netflix special, “Humanity.” In the special, Gervais used the analogy of entering a town square and seeing a signup sheet for guitar instruction, to which he declared, “However, I have absolutely no interest in taking guitar lessons.”
Ricky Gervais himself responded to the situation on Twitter, expressing his disbelief that Corden would intentionally take the joke. Gervais suggested that perhaps one of Corden’s writers had come up with it, and he didn’t believe that Corden would knowingly replicate a well-known stand-up routine verbatim.
After further investigation and a bit of humor mixed in, Corden acknowledged that he had indeed paraphrased Gervais’ joke without initially realizing it. The situation appears to have been resolved amicably, highlighting the lighthearted nature of the comedy world.
