Joe Lycett has blasted "comedically weak" Ricky Gervais.
Joe Lycett blasts 'comedically weak' Ricky Gervais
The 35-year-old comedian hit out at Gervais, 62, for punching down by making fun of minorities in his own stand-up sets and says he has gotten complacent.
Joe told The News Agents podcast: "Somebody literally said to me a few months ago, 'Oh it must be so hard being a comedian, don’t you miss being racist and homophobic,' those were their actual words.
"And I was like, funnily enough, I don’t miss that really. I think we’ve just got more interesting as an industry and doing more interesting things.
"The key thing is, it’s not for everyone and if you don’t think it’s funny or don’t think it’s interesting, don’t watch it, that’s fine. But there is an audience for it.
"I would never say that Gervais shouldn’t do what he does, he can say whatever he wants, we live in a free society.
"What I think is perhaps disappointing about Gervais and the people like him that are doing this sort of 'I’ll just say how it is', and the last show he did, the real tragedy for me was that it was comedically weak.
"If you removed the Gervaisness of it, and you gave it to a new stand-up, they’d struggle in a club with the material he had. Anyone who gets a bit of telly can get a bit complacent, myself included."
Joe added that it is a waste of Gervais' "skill" to be punching down.
He said: "The thing about Gervais and people like him, who are doing material which is attacking trans people and wokeness, however they see it, is that they are very skilled.
"Gervais has done amazing, amazing, work, and what a waste of that skill to attack minorities. That’s how I feel about it."