James Corden has responded after Ricky Gervais called him out on Twitter for stealing one of his jokes about guitar lessons and town squares from his stand-up shows.
After noticing social media users sharing the clip, Gervais posted it and jokingly captioned it: “The bit about the town square advert for guitar lessons is brilliant,” Yahoo! reported.
He’s since deleted the comment, admitting he “started to feel sorry for him” after a fan noticed the original tweet was gone.
Started to feel sorry for him 😂
— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) November 1, 2022
As someone questioned whether Corden had asked to use the joke, Gervais replied: “No. I reckon one of the writers ‘came up with it’ for him. I doubt he would knowingly just copy such a famous stand up routine word for word like that.”
No. I reckon one of the writers 'came up with it' for him. I doubt he would knowingly just copy such a famous stand up routine word for word like that.
— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) November 1, 2022
The joke was used in Corden’s monologue when he was discussing Elon Musk taking over Twitter.
He said, “Because if someone puts up a poster in a town square that says guitar lessons available, you don’t get people in the town go, ‘I don’t want to play the guitar! I want to play the piano, you piece of s**t!’
“Well that sign wasn’t for you, it was for somebody else, you don’t have to get mad about all of it.”
In which James Corden basically does a Ricky Gervais joke word for word pic.twitter.com/8MfkrBo8Y0
— Rupert Myers (@RupertMyers) November 1, 2022
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Corden has since replied to the whole thing via “The Late Late Show” Twitter page, posting:
Inadvertently told a brilliant Ricky Gervais joke on the show last night, obviously not knowing it came from him. It’s brilliant, because it’s a Ricky Gervais joke. You can watch all Ricky’s excellent specials on Netflix. J x
— The Late Late Show with James Corden (@latelateshow) November 1, 2022
The latest online frenzy surrounding Corden comes after restauranteur Keith McNally banned him from his NYC restaurant Balthazar on Instagram for being “extremely nasty” and rude to staff. McNally has since revealed Corden had apologized and everything was ok.
See more in the clip below.