What has Ricky Gervais said about the trans community? A timeline of his controversial comments
Ricky Gervais has a history of trans comments. (Paul Drinkwater/Getty)
Ricky Gervais has a history of trans comments. (Paul Drinkwater/Getty)
Comedian Ricky Gervais has not held back over the years when it comes to his comments on the trans community, and has a long history of making jokes about trans people.
The controversial 64-year-old British comic is back in the news after he was absent from Sunday’s (11 January) Golden Globes ceremony.
During the ceremony, lesbian legend Wanda Sykes presented the award for best stand-up comedy on television. Gervais was nominated for his special Morality.
Before announcing the winner, Sykes addressed the comic directly. She thanked him for not attending the event.
“No, I love you, Ricky,” she also added. “But because if you win, I get to accept the award on your behalf, and you’re going to thank God and the trans community.”
Gervais won the award, making it his third Golden Globe win. Previously, he won in 2004 for his leading role in The Office and in 2024 with his stand-up special Armageddon.
However, in recent years, he has seemingly embarked on an “anti-woke” crusade, specifically targeting the trans community.
Here is a summary of what Gervais has said about trans people and the trans community:
Gervais jokes about Caitlyn Jenner
In 2016, Gervais made jokes about transgender celebrity Caitlyn Jenner at the Golden Globes awards.
He joked, using Jenner’s deadname, saying that he’d changed, but not as much as Jenner.
He went on to reference Jenner’s driving ability after she was involved in a car crash that killed one person and injured seven.
“What a year she’s had. She became a role model for trans people everywhere, showing great bravery in breaking down barriers and destroying stereotypes.
“She didn’t do a lot for women drivers, but you can’t do everything.”
Gervais subsequently defended the joke, claiming he did not mock the former Olympian for being trans.
Gervais continues trans jokes
In his 2018 Netflix special Humanity, Gervais continued to make jokes at the expense of the trans community.
Promotional material for Humanity came with the tagline “prepare to be offended”. In the show, he dedicated over 15 minutes to re-addressing the Caitlyn Jenner controversy.
He went out of his way to refer to Jenner by her former name a total of 15 times in just a few minutes.
Gervais went on to compare identifying as trans to identifying as a chimp.
He said: “[They say] she’s always identified as a woman. That means she’s a woman. Fine, if that’s the rules. If you feel you’re a woman, you are. I’m not a bigot who thinks having all that done is science going too far.
“In fact, I don’t think it’s going far enough. Cause I’ve always identified as a chimp, right? Well, I am a chimp. If I say I’m a chimp, I am a chimp pre-op. But don’t ever deadname me.
“Don’t call me Ricky Gervais again. From now on, you call me Bobo.”
Gervais posts in support of JK Rowling
The year after Humanity, Gervais once again declared he supports trans people while simultaneously making hurtful statements about the community.
Gervais furthered this by posting in support of Harry Potter author JK Rowling, who is also known for her gender-critical views about the trans community.
Gervais, attempting to make a joke by pretending to be trans in response to a parody trans account, wrote: “Those awful biological women can never understand what it must be like for you becoming a lovely lady so late in life.
“They take their girly privileges for granted. Winning at female sports and having their own toilets. Well, enough is enough.”
He continued to push the false anti-trans narrative that trans women pose a threat to cis women when allowed to access single sex spaces such as public restrooms.
He said: “We need to protect the rights of women. Not erode them because some men have found a new cunning way to dominate and demonise an entire sex.”
Gervais also added: “Maybe you haven’t been following the various stories of male predators hiding beneath the trans umbrella and exploiting self-ID to abuse women. That’s why I said men and not trans women.”
Defence of gender-critical comments
A month after those tweets, Gervais defended his gender-critical comments.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in December 2020, Gervais explained that he was responding to a spoof account and deliberately misgendering the fictional persona.
“Now, people saw my tweet and they thought [she’s] a real trans person, but I’m taking the piss out of Jarvis Dupont, who is actually a woman in real life.
“And this is the problem. You can say, ‘Listen, I was joking. It’s a joke.’ But that’s not always enough for people. They go, ‘Well, why were you joking?’ Also, add to that the nature of Twitter – it’s so curt, there’s no nuance, it’s there forever out of context.”
“Deep down, I want people to know I’m not a racist or a homophobe or a sexist,” he also insisted. “They mustn’t be the targets. You mustn’t make those things the target to be ridiculed. You shouldn’t laugh at something they can’t help.”
Gervais makes more anti-trans jokes
In 2022, Gervais released his Netflix special Super Nature. The show was punctuated with a 15-minute-long segment about trans people and “cancel culture”
Just as he did in Humanity, Gervais used SuperNature to hit back at critics who have slammed him for his over-reliance on cheap jokes about trans people.
In his set, he tried to joke about “old-fashioned women. They’re the ones with wombs.”
“Those f****** dinosaurs,” he continued. Mocking trans women, the comedian added: “I love the new women. They’re great, aren’t they? The new ones we’ve been seeing lately. The ones with beards and c***ks.”
In the same show, he declared: “OK, full disclosure, in real life, of course, I support trans rights.
“I support all human rights and trans rights are human rights. Live your best life. Use your preferred pronoun.”
However, he followed that statement up with: “But meet me halfway, ladies. Lose the c**k. That’s all I’m saying.”
Gervais continues to push back against trans joke criticism
Just last week, in January 2026 Gervais continued push back against trans joke criticism.
In an interview with BBC This Cultural Life, Gervais was pressed on targeting disabled people, trans people and fat-shaming in his comedy.
“I have a right to talk about those things,” he said. “And there are jokes I certainly stand by. I can’t look back and say, ‘Oh, sorry about that, I said that when I was only 50.’”
“As you do get more progressive, maybe, and milder and change, what usually happens is, the things you used to do look worse,” he continued.
“What I do is I try and get more offensive, so when I look back, I go ‘aw wasn’t I kind when I was 45’.” Gervais then breaks into laughter, clarifying: “That was a joke.”
