Ricky Gervais has gone off on people who have described alopecia as a ‘disability’.
The comedian and After Life star has been outspoken on his opinion of the now-infamous altercation between and at the Oscars last month, making several .
In case you’ve been living under a rock, King Richard actor Will stormed the stage where Chris was presenting an award and after the comedian made a joke about Jada, Will’s wife, comparing her haircut to that of GI Jane.
Jada, 50, lives with alopecia, a hair-loss disorder, and shaved her head last year as she began getting noticeable bald spots.
The backlash to Will’s violent outburst has been swift, with the actor coming under investigation by the Academy – which he later resigned from – and production being paused on several of his upcoming films.
Now The Office creator Ricky has again condemned Will’s actions in a Twitter Q&A with fans – and scoffed at those who described Jada’s condition as a ‘disability’.
In a Twitter live event last week, Ricky said: ‘You don’t hit people over a joke, however bad it is. And it wasn’t bad!
‘That was like the tamest joke I would ever have told,’ he added.
‘Someone said it was joking about her disability,’ he said in a deadpan voice, before letting out a laugh.
‘Well I’m going a bit thin,’ he continued, touching the top of his head. ‘So I’m disabled. That means I can park right up next to Tescos now.’
He added: ‘And I’m fat. That’s a disease, isn’t it?
‘I’m fat and balding,’ he said.
‘I should get f***ing benefits.’
Previously, the comedian had insisted he wouldn’t have joked about Jada’s hair had he been present at the Oscars in place of Chris.
However, he said that he would instead have made a joke ‘about her boyfriend’.
Ricky was referencing Jada’s ‘entanglement’ with August Alsina, which made headlines in July 2020 when the actress with him while she and Will were married, but insisted they were separated at the time.
‘We were over,’ Jada said. ‘From there, as time went on, I got into a different kind of entanglement with August.’
Clarifying August’s claims that Will had given ‘permission’ for the relationship to go ahead, Jada continued: ‘One of the things I want to clear up that was kind of swirling in the press was [Will] giving permission.
‘Which the only person who can give permission in that particular circumstance is myself.’
