Ricky Gervais Clarifies Comments About How UK’s ‘Office’ Would Be “Canceled” Now – Deadline

It’s been 20 years since The Office premiered on BBC Two, and its star said in an interview this week that the original British series “would be canceled now.” Ricky Gervais now has walked back those comments, with the erstwhile David Brent tweeting they were “clearly a joke.”

Gervais told the BBC on Friday that evolving standards of comedy would have doomed his 2001-03 mockumentary in the 2020s. “”I mean now it would be canceled,” he said of the mockumentary whose U.S. remade remains a streaming favorite. “I’m looking forward to when they pick out one thing and try to cancel it. Someone said they might try to cancel it one day, and I say, ‘Good, let them cancel it. I’ve been paid!’”

In the first of three tweets (read them below), Gervais said he’d been slightly misquoted: “Just to be clear, I did not say The Office would be cancelled if it were made today. That makes no sense. It’s still around. This is my actual quote. ‘Someone said they might try to cancel it one day, and I said, “Good, let them cancel it. I’ve been paid!”‘ Clearly a joke.”

Tweet No. 2 read: “There’s a weird myth that I whine about being censored or cancelled. That’s Bollocks. I get final edit on the biggest platforms in the world getting more viewers and tickets sold than ever. I get a bit of grief sometimes from people who don’t like my stuff but who gives a f*ck?”

And he washed his hands of the topic with a third missive that read, “Be happy. It really annoys negative people.” That tweets had a pic with the caption: “Please stop saying ‘You can’t take a joke about anything anymore.’ You can. You can joke about whatever the f*ck you like. And some people won’t like it and they will tell you they don’t like it. And then it’s up to you whether you give a f*ck or not. And so on. It’s a good system.”

Here are Gervais’ tweets, followed by another in which he tells a live crowd about his disdain for Twitter:

Just to be clear, I did not say The Office would be cancelled if it were made today. That makes no sense. It’s still around. This is my actual quote. “Someone said they might try to cancel it one day, and I said, ‘Good, let them cancel it. I’ve been paid!'” Clearly a joke.

— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) July 9, 2021

There’s a weird myth that I whine about being censored or cancelled. That’s Bollocks. I get final edit on the biggest platforms in the world getting more viewers and tickets sold than ever. I get a bit of grief sometimes from people who don’t like my stuff but who gives a fuck? pic.twitter.com/RJwWqYnwm6

— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) July 9, 2021

Be happy. It really annoys negative people. pic.twitter.com/WdNEB6MHwk

— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) July 9, 2021

Twitter 😂 pic.twitter.com/GLMqN42Lj3

— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) July 9, 2021