Ricky Gervais: 'I wanna live long enough to see the younger generation not be woke enough for the next one'

Comedian Ricky Gervais called out cancel culture in his hit podcast series Absolutely Mental. Hosting alongside Neuroscientist Sam Harris, Gervais opined how he hopes to be still alive to witness the current woke generation be judged by the proceeding generation.

"I wanna live long enough to see the younger generation not be woke enough for the next generation," Gervais said. "It's going to happen. Don't they realize that? It's like, they're next. That's what's funny."

"We kicked out the old guard. We did it. There's only so woke and liberal you can get and then you start going the other way. But it's inevitable," he continued.

Gervais has been a longtime critic of social justice and cancel culture, and he has been particularly critical of attempts to get people fired over their opinion. "If it is choosing not to watch a comedian because you don't like them, that's everyone's right," he said. "But when people are trying to get someone fired because they don't like their opinion about something that's nothing to do with their job, that's what I call cancel culture and that's not cool.

"You turning off your own TV isn't censorship. You trying to get other people to turn off their TV, because you don't like something they're watching, that's different." Gervais' comments are relevant as there is currently a movement to cancel Dave Chappelle for his alleged "transphobic" comments in his latest special, The Closer.

Gervais continued, "Everyone's allowed to call you an a**ehole, everyone's allowed to stop watching your stuff, everyone's allowed to burn your DVDs, but you shouldn't have to go to court for saying a joke that someone didn't like.

"And that's what we get dangerously close to. If you don't agree to someone's right to say something you don't agree with, you don't agree with freedom of speech," Gervais concluded.