Another storm engulfs talk-show host

James Corden has admitted he ‘inadvertently’ stole a Ricky Gervais joke on his US chat show.

The Gavin & Stacey co-creator came under fire after repeating almost word-for-word a gag from Gervais’s 2018 Netflix special Humanity about the anger on Twitter.

After the theft was pointed out, Corden said via the official Late Late Show account: ‘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’

Gervais had previously absolved Corden himself from blame, saying: ‘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.’

The gag was included on Corden's CBS show on Monday when talking about Elon Musk likening it to a town square.

Corden said: 'But it isn't. Because if someone puts up a poster in a town square that says "guitar lessons available",  you don't get people in the town going, "I don't want to play the guitar! I want to play the piano, you piece of ****!" . That sign wasn't for you? It was for somebody else. You don't have to get mad about all of it.'

The fact the segment was so similar to Gervais's stand-up did not go unnoticed on – where else? – Twitter.

Gervais himself retweeted the clip and said: ‘The bit about the town square advert for guitar lessons is brilliant’ – although he has since deleted that comment.

And this user placed the two routines side-by-side:

Plagiarism? I don’t know what people are talking about, these two jokes by @JKCorden and @rickygervais are barely similar pic.twitter.com/9kYOHiOiLj

— Paul Anthony (@PaulFI9) November 1, 2022

The similarities led to widespread criticism:

One user said: ‘It’s that delivery  "I don’t wanna play the guitar" he even scrunches his face like Gervais. Really sad to realise he’s practised that in the mirror.’

Another added: ‘What is corden playing at??? I used to like him in Gavin and Stacey but he’s becoming a total liability these days - totes out of touch.’

Or the sarcastic: ‘Not even similar. @JKCorden is sitting down and @rickygervais is standing up! How much more different does it need to be for everyone to realise James came up with this himself.’

Corden last week found himself at the centre of a storm of negative publicity after he was banned from  New York City's famed Balthazar restaurant for allegedly being rude to the staff.

Owner Keith McNally – who has a track record of publicly shaming celebrity customers who he believes behave badly – branded Corden ‘a tiny cretin of a man’ and ‘the most abusive customer’.

The  former Gavin & Stacey star had the ban rescinded after he phoned McNally to apologise, but later said he 'hadn’t done anything wrong, on any level'.

He sent an egg-yolk omelette back because his wife, Julia Carey, is  allergic to egg white,’ but insisted: ‘I never screamed at anyone, I didn’t shout, didn’t call anyone a name or swear or use derogatory language.’  

In April, Corden announced he would be stepping down from Late Late Show  in 2023, eight years after taking over the CBS programme from Craig Ferguson, to spend more time with his family. It is expected that he will move back to the UK.

When Melania Trump was outed for plagiarising a Michelle Obama speech in 2016,  Corden said: 'We can all agree that plagiarism is an awful crime, absolutely deplorable'

Although that was a set-up to a gag, as he listed Melania's possible justifications in 'The Late Late Show Top 10 List!' – a format jokingly lifted from David Letterman.

Published: 1 Nov 2022