Ricky Gervais Defends Louis C.K.'s Controversial School Shooting Stand-up Material

Ricky Gervais has come out to defend Louis C.K.'s controversial school shooting stand-up material, saying that "there is no subject out of bounds."

Gervais took to Twitter to unleash his opinion on the situation, which arose after C.K. was heard seeming to ridicule the Parkland shooting survivors in a recording of a recent stand-up comedy routine.

"Please stop saying 'You can't joke about anything anymore.' You can. You can joke about whatever the f— 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— or not. And so on. It's a good system."

Please stop saying "You can't joke about anything anymore". You can. You can joke about whatever the fuck 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 fuck or not. And so on. It's a good system.

— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) December 31, 2018

The comedian, who is a good friend of C.K.'s, received quite a bit of pushback from other Twitter users over his defense, with one person sarcastically commenting, "Must be nice having the privilege to say and do what you like."

"Free speech is amazing, yes," Gervais replied.

"You can joke about whatever you want but we don't have to laugh if it's not funny," another person tweeted to him, to which the actor responded, "Exactly. Or get upset if someone else does find it funny."

One fan argued Gervais' point by bringing up cruelty to animals, something that is a cause very close to the comedian's heart.

"Can we joke about animal cruelty? Presume you like animals. It's very easy to be single,rich and devoid of any attachments and societal requisites and then tell others not to be offended by your jokes," the user contended.

Of course you can. You can joke about anything.
Just don't actually be cruel to animals. You can joke about murdering people. Just don't murder people. It's really simple.

— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) January 1, 2019

Of course you can. You can joke about anything. Just don't actually be cruel to animals," Gervais fired back. "You can joke about murdering people. Just don't murder people. It's really simple."

The controversy regarding C.K.'s jokes emerged earlier this week, after he was heard criticizing school shooting victims who survived and then fought to end gun violence through political means.

"Testify in front of Congress, these kids, what the f—? What are you doing?" C.K. said in his new routine. "Cause you went to a high school where kids got shot, why does that mean I have to listen to you? Why does that make you interesting? You didn't get shot. You pushed some fat kind in the way and now I gotta listen to you talking?"

While Gervais defends C.K.'s jokes, the overwhelming majority of other social media users have been critical of them, with many feeling like C.K. is being unfair to victims of tragic violence.