James Corden has tweeted a response following criticism that he told a joke on his Late Late Show that had previously been told by Ricky Gervais.
On the show on Monday night (shown on Sky in the UK on Tuesday night) Corden delivered a routine about Twitter saying: "That’s what I think when you see Elon Musk talk about Twitter, he says, ‘well it’s the town square’, 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 square saying, ”I don’t want to play the guitar! I want to play the piano, you piece of s***! Well that sign wasn’t for you, it was for somebody else, you don’t have to get mad about all of it."
Gervais reportedly tweeted: ‘The bit about the town square advert for guitar lessons is brilliant’, referring to his own joke. The tweet was later deleted.
On Tuesday The Late Late Show Twitter account tweeted: "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 retweeted the Late Late Show tweet.
There was widespread criticism of Corden, who was also recently in the news for being banned from a New York restaurant. But there was also some support for him. Some suggested out that the joke was presumably pitched by one of the writers on the show. Support came from some unexpected places. Mark Lamarr tweeted: "I know I'm about to be shellacked for this but, last nights monologue notwithstanding , I feel James Corden has become a fashionable hate figure. An easy punchline , a Sting or Coldplay. I'm not particularly a fan of his style but it does seem like a pile on to me.
For those who want to post that they just think he's shit, that's fine and absolutely valid, but it doesn't add much to the discussion. It's the mass psychology that's confusing me.
After a discussion on Twitter he closed with: "Thanks everyone . I'm off to bed in a minute bt it's been a really interesting chat . I know when I wake up there'll be a hundred posts suggesting I should contract some awful disease for loving him or something, but it's actually been edifying."
