Ricky Gervais had the subtlest burn for this oddly familiar James Corden routine

Poke Staff. Updated November 1st, 2022

To the world of James Corden – no, stick with us – where the soon to be former US talkshow host was waxing lyrical about Elon Musk’s plans to charge $20 a month for people to have a blue tick on Twitter.

The call is coming from inside the Twitter… pic.twitter.com/Ps0v42vHD2

— The Late Late Show with James Corden (@latelateshow) November 1, 2022

It caught the attention of Ricky Gervais, who shared the routine with the comment:

“The bit about the town square advert for guitar lessons is brilliant.”

And this, presumably, is why.

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

Gervais has since deleted his tweet which, apart from being mildly irritating, makes the whole thing even curiouser (or kills the story stone dead, depending on your point of view).

But he did later respond to a follower who asked this …

Didn't deliver it like you though. I assume he asked to use that joke?

— Drew Pearson (@Drew_1981) November 1, 2022

No. 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.

— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) November 1, 2022

It’s a whole new spin on Carpool Karaoke.

And just in case you were wondering, the Gervais routine is from his 2018 stand-up show Humanity.

Great minds, right?

Source @latelateshow