Ricky Gervais Says He Should Co-Host the Oscars With Dave Chappelle

Looks like trolling on social media is the best way to reach the top of the Netflix charts. And there’s no comic better at it than Ricky Gervais, who found a new way to poke the masses to begin 2024:

Noting that his new special is currently running 1-2 with Dave Chappelle’s new hour The Dreamer, Gervais suggested “We should host The Oscars together.” The joke was punctuated by the laughing-so-hard-I’m-crying emoji, just to rub it in for the haters.

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Both Gervais and Chappelle have endured blowback in the wake of their popular new specials. Variety’s review of Armageddon, the new Gervais comedy, says it “tries so hard to be edgy and offensive — but it’s just a total bore.” 

“Is there NOTHING more interesting to talk about than folks who disagree with you on Twitter, or how tough it is to use the right labels for LGBTQ people?” griped the review. “Don’t worry: Gervais even delivers a Critical Race Theory bit that the writers at Gutfeld! would groan at.”

None of this bothers Gervais — in fact, it seems to be part of the plan. “Thanks to everyone who loved it and raved about (Armageddon), and of course, everyone who hated it and whined about it,” he tweeted over the weekend while celebrating the special’s #1 spot on the charts. “You all played your part.”

Variety also took Chappelle to task for his insistence on making trans jokes, even though he says early on in The Dreamer, “If you guys came here to this show tonight thinking that I’m going to make fun of those people again, you’ve come to the wrong show.” Variety cataloged the gender-based jokes in the special, especially during its first 10 minutes, to prove that Chappelle hasn’t exactly moved on from his offensive ways.

But Netflix viewers must not read Variety. With the two comics’ specials leading the holiday charts, Gervais’s cheeky Twitter suggestion (now with more than a million views and 30,000 likes) is just one more way to poke his critics. At least some of the comedian’s followers are down for the team-up. 

Count @RYXNSYNNXTT as another who would tune in for such a cataclysmic pairing, tweeting that “They’d end up cancelling television.”