Comedian Ricky Gervais calls out James Corden for seemingly ripping off his 2018 stand-up joke 'word for word'

Weeks after being criticized for his apparent appalling behavior towards restaurant staff, James Corden has once again found his name in the headlines.

This time, the comedian is being called out by fellow British funnyman Ricky Gervaiswho claims the Late Late Show host ripped off a joke “word for word” that Gervais had made at a standup gig years ago.

The Office alum, 61, tweeted a clip from Corden’s show Monday night show which appeared to show the talk show host getting enraged about guitar lessons. But Corden’s joke is quite similar to Gervais’ gag from his 2018 Netflix comedy special, Ricky Gervais: Humanity.

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James Corden made the joke on the Monday episode of the Late Late Show. (YouTube)

In Corden’s joke he cracked on October 31, he said: “If someone puts up a poster in a town square that says ‘guitar lessons available’, like you don’t get people in the town going: ‘I don’t want to play guitar! I want to play the piano you piece of s–t’! Well, that sign wasn’t for you. It was for somebody else!

Meanwhile, in Gervais’ joke from four years ago, he said: “That’s like going into a town square, seeing a big notice board and there’s a notice – lessons guitar – and you go, ‘But I don’t want f– -ing want guitar lessons. Fine, it’s not for you then, just walk away.

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Ricky Gervais made a similar gag on his 2018 Netflix comedy special, Ricky Gervais: Humanity. (YouTube)

The similarities were not lost on Gervais, who then retweeted a clip of Corden appearing to rip off the joke.

“The bit about the town square advert for guitar lessons is brilliant,” Gervais wrote in a since-deleted tweet.

The actor and comedian then responded to a fan who asked, “Didn’t deliver it like you though. I assume he asked to use that joke?” to which Gervais responded: “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.”

When another fan asked why he deleted the clip, Gervais said: “Started to feel sorry for him 😂”

Corden has been under fire for weeks after restaurateur Keith McNally, the owner of New York restaurant Balthazar, named and shared him on Instagram for being unpleasant to his staff.

“James Corden is a Hugely gifted comedian, but a tiny Cretin of a man. And the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago,” McNally wrote in a lengthy post.

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Corden swiftly apologised to McNally both in private over the phone and publicly on his talk show, telling his studio audience his wife, Julia had been brought an incorrect order three times, so “in the heat of the moment” Corden said he “made a Sarcastic, rude comment about cooking it myself. It’s a comment I deeply regret.”

However, Corden said he didn’t realise at the time that he had done anything wrong because he didn’t “shout or scream”.

“I didn’t get up out of my seat. I didn’t call anyone names or use derogatory language,” he continued. “I’ve been walking around thinking that I hadn’t done anything wrong, right, but the truth is I have. I made a rude comment and it was wrong, it was an unnecessary comment, it was ungracious to the server.”

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