Photo: Taylor Hill/Getty; Nicholas Hunt/Getty
James Cordenis denying that he intentionally stole a joke fromRicky Gervais.
While discussingnew Twitter ownerElon Muskcalling the social media platform a “town square,” the television personality joked: “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 [who] go, ‘I don’t want to play the guitar! I want to play the piano!'”
He continued, “Well, then that sign wasn’t for you. It was for somebody else! You don’t have to get mad about all of it.”
The segment went viral after viewers pointed out the similarities betweenCorden’s joke and the one Gervais previously made.
“It’s like going into a town square,” Gervais joked in 2018, perCNN. “And there’s a notice for guitar lessons and you go, ‘But I don’t f—ing want guitar lessons.'”
Ricky Gervais.Andrew H. Walker/Getty
Gervais appeared to be taking the incident in stride when he responded to a Twitter user who asked if Corden received permission to use the joke.
“No. I reckon one of the writers ‘came up with it’ for him,” Gervaistweeted. “I doubt he would knowingly just copy such a famous stand up routine word for word like that.”
“Inadvertently told a brilliant Ricky Gervais joke on the show last night, obviously not knowing it came from him,” Corden wrote in atweeton Tuesday. “It’s brilliant, because it’s a Ricky Gervais joke. You can watch all Ricky’s excellent specials on Netflix.”
Before the joke scandal, Corden came under fire afterbeing banned from the popular NYC restaurant Balthazar. Keith McNally — who owns Balthazar in NYC — slammed Corden over his alleged behavior at the establishment and claimed the star was “the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers.”
Cordenprivately apologizedto McNally, 71, over a phone call, but he alsoaddressed the matteron his long-running talk show.
He explained that his wifeJulia Careywas given foodshe was “allergic” to. After the order came back wrong repeatedly, Corden chose to make a “sarcastic” comment.
“In the heat of the moment, I made a sarcastic rude comment about cooking it myself,” he admitted. “It is a comment I deeply regret. I understand the difficulties of being a server. I worked shifts at restaurants for years.”
Corden previously announced in April thathe was leavingThe Late Late Show. His tenure will conclude sometime next spring.
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The Late Late Show with James Cordenairs weeknights (12:30 p.m. ET) on CBS.
source: people.com
