Netflix Continues Transphobic Comedy Special Trend with Ricky Gervais

It appears that Netflix hasn’t taken feedback of the trans community to heart, following the release of Dave Chappelle’s comedy special last year, which was littered with transphobic jokes and rhetoric. The streaming giant reportedly paid comedian Ricky Gervais around $40 million for his new stand-up special, SuperNature, which hit Netflix on Tuesday.

The comedian wasted no time to fire gross and misinformed shots at the trans community, just four minutes in leaning on stereotypes that trans women want to rape cis women while trying to use public restrooms.

“I love the new women. They’re great, aren’t they? The new ones we’ve been seeing lately. The ones with beards and cocks. They’re as good as gold; I love them,” Gervais says.

He then imitates a conversation between a trans supporter and a cis woman:

“‘(Trans women) are ladies—Look at their pronouns! What about this person isn’t a lady?’ ‘Well, his penis.’ ‘Her penis, you fucking bigot!’ ‘What if he rapes me?’ ‘What if she rapes you, you fucking TERF whore?’”

Let’s be clear: This narrative is pervasive in anti-trans rhetoric, a perceived threat of trans folks just existing public. There is no baseline for this harmful notion; conservatives, transphobes, and TERFs just want to paint trans people as predators and frauds, sending messages the broader public about how they should perceive and respond to trans people they might encounter in their day-to-day.

In reality, trans people simply want to use the bathroom and move on like anyone else.

Gervais also says later in the routine that the “worst thing” you can say today is “Women don’t have penises.”

“Now, no one saw that coming. You won’t find a 10-year-old tweet of someone saying, ‘Women don’t have penises.’ You know why? We didn’t think we fucking had to!”

The special ended in a similar manner to Chappelle’s comedy special from 2021, shifting the mood in an attempt to show the comics, in fact, are friends to trans people. After making jabs at the expense of trans people throughout his set, even calling himself “Team TERF” and stating “gender is a fact,” Chappelle tells a story about trans comic Daphne Dorman, whom he says helped to open his eyes about her experience, before her death by suicide the following month. Many viewers saw this ending as retribution for the transphobic jokes throughout the special.

Gervais ended his special saying that “in real life, of course” he supports trans rights.

“I support all human rights, and trans rights are human rights. Live your best life. Use your preferred pronouns. Be the gender that you feel that you are,” Gervais says.

It’s almost like he can’t help himself, though. He caps off the sentiment with a little transphobia sandwich, targeting body autonomy and medical decisions trans folks may or may not make about their own bodies, which are truly none of Gervais’ or anyone else’s business:

“But meet me halfway ladies: Lose the cock. That’s all I’m saying.”

After Chappelle’s special, The Closer, was released last year, Netflix fired B. Pagels-Minor, a Black, pregnant, transgender employee who organized an employee walkout over the special’s transphobic remarks. About 30 Netflix employees staged a walkout despite the firing the same month.

GLAAD spoke out about Gervais’ new special on Twitter, mentioning it’s “full of graphic, dangerous, anti-trans rants masquerading as jokes,” along with anti-gay rhetoric and inaccurate information about HIV.

“Netflix has a policy that content ‘designed to incite hate or violence’ is not allowed on their platform, but we all know that anti-LGBTQ content does exactly that,” GLAAD says on the thread. “While Netflix is home to some groundbreaking LGBTQ shows, it refuses to enforce its own policy in comedy.”