Speaking on the BBC’s The One Show, Gervais said the comedy should help people “overcome taboo subjects so that they are no longer afraid”. He added that joking on a difficult subject does not mean having hostile opinions or opposing certain rights.
“I think that’s what comedy is all about, really: to make things happen, and I’m dealing with taboo subjects because I want to take the audience to a place they haven’t been before, even for a split second,” he said. .
“Most offenses come from when people confuse the subject of a joke with the real purpose.”
Gervais has previously explained that his jokes that seem to be aimed at specific groups are mocked by those who have prejudicial views towards these groups.
In one of his jokes on the show, Gervais said he loves today’s “new women” who have “beards and cocks.”
It also depicts an imaginary conversation between a trans rights activist and a woman who does not want to share a toilet with a trans woman.