Ricky Gervais 'defends drink-driving joke'

Ricky Gervais has reportedly refuted a critic's claim that his new stage act is in bad taste, insisting that all the jokes are "justified comedically".

According to Contactmusic, the comedian launched stand-up show Science at Edinburgh's Fringe festival this month. However, the routine has since caused a stir when one reviewer picked up on a punchline about the consequences of driving a car while drunk.

Now Gervais has spoken out in defence of his material, insisting that although the joke is "a big taboo", the critic for The Independent had misrepresented what was said and twisted its original meaning.

In a posting on his blog, Gervais wrote: "I do the following joke live when talking about the perils of drink-driving, 'I've done it once and I'm really ashamed of it. It was Christmas - I'd had a couple of drinks and I took the car out. But I learned my lesson. I nearly killed an old lady. In the end I didn't kill her. In the end, I just raped her'.

"The joke clearly revolves around the misdirection in the term 'nearly killed', suggesting 'narrowly avoided'. But, as it turns out, 'nearly killed' means something much, much worse. A big taboo I'll admit, but justified comedically I feel."

He added: "This is how a journalist in The Independent recounted the joke, 'I nearly knocked this old woman over... but I didn't. I raped her'. He then went on to say how disgusting and unfunny that joke is. He's right. It is both disgusting and unfunny. But that's his joke, not mine. It's nothing like mine. It contains no joke at all. He has shown how qualified he is to talk about humour."

As previously reported, Gervais recently admitted that he used to fear the prospect of performing in front of Scottish audiences.