Did James Corden Steal Ricky Gervais’ Joke? Corden Denies Claim: I ’Obviously’ Didn’t Know ‘It Came From Him’

Did James Corden steal Ricky Gervais‘ joke? It’s a question comedy fans were asking on social media after the Oct. 31 episode of “The Late Late Show With James Corden.” During his opening monologue, Corden mocked Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover.

“When you see Elon Musk talk about Twitter he does this thing where he goes, ‘Well, it’s the town square,'” Corden said (via Insider). “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 going ‘I don’t want to play the guitar! I want to play the piano, you piece of shit!'”

“That sign wasn’t for you, it was for someone else,” Corden added. “You don’t have to get mad!”

Many Corden viewers were quick to point out on social media that his monologue joke was similar to that of a joke Ricky Gervais told during his 2018 stand-up show, “Humanity.”Gervais jokes about how everyone on Twitter thinks the world revolves around them.

“It’s like going into a town square and there’s a notice for guitar lessons and you go, ‘But I don’t fucking want guitar lessons!'”Gervais joked about Twitter.

The two jokes are nearly identical, which led Gervais to sarcastically comment in a since-deleted tweet: “[Corden’s] bit about the town square advert for guitar lessons is brilliant.”

Gervais later responded to a fan who assumed Corden reached out to get permission to copy the joke, writing, “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.”

Corden responded to the backlash using the official Twitter account for “The Late Late Show.” The host maintained he was never aware of Gervais’ joke to begin with, noting that it was purely accidental that his joke mirrored Gervais’.

“Inadvertently told a brilliant Ricky Gervais joke on the show last night, obviously not knowing it came from him,” Corden wrote. “It’s brilliant, because it’s a Ricky Gervais joke. You can watch all Ricky’s excellent specials on Netflix.”