Ricky Gervais Celebrates After Life Milestone Amid Stewart Lee Criticism

Ricky Gervais has celebrated a new milestone for his show After Life, amidst a resurfacing critique from fellow comedian Stewart Lee on social media.

The controversial comic took to X/Twitter on Friday, 23 August, posting: “Thanks to the 160 million people who made After Life the most-watched British sitcom in the world.”

Gervais also shared a clip of “one of my favourite scenes ever,” featuring his character being called a “paedo” by a child in a school playground. In response, his character says, “I’m not a paedo, and if I was, you’d be safe, you tubby little ginger c***.”

Shortly after, Gervais thanked “the hundreds of millions of people who watched my specials Humanity, SuperNature and Armageddon on Netflix. Especially the people who complained. Best marketing in the world.”

In another post, he remarked: “The more successful you become, the more criticism you get. The more criticism you get, the more you work. The more you work, the more successful you become. Cheers.”

Gervais’ comments came shortly after a fan shared a clip of Lee dissecting After Life, calling it “one of the worst things ever made by a human,” during an interview with Welsh actor and comedian Rob Brydon.

Brydon noted that Gervais had cited Lee as a “big influence,” to which Lee responded, “Yeah, well I don’t suppose Robert Oppenheimer felt great about having created the atomic bomb.”

Both Gervais and Lee’s names trended on X/Twitter as fans shared their opinions on the two comedians. Some criticized Gervais’ After Life clip, calling it a contrived scenario aimed at delivering an “edgy” retort.

YouTuber Steve Shives commented, “I only watched the first series of After Life and that was enough. It was less a comedy or a drama and more an act of attempted self-absolution, Gervais arguing why he shouldn’t be judged for being an intolerant bully.”

Gervais had a similar reaction when Lee’s comments were first aired. Although he did not explicitly acknowledge the jibe, he tweeted in September last year: “Watch the award-winning, record-breaking After Life now streaming on Netflix around the world.”

He also “liked” a number of comments about Lee from his fans, including one describing Lee as “never-been-funny.”

Another tweet “liked” by Gervais read: “I don’t even know who Stewart Lee is; however, his comments about After Life really make him look like a sad, bitter individual.”

You can read The Independent’s review of After Life’s third and final season here.

Source: BBC, Getty Images