Comedy eats itself as meta takes on James Corden ‘stealing’ joke roll in

Corden told a joke about Twitter and town squares on his show and now the internet has imploded

James Corden is having, how do we put this, a bit of a tricky week. Sorry, month. Scratch that: few years.

From coughing up a furball into Ray Winstone’s face in Cats to his brief ban from Manhattan restaurant Balthazar for his cardinal sin of being rude to waiters, he’s had a few blips. The latest, this week, was facing accusations that he stole a joke from Ricky Gervais.

The host of The Late Late Show made the quip in question on Monday (31 October).

He said: “When you see Elon Musk talk about Twitter, he does this thing where he goes, ‘Well, it’s the town square.’ But it isn’t, ‘cause 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 wanna play the guitar! I wanna play the piano, you piece of s***!’

“It’s like, ‘That sign wasn’t for you – it was for somebody else. You don’t have to get mad about all of it.’”

The joke was practically identical to one Gervais made in his 2018 special Humanity.

British comedian Rhys James then tweeted on Tuesday: “Look, if you don’t like James Corden’s show, don’t watch it. It’s like going into a town square and seeing a poster that says ‘guitar lessons’ and you go, ‘But I don’t want guitar lessons!’”

We apologise, truly, for how repetitive this already repetitive story is going to get, as another UK comic, Simon Brodkin, posted a video on Twitter on Wednesday, in which he said: “Basically, I can’t believe James Corden stole Ricky Gervais’s joke, that’s unforgivable.

“Everyone’s having a go at him on Twitter. The thing about Twitter is, it’s just a town square.”

He continued: “And 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 wanna play guitar I wanna play piano, you piece of s***.’

“Sorry, I’m really pissed off about this.”

James Corden is having, how do we put this, a bit of a tricky week...

Just kidding!