Ricky Gervais announces new world tour ‘Mortality’ that will ‘laugh at death’

Ricky Gervais proved he is not afraid of being “cancelled” again as he announced his new world tour and Netflix special “Ricky Gervais: Mortality,” in which he will “laugh at the absurdities of death.”

Last year, the comedian sparked a storm of outrage with his Netflix special “Armageddon,” in which he made jokes about asylum seekers and terminally ill children, among other things.

The star of The Office faced criticism after calling sick children “baldheads” and questioning the wishes of those who met him through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. In a clip widely shared on social media, he asked them: “Why don’t you wish to get well?”

Announcing his upcoming tour, Gervais said: “We’re all going to die. c. Mortality deals with the absurdities of life. And death. Bring it on.”

The tour is set to begin later this year (dates to be announced) and will be filmed for his latest Netflix special of the same name.

It’s Gervais’ fourth special with the streamer. Last year, Armageddon topped Netflix’s most-watched list and earned him the first Golden Globe for stand-up comedians.

He had previously broken all records with his international tour and sold out 85 arena dates.

In December, Gervais defended a joke he made about terminally ill children on his comedy special, telling critics he wished them “luck” in getting the joke removed.

After the clip surfaced online, a petition was started on Change.org calling on Netflix to remove the sketch from “Armageddon,” which was released on Christmas Day.

In an interview with Nihal Arthanayake on BBC Radio 5 Live about the use of the word “bald” in the sketch, the 63-year-old said: “In this little sketch, I act like an idiot saying something like that, but I don’t. I even say it in the sketch.”

“That’s why ‘I’m offended’ is completely meaningless, because what is your argument? What do you want me to change? You said you don’t like it, and that’s fine.”

When asked if he had seen the petition, the comedian replied: “Good luck, I’ll tell them that. Good luck, I’ll even retweet it.”

Gervais said he felt he had to stop explaining his jokes to those who said they were offended by them.

He added: “I do what’s funniest for the joke. I’ll pretend to be right-wing, I’ll pretend to be left-wing… whatever’s funniest for the joke, the routine to get my point across.”

“And some people get confused by that because they think a joke is a window into the comedian’s true soul. That’s just not true. It’s a joke. Nobody thinks that about puns.

“Just because I deal with a kind of realism and taboo subjects, they think I’m more serious than if I was doing some silly job on the playground, and I think I need to stop explaining myself because I’ve noticed something happening. Of all the millions of people who have seen it and loved it, some don’t like it.

“When I pay special attention to them and try to appease them and explain to them that I have upset the other millions of people who got the joke, they get offended. They say, ‘No, you spoiled it for us.’ So I have a duty to the people who like it and get it.

“I wouldn’t sit down with a heckler, would I? If I was playing in front of 20,000 people and someone was shouting, I wouldn’t stop the show and explain it to them. I would ignore them.”