James Corden is engulfed in yet another huge controversy – this time, he is facing accusations of plagiarism.
The Late Late Show host is being accused of plagiarizing a joke that was originally told by Ricky Gervais way back in 2018. James told the joke on the Monday night (October 31) episode of his show. Ricky told his joke during a stand-up special four years ago, in 2018. A fan stitched together the two to show how similar they really are.
Check out James’ joke on October 31, 2022:
“If someone puts up a poster in a town square that says ‘guitar lessons available’, like you don’t get people in the town going: ‘I don’t want to play guitar! I want to play the piano you piece of s**t’! Well that sign wasn’t for you. It was for somebody else! You don’t have to get mad about all of it.”
And here is Ricky’s 2018 joke, for reference:
“That’s like going into a town square, seeing a big notice board and there’s a notice – guitar lessons – and you go, ‘But I don’t want f***ing want guitar lessons. Fine, it’s not for you then, just walk away. Don’t worry about it!”
Ricky then reacted to the similarities of the two jokes. He quote tweeted the Late Late Show tweet containing the joke (this has since been deleted) and wrote:
“The bit about the town square advert for guitar lessons is brilliant.”
A fan asked Ricky:
“Didn’t deliver it like you though. I assume he asked to use that joke?”
Ricky had this to say in response:
“No. I reckon one of the writers ‘came up with it’ for him. I doubt he would knowingly jus copy such a famous stand up routing word for word like that.”
Another fan later on asked Ricky why he deleted the tweet, and Ricky said:
“Started to feel sorry for him”
James has since taken to the Twitter account tour The Late Late Show to respond to the plagiarism accusations. He tweeted:
“Inadvertently told a brilliant Ricky Gervais joke on the show last night, obviously not knowing it came from him. It’s brilliant, because it’s a Ricky Gervais joke. You can watch all Ricky’s excellent specials on Netflix.”
The controversy comes as James has already been hot topic because of his rude behavior at a popular NYC restaurant.
