Twitter Trolls Ricky Gervais for Saying 62 Is Middle Aged
When David Brent described being 39 years old as being “in my 30s,” are we sure Ricky Gervais knew the line was a joke?
The provocative British stand-up star will put an exclamation mark on his record-breaking “Armageddon” tour with a Netflix special by the same name, which is set to premiere on December 25th, a date clearly chosen to allow Gervais to make his signature snarky comments about the Christian religion for promotional purposes. Gervais’ current act has been one of his most successful thus far, as one show back in May earned a Guinness World Record for highest-grossing single stand-up performance in history. Worth noting about the accolade, however, is that Gervais, like anyone who earns a place in the record-keeping company’s annual tome, had to both apply and pay for the honor. Despite his carefully curated public persona as an iconoclast who thumbs his nose at ego, pomp and circumstance, appearances are, apparently, very important to the British lord of the edge.
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Following the special announcement and an appropriate number of Jesus jokes from Gervais, the 62-year-old stand-up answered a question from a fan wondering whether they could watch Armageddon with their grandparents, writing back, “Depends. Do they enjoy watching a middle age man swearing, joking about the holocaust and pretending to wank off a paedophile?” To which Twitter has responded, “Does your elderly brain think that it’s still 2003?”
Obviously, the established definition of “middle-aged” changes from person to person, but the defining characteristic of the category should be, you know, that it’s near the middle of an average person’s life? Somehow it seems unlikely that a 124-year-old Gervais will look back on the “Armageddon” tour as his midlife crisis and laugh at the vanity record he bought for himself.
In the hours since Gervais snuck in the self-unaware self-evaluation into his self-promotion, fans and haters alike have been taking turns dunking on him for thinking that four years before the official retirement age in the U.K. is “middle-aged.” And, for a man so known for his caustic celebrity criticisms at so many Golden Globes ceremonies, it’s only fair for his followers to give it right back to him during his Golden Years.
