Duck-billed platybust..

Doubtless you will be surprised to hear that Ricky Gervais’ new comedy special for Netflix has already sparked controversy.

Of course it has. If it didn’t cause an online fuss, then how else would Ricky and Netflix persuade enough people to splash out on it?

I mean, I guess they could have put their faith in word of mouth and great reviews.

However, that would have relied on one important criterion – it being tea-snortingly funny.

In which case, I don’t blame Gervais for taking a lazy shortcut by throwing in some jokes involving trans people to get the social media buzz going.

Well, a man’s got to earn a crust if he’s going to keep himself in the manner to which (he, oddly, keeps reminding us) he’s become accustomed. Not that there are no laughs to be had in SuperNature. It just doesn’t feel like there are any new ones to be had. A better title would have been FamiliarNature, because if you’ve watched any of Gervais’ output over the past two decades then you’ve pretty much seen this already. It’s a flabby hour as well. So disjointed and meandering. It feels like one of those pre-tour work-inprogress gigs comedians sometimes charge only a tenner for. Even the best joke in the whole show could well have come from 2004’s Flanimals. It won’t get much attention because it’s not offensive or deliberately inflammatory. I’ll share it here though, because it’s worth sharing.

“The duck-billed platypus lays eggs AND produces milk. It could make its own custard. It doesn’t, but it could.”

I’m still laughing now. The thought of a platypus in a chef ’s hat and apron, trying to use a whisk, underwater.

Crucially, you could see Gervais also enjoyed telling the joke. And while I appreciate the motivation for his sermons on the intricacies of offence and the dangers of too much censorship, I sometimes wish he’d stick to the genuinely funny, less gratuitously offensive stuff.

Maybe call his next show SweeterNature.