In the world of stand-up comedy, joke theft is no laughing matter.
Indeed, if a comic pinches a punchline or jacks a jape, it can end friendships, prompt physical threats, and even force legal action.
So you’d expect comedians to be very careful when coming up with their material lest they be accused of plagiarism.
Yet, accidents can happen, as Ricky Gervais has learned in recent weeks.
The 64-year-old co-creator of The Office and award-winning stand-up was accused by some people online of stealing a gag from comedian Andy Field.
Specifically, the joke involved a notorious line from The Exorcist about one of the characters’ mothers and what she’s been sucking in Hell.
The punchline being that whatever she’s been tasked with sucking, doesn’t really sound like torture when you consider the limitless agonies the Devil and his legions could inflict on a person (it’s funnier when Andy or Ricky tells it).
This prompted Andy to make a video for Instagram where he asked the question ‘Has Ricky Gervais stolen a bit of my stand-up?
The video, which has amassed more than 95,000 views, contrasts Andy’s take on the joke (which aired on the BBC in 2020) with Ricky’s bit from his 2025 Netflix special, Mortality.
The jokes in question
Andy’s joke:
‘Has anyone seen The Exorcist? “Your mother sucks c*cks in Hell!”
‘And you’re supposed to go “Oh no, that sounds awful!” But I don’t know, I think that sounds fine. It’s Hell isn’t it? It’s where the worst imaginable things [happen], there’s a million people burning for eternity in a lake of fire, constantly blistering in agony.
‘My mum’s down there sucking d*cks, good on you, Lindsey. Whose dick’s getting sucked in Hell anyway?
‘That seems like a weirdly positive thing to be happening.’
Ricky’s joke: (edited for length)
‘My favourite horror film of all time is still the original Exorcist, right?
‘There’s a bit in that that’s meant to be really poignant, and I laughed the first time I saw it, because it was the idea of the Devil being this crass and childish
‘You know the bit. So, the little girl is possessed by the Devil, and they’re doing an exorcism, and they’re throwing holy water on her, she’s hissing… and he makes her say, “Your mother sucks c*cks in Hell!” Right.
‘If scientists actually found the Devil… I’d want to meet him.
‘And I’d meet the Devil, and he’d try to hurt my feelings …and he went “Your mother sucks c*cks in Hell” I’d go “pfffft I don’t care.”
One, she’s dead. Two, she was heterosexual. Three, she never had her teeth in towards the end, so….
‘But it’s Hell! Think of all the terrible things that could be happening to he,r being raped by red-hot pokers, rats eating her eyes. My mum gets c*ck duty, go on girl…
‘Who’s getting their c*ck sucked in Hell? That’s what I want to know, because we’re there for punishment, and that’s a little treat.’
Following the publication of the video, Metro reached out to Andy to talk to him about the alleged plagiarism and what he’s got to say may surprise you.
‘There were bits of it that were quite close, but they’re two separate bits of stand-up,’ Andy explained. ‘I never thought [Ricky] stole it.
‘I think if you’re going to unpick the logic of something, stand-up comedians are going to end up kind of going down similar avenues.’
Andy went on to explain that a lot of comedians have similar frames of reference that they mine for ideas, and that can lead to parallel thinking.
‘I think it’s more common than people think, it’s much more common than joke theft,’ Andy said. ‘Every now and then, [people] have the same idea.
‘So the idea of things like the line from The Exorcist of “your mother sucks c*cks in Hell” is quite a fruitful area for comedy, because it’s a line everyone recognises.
‘It’s got valuable logic that you can toy with. It’s kind of edgy and rude, but at the same time,it’s acceptable. I was surprised no one else had thought of it when I thought of it, and I was also surprised that no one else thought of it again before Ricky did.’
Interestingly, Andy first heard about the supposed joke jacking in 2025, while Ricky was working on the show that would go on to become Mortality, and he was more curious than anything.
‘Someone messaged me a year ago and just said they were at a work-in-progress show of Ricky Gervais, and he was doing a bit that’s quite similar to mine,’ he explained. ‘But you know, you get odd little messages all the time.
‘There was a website, a comedy review website called Chortle, which did a review of this show, and they name checked me in it, and that was the first time I was like, “Oh well, it must be pretty, pretty close then.”
‘I was mostly curious to see, like, what avenues he went down, which ones he missed, and sort of like what the point of it was within the show.
‘So it’s kind of quite interesting, really. It wasn’t too shocking. I wasn’t particularly scandalised. It was kind of in keeping with what I thought it would be.’
So if he didn’t think Ricky stole his bit, then why post the video? Well, Andy was hoping to prove to people that there are significantly more talented people in the world than there are spaces for famous comedians.
‘I just thought this would be a good opportunity to encourage people to go to comedy clubs and to check out comedians they haven’t heard of. Because, as someone who’s been doing stand-up since 2010, for almost 16 years now, the amount of brilliant stand-up being performed all around the country all the time is massive.’
It also doesn’t hurt that the video had the potential to go viral with Andy admitting to me, ‘ anything that brings people, brings me into people’s awareness on the internet, is beneficial, because I want to be able to tour bigger and nicer venues.’
What would Andy say to Ricky if they ever met? Well, he’d like to pick his comedy brain, and he thinks they’d get on. They probably would; they clearly have the same sense of humour.
Metro has approached Ricky Gervais for comment.
Got a story?
If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us [email protected], calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.
