Ricky Gervais plotting most controversial stand-up tour ever as he declares 'cancel culture is dead'

Ricky Gervais has unveiled plans for what he describes as his most provocative stand-up tour to date, titled Legend, which will travel globally from September 2026 through to the conclusion of 2027.

The comedian, renowned for pushing boundaries with his material, has secured a lucrative streaming arrangement with Netflix for the show, though the financial terms remain undisclosed.

"I'm not saying how much they're paying me this time, but I can say it's my favourite deal so far," Mr Gervais said.

The tour's name was chosen deliberately to provoke, according to the performer.

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"The new tour is called Legend just to annoy people, really. Just so they go, 'Ooh, who does he think he is? He's changed'," Mr Gervais told the Daily Mail.

The star road-tested the new material during a performance at Leicester Square Theatre on Monday evening, where he tackled subjects including Jimmy Savile, Adolf Hitler, and racial slurs.

Addressing the disgraced television presenter's crimes, Mr Gervais told the audience: "He r***d disabled children in comas. Then he died, and then we found out."

He continued: "People are angry, saying, 'He didn't see justice. He had a great life, and he got away with it'. Did he, though? Is that a great life?"

The comedian also delivered material suggesting Hitler achieved positive things prior to the Holocaust.

"I'm not defending him, but he did do some good stuff.

"Adolf's early work he sorted out the transport system, he invented the people car," he said.

When the audience fell silent, Mr Gervais quipped: "All I'm saying is, whatever you think of this joke, remember I wrote The Office."

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During the same performance, Mr Gervais ventured into material about suicide and online harassment.

"I look at their profiles, and I think, 'I could probably get them to commit suicide because they're going to do it soon anyway, let me be a part of it, you little f*****g freak. K**l yourself, you little c***.

"I never would do that, but I'm thinking it," he told the crowd.

The comedian also joked about his own mortality, stating he would request assistance from friends to end his life if he became paralysed, and expressed a wish to keep a firearm at home for his later years.

Following one particularly dark joke about Savile, Mr Gervais acknowledged to the audience: "That is the worst thing I have ever said. That is the worst thing I've ever said."

Mr Gervais has maintained he will never face cancellation, positioning free speech as fundamental to all other liberties.

"Free speech is the most important human right there is, and it is the right for which all other rights come.

"Without free speech, you can't have human rights, and people shut you up because they don't like what you are saying, and that is always suspicious," he said.

The comedian suggested the tide has turned against excessive outrage.

"And now we are coming out of that because I think they pushed too hard, and now people are over it.

"They complained about things that didn't deserve being complained about," he said.

His four previous touring shows, Humanity, SuperNature, Armageddon, and Mortality, each shattered box office records and reached the top of Netflix's charts following their release.

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