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Thin-skinned comic Ricky Gervais has released a new TV special… and if you think he’s over the dumb thing he said two years ago, you definitely don’t know Ricky Gervais.

The former Office star made a “return” to stand-up for a Netflix special titled Humanity, with promos for the show bearing the tagline “prepare to be offended”.

Across his hour-long special Gervais definitely did his best to try to live up to that promise, though on reflection “prepare to be amused by some funny jokes” might have been a better mission statement.

The comic dedicated more than 15 minutes of the special to reheating a controversy from January 2016, when he came under fire at the Golden Globes for taking potshots at Caitlyn Jenner.

While hosting the ceremony, Gervais had joked about Jenner using her male former name, attracting some criticism from the trans community.

The comedian does his level best to revive the row in his new special, going out of his way to refer to Jenner by her former name a total of 15 times in just a few minutes.

Gervais tells a ‘story’ about Jenner visiting a doctor prior to transitioning, saying: “[Former name] Jenner, that was his name, [Former name] Jenner. He went, ‘Look at that.’ The doctor went, ‘Come on, [Former name] Jenner, you know the rules.’ He uses his whole name every time, for some reason.”

He then went on to compare being transgender to identifying as a chimp, which we guess might have at least been original about ten years ago.

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Gervais said: “[They say] she’s always identified as a woman. That means she’s a woman. Fine, if that’s the rules. If you feel you’re a woman, you are. I’m not a bigot who thinks having all that done is science going too far.

“In fact, I don’t think it’s going far enough. Cause I’ve always identified as a chimp, right? Well, I am a chimp. If I say I’m a chimp, I am a chimp Pre-op. But don’t ever dead-name me. Don’t call me Ricky Gervais again. From now on, you call me Bobo.”

He added “I’m gonna have species realignment. I’m halfway there. I’m short, with short legs and long arms… once, I was at the zoo, and people were looking at me, and I just started masturbating. So, I am a chimp, right?

“I am a chimp if I say I’m a chimp. I’ve got to live as a chimp for a year. Then have hormones, get me all nice and hairy. I’m gonna stay a male chimp… male, heterosexual chimp. Keep the same girlfriend.

“I reckon that’s got to be easier for a man to turn into a chimp, we’re so close, than for a man to turn into a woman, in many ways.

“A bit of hair, and a top lip like that, as opposed to your cock and balls ripped off… and a hole gouged out, that’s the gist of it. I know which one I’d rather have done.”

Alluding to anti-transgender laws across the US, he added: “I’ll be legally a chimp… I’ll be able to use chimp toilets!

“Then, if a bigot in a van slows down and goes, ‘That’s fucking disgusting’. I’ll fling s**t at him and run up a tree. And that’s why that joke isn’t transphobic.”

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To be honest, we got bored of watching after that – and switched over to an episode of Queer Eye instead.

In a world where tired anti-trans tropes are being propagated daily by politicians, newspapers and anti-trans lobbyists, many questioned whether Gervais needs to up his game if he wishes to stand out in the crowded marketplace.