This Ricky Gervais stand-up routine nails what Twitter is really like

Ricky Gervais has been praised for “perfectly summing up” how people interact on Twitter.

As debates over so-called “cancel culture” continue to rage online, the Office star called out social media users who too readily take offence at other people’s posts.

The notoriously provocative comedian and actor, 59, boasts 14.4 million followers on Twitter alone, yet he said many of them regularly seem personally insulted by his tweets.

Lambasting the Twitterati for thinking “the world revolves around them,” Gervais came up with a fitting analogy for how users respond to messages that are in no way directed at them.

His comments were made during a sketch in his ‘Humanity’ stand-up show, which he shared on Sunday alongside the simple caption: “Twitter”.

In the clip, he explained that his tweets are not geared at anyone in particular, yet scores of people choose to “take them personally.”

He told his audience: “I’m not tweeting [at] anyone, I’m just tweeting. I don’t know who’s following me.

“They could be following me without me knowing, choose to read my tweet, and then take that personally’.

“That’s like going into a town square, seeing a big notice board and there’s a notice with guitar lessons, and you go, ‘But I don’t f*cking want guitar lessons!’”

He then mimicked a complainant dialing the number on the imagined notice and telling the person on the other end of the phone: “Are you giving guitar lessons? I don’t f*cking want any.’”

Reverting back to narrator mode, he ended the skit: “Fine, it’s not for you then. Just walk away” – implying this is what Twitter users should do when they see a public tweet they don’t like.

The video excerpt racked up more than 10.8 million views and 18,500 likes in less than a day, as viewers rushed to endorse his elaborate metaphor.

Believe us, we looked for condemnation of his stance, but his critics appear to have gone quiet on this one. Here’s what fans had to say:

We’re guessing he got a few more followers, and a few more people to offend, off the back of this one.