Ricky Gervais regrets telling just one joke during his entire career

Ricky Gervais has spoken about the one regret he has from his career, which came during the Golden Globes.

When the comedian hosted the awards ceremony in 2011 when a joke about Tim Allen fell "flat" – or at least according to Allen.

The joke saw the 61-year-old start by introducing two celebrities to the stage, saying: "What can I say about our next two presenters?"

He went on to say: "The first is an actor, producer and director whose movies have grossed over $3.5 billion at the box office.

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"He’s won two Academy Awards and three Golden Globes for his powerful and varied performances, starring in such films as Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, Castaway, Apollo 13 and Saving Private Ryan.

The comedian finished by saying: "The other is Tim Allen.”

Golden Globes 2011 - Ricky Gervais Introduces Tom Hanks & Tim Allenwww.youtube.com

Speaking in an interview with Page Six in 2020, Allen said that the joke fell “flat” in the room.

"Perhaps I didn’t get it," he said, before adding that he "wasn’t the only one" who didn't find the joke funny.

Allen went on to say: "Tom and I even said [at the time]: ‘I didn’t really get it. It’s like he didn’t finish the joke. It just went flat.’ Later that night [Gervais] said, ‘It didn’t go so well.’ He kind of apologised."

Speaking to theHollywood Reporterin 2020, Gervais said that he regretted the joke “because I think [Allen] took it wrong.”

“The joke was him and Tom Hanks,” Gervais said. “So I came out and said, ‘Our next two presenters, the first has won five Oscars, combined box office of five billion dollars. And the other, Tim Allen.’ Right? It’s a fine joke. I’m teasing Tim Allen.”

He continued: “But anyone standing next to Tom Hanks, unless it’s Dustin Hoffman or Robert Redford or Robert De Niro, that could be me. But it happened to be Tim Allen. And I have nothing against Tim Allen. He’s a good actor. He’s probably a nice bloke. So even though there’s no malice and I can justify it comedically and everyone laughed, I didn’t want Tim Allen to think, ‘Oh, that was written for me. Why me?’ Well, because you were standing next to Tom Hanks.”