MEDIA McKNIGHT: Did Ricky Gervais steal a joke?

A punchline in Mortality appears to closely mirror a joke first delivered by Karl Pilkington on The Ricky Gervais Show podcast in 2006. In this episode of Media McKnight, Rob McKnight breaks down the original podcast exchange alongside the Netflix performance, examining whether this was inspiration, recycling, or outright joke theft. The controversy is especially ironic given Gervais publicly accused James Corden of joke theft in 2022 — raising serious questions about comedy ethics, writing credits, and attribution. Also in this edition of Media McKnight: • PR spin and alleged misinformation surrounding Big Brother Australia • Behind-the-scenes media battles following the Bondi Beach shootings • Embarrassing on-air blunders at Seven and Nine • Why Australian media still struggles with crediting original reporting • And the stories that don’t deserve the airtime Media McKnight airs every Tuesday McKnight Tonight streams Monday, Wednesday & Thursday at 9pm AEDT

You can listen to MEDIA McKNIGHT: Did Ricky Gervais steal a joke? online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

MEDIA McKNIGHT: Did Ricky Gervais steal a joke? is an episode from TV Blackbox & McKnight Tonight by Robert McKnight.

This episode is 24:44 long.

This episode was published on Jan 6, 2026.

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