Ricky Gervais Jokes About Oscars Slap With ‘The Office’ Clip

Ricky Gervais has been riffing about Will Smith’s slapping of Chris Rock in a significantly less-serious tone than some Hollywood celebrities right now, which will be refreshing to some through the constant pearl-clutching that has been going on in response to Smith even though the actor has now apologized twice.

Smith slapped Rock across the face after he referred to his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith as “G.I. Jane 2.” Pinkett-Smith has the medical condition alopecia which causes hair loss, and rolled her eyes in response to the joke. After striking Rock, Smith returned to his seat and shouted, “Keep my wife’s name out your f––king mouth!”

Gervais first referenced the moment with a clip from the original U.K. version of The Office, which featured his character David Brent making an alopecia joke. In the clip, Brent is oversharing a coworker’s personal details with other employees and says in the clip “Particularly for his wife. And she’s got alopecia, so… not a happy home life.”

In a stand-up performance this week, Gervais also tested out another bit referring to what he would have joked about if he were in Rock’s position. The Mirror reports that Gervais’ joke was, “I trended when that happened and I was not even there… People were going ‘What would have happened if Ricky Gervais had been doing it?’ Well, nothing as I would not have made a joke about his wife’s hair. I would have made a joke about her boyfriend.”

Clearly, it seems like Gervais does not feel like Rock went far enough in his roasting of the Smith family, and Gervais is certainly known to not hold back when he’s in the host position himself at awards shows. When asked how he would open the ceremony on Twitter on Monday, though, he steered clear from boyfriend bits and said he would mostly focus his opening on skewering the wealth of the ceremony’s attendees.