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In The Office he did an impression of an amoral middle manager staring into the abyss. Now Ricky Gervais is doing a similarly convincing impression of an offensive comedian facing career meltdown after a string of off-colour jokes has drawn heckles from disability groups, comedians and fans.
The controversy began on 29 September when Gervais rejoined Twitter, having given up after six tweets in January 2010. Four days – and a flurry of tweets involving variations on the word "mong", "div" and photographs of himself pulling "monged-up" faces – later, he was embroiled in his first row. A number of his followers had taken offence at his frequent use of the word, a shortening of "mongoloid", an offensive term for people with Down's syndrome.
Gervais responded immediately on Twitter – "Just to clarify for uptight people stuck in the past. The word Mong means Downs syndrome about as much as the word Gay means happy" – and continued in the same vein. As the criticism grew louder, he remained bullish, tweeting: "Dear fans. Don't give the haters any attention. Those people aren't really offended by the things I say – they are offended by my success."
