James Corden Owns Up to Telling Ricky Gervais Joke on ‘Late Late Show’ After Comedian Calls Him Out on Twitter

James Corden is wrapped up in another internet scandal this week after he was accused of stealing a joke from fellow comedian Ricky Gervais. Just as we were all forgetting about his infamous Balthazar ban, Corden is once again under fire — this time from Gervais — who called him out for copying an old joke on The Late Late Show. 

During Corden’s Monday (Oct. 31) night monologue, the late night host focused on Elon Musk’s Twitter deal and the Tesla founder’s plans for the website.

“When you see Elon Musk talk about Twitter, he does this thing where he goes, ‘It’s the town square,'” Corden said, per The Hollywood Reporter. “But it isn’t, because if someone puts up a poster in a town square that says ‘guitar lessons available,’ you don’t get people in the town going: ‘I don’t wanna play the guitar!’ But that sign wasn’t for you, it was for somebody else — you don’t have to get mad about all of it.”

The joke made its way back to Gervais, who noticed a few too many similarities in the bit (which is unfortunately copied from him nearly word-for-word). Gervais reposted a clip of Corden’s monologue and cheekily referred to his own work, writing in a since-deleted tweet, “The bit about the town square advert for guitar lessons is brilliant,” per THR.

After deleting the tweet, Gervais said he “started to feel sorry” for Corden and suspected the late night host’s writers had crafted the joke for him, tweeting, “I doubt he would knowingly just copy such a famous stand up routine word for word like that.”

Gervais’ 2018 Netflix special Humanity included a joke about Twitter in which he tells the audience, “… [It’s] like going into a town square, and seeing a big notice board that says, ‘Notice: Guitar lessons,’ and going: ‘I don’t fucking want guitar lessons!’ … Fine! It’s not for you, then. Just walk away, don’t worry about it,” per THR.

With similarities too striking to be coincidental, Corden was forced to address the controversy yesterday, when he shared a message to The Late Late Show twitter account.

“Inadvertently told a brilliant Ricky Gervais joke on the show last night, obviously not knowing it came from him. It’s brilliant, because it’s a Ricky Gervais joke. You can watch all Ricky’s excellent specials on Netflix. J x,” he wrote.

While he owned up to “inadvertently” telling Gervais’ joke, Corden didn’t apologize, much like his response to the egg yolk omelet scandal that rocked Instagram, Twitter and the New York restaurant scene just last week.

The Late Late Show airs weeknights at 12:37/11:37c on CBS.