Ricky Gervais has expanded on his condemnation of 'cancel culture' in a new interview, saying "trying to get someone fired" is "not cool".
The British comedian has a long history of controversial jokes and is known as a staunch defender of free speech.
Gervais recently said that today's "outrage mobs" mean the BBC wouldn't fund his hit show The Office now as it did in the early 2000s and has now expanded on those comments in a new interview.
"When people are trying to get someone fired because they don't like their opinion about something that's nothing to do with their job, that's what I call 'cancel culture' and that's not cool," he told Metro.
"You shouldn't have to go to court for saying a joke that someone didn't like and that's what we get dangerously close to. If you don't agree to someone's right to say something you don't agree with, you don't agree with freedom of speech."
He added that people should be "allowed" to have things in common with bad people - using loving dogs in the same way Adolf Hitler did as an example.
Gervais said on Twitter someone had questioned his quoting of Winston Churchill, saying the former British leader was a white supremacist.
"And I wrote back: 'Not in that tweet he isn't'. It's like if someone did something once that's wrong, everything they did was wrong."
Gervais is currently writing the third season of his Netflix show After Life.
