- Kellie Finlayson blasts comedian Ricky Gervais
- Comic makes jokes about sick children on his special
- Finlayson is currently battling cancer
The wife of Port Adelaide star Jeremy Finlayson who is battling terminal cancer has taken a swing at Ricky Gervais for making fun of sick children in his upcoming Netflix special.
Kellie Finlayson, 27, has been fighting stage four bowel and lung cancer after the former emerged in November 2021 following the birth of her first child, Sophia.
She has been recently given an optimistic update that her cancer has stopped spreading, giving the Finlayson family hope that Kellie might beat the odds.
Finlayson, who lives with the reality of her diagnosis every day, was outraged by Ricky Gervais’ latest comedy special ‘Armageddon’ where he mocks children with terminal cancer.
The comedian has copped blowback for labeling sick kids ‘baldies’ and calling them ‘retarded’ in his act.
Kellie Finlayson has blasted comedian Ricky Gervais for making fun of terminally ill children in his latest upcoming Netflix special
Gervais has been blasted for labeling terminally ill children ‘baldies’ and calling them ‘retarded’
During the special, Gervais said that he does video messages for terminally ill children through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and always starts the videos the same way.
‘Why didn’t you wish to get better?’ he joked. ‘What, you f–king retarded as well?’
Gervais then says that ‘these are all jokes’ and that he doesn’t use the R-word in real life.
Despite the comedian’s insistence that it’s a joke, Finlayson doesn’t think the subject is a laughing matter and took to social media to slam Gervais and Netflix.
‘What the actual f*ck,’ she wrote in an Instagram story in response to another parent’s video attacking the star of The Office and Extras.
‘I don’t even know why I’m giving this man airtime,’ Finlayson wrote in a following story. ‘But if you’re unsure what my last post was about… This man, @rickygervais is using terminally ill children as the subject of his jokes. Disgusting. How this is even still on Instagram for people to see makes me sick. Gross.’
Finlayson followed up the post with another stating that she’d complained to Netflix about Gervais.
‘Have had my number blocked by @netflix cofounder @reed2001 by simply asking for a call back to discuss the negative impact the @rickygervais special will have,’ she wrote.
Finlayson has called the comic’s jokes ‘disgusting’ and has complained to Netflix
Furious Finlayson says she would like to see something done about the matter
In a final update, Finlayson posted: ‘Have spoken to @tedsarandos himself as well as his PA at @netflix and had it flagged. Whether anything happens, which I doubt it will, is a different story.’
‘It’ll say a lot about his character if he would rather ignore me and earn a bit of money off the bank of terminally ill kids’.
Several other angry parents of sick children have blasted Gervais for his comedy.
Katherine Litchen, whose son Teddy suffers from neuroblastoma, slammed Gervais, explaining his remarks were ‘like a punch in the gut’.
She added: ‘My throat closed up and tears sprung to my eyes at his words ‘Why don’t you wish to get better?’ Because that is what we do wish for.
‘The punchline of his joke is the suffering of children and parents whose greatest wish is for them to get better, but nothing in the world can grant it.
Finlayson is not the only mother who has been outraged by the comic’s remarks
‘I find it particularly troubling that Gervais used an ableist slur – r*tarded – to describe terminally ill children.
‘The word is a weapon of derision towards those who are born with or acquire a disability, and Gervais’ use of it in a globally aired stand up comedy show is helping to maintain the social acceptability of discrimination against disabled people.’
