Ricky Gervais has reacted to James Corden copying a joke of his word for word on The Late Late Show.
MORE: Ricky Gervais defends Netflix SuperNature special amid backlash
On Tuesday, the British comedian, who currently lives in Los Angeles, went viral after fans noticed he had used a joke Ricky had told about guitar lessons in his 2018 special Humanity during the show's monologue on Monday night.
James Corden told Ricky Gervais' joke word for word
In a Tweet, which he has since deleted because "he felt sorry for him [James]", Ricky sarcastically joked: "[James'] bit about the town square advert for guitar lessons is brilliant."
RELATED: James Corden's major decision about LA future revealed
MORE: James Corden's first TV role after Late Late Show exit revealed
Replying to another fan, Ricky revealed that James had not asked permission to use his joke, adding: "I reckon one of the writers 'came up with it' for him. I doubt he would knowingly just copy such a famous stand up routine word for word like that."
© Photo: Getty ImagesJames Corden has said he didn't know the joke was Ricky's
Later in the day, James apologised via the show's official Twitter account, telling his fans: "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."
Ricky didn't respond to the apology, but liked the tweet. He also later retweeted a message from a from which included a clip of him giving Jimmy Fallon monologue tips.
"When @rickygervais crashed @jimmyfallon's monologue – 'Do it like you were clever enough to come up with this joke yourself!'" Ricky's fan captioned the post.
James has been in the news recently after he was banned from a restaurant for being rude to the staff.
© Photo: Getty ImagesRicky has said he feels "sorry" for the fellow comedian
A week later, he addressed the drama surrounding his ban from NYC restaurant Balthazar on his show.
"Last week, there were stories about me being banned from a restaurant. And at the time I considered, you know, tweeting about it or Instagramming about it," the 44-year-old explained at the top of the show.
"Whenever these moments come my way, I like to adopt quite a British attitude of 'Keep calm and carry on.'"
But he said that his father—who was sitting in the audience with James' mother — told him over the weekend, "Son, well, you did complain, so you might need to explain."
James admitted that "when you make a mistake, you've got to take responsibility" and told the audience that earlier this month, while he was dining with friends at the trendy downtown eatery — one of his "absolute favorite restaurants" — his wife, Julia Carey, was served food that "she was allergic to," despite explaining her serious sensitivities to their server.
