**Atalla** Reflects on Disability Jokes by **Gervais**
Producer questions if he ‘sold a bit of himself’ by allowing comedian’s jokes.
**Ash Atalla**, the producer of *The Office*, is reflecting on jokes made at his expense by **Ricky Gervais** during the 2001 British Comedy Awards. Now, **Atalla** questions whether allowing jokes about his disability was the right thing to do.
Comedy Awards Skit
During the awards show, **Gervais** made jokes alluding to **Atalla**’s wheelchair use, including a comparison to **Stephen Hawking**. The comedian also referred to **Atalla** as “my little wheelchair friend”
.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, **Atalla** said the idea for the jokes was originally his. He has since reconsidered the skit.
**Atalla** explained, “People in wheelchairs weren’t on stages back then. That started the double act of that material on stage.”
He added, “I think when I look back on it, maybe I realise, or I feel I sold a bit of myself in that moment…And just in recent years, as I’ve thought about it, it’s made me consider whether I was sort of right to do that.”
Regrets Surface Years Later
Looking back, **Atalla** admitted **Gervais**’s repeated jokes about his disability made him feel a “little bit uncomfortable.”
In a 2021 interview with *The Times*, **Atalla** stated that although he “wasn’t bothered”
by **Gervais**’s jokes at the time, his perspective has changed.
According to the CDC, in 2022, 27% of adults in the United States had some type of disability (CDC).
**Atalla** reflected on the style of comedy at the time:
“I felt a little bit uncomfortable. There was a period of late Nineties comedy with the likes of **Ricky Gervais**, **Jimmy Carr** and **Frankie Boyle** where the game was – see what you could get away with and then reverse intellectualise it.”
—**Ash Atalla**, Producer
He concluded, “Those jokes didn’t bother me at the time, but they would if they happened now…I wouldn’t allow so many jokes to be made about my wheelchair, I wouldn’t want to be defined by that.”
The Office and Trigger Warnings
*The Office*, created by **Ricky Gervais** and **Stephen Merchant**, featured **Gervais** as David Brent, a paper company boss.
Recently, the BBC added trigger warnings to five episodes of *The Office* for “discriminatory language.”
The series has received numerous accolades. In 2004, it won a Golden Globe for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy. **Ricky Gervais** also won a Golden Globe for Best Actor.
The success of the British version led to the US spin-off starring **Steve Carell**, which ran for nine seasons and over 200 episodes, concluding in 2013.
