After four years, Ricky Gervais has addressed that whole situation when the London Zoo refused to fulfil his 'dying wish' to be fed to the lions.
To celebrate the Tuesday's premiere of Mortality - his new Netflix special - the comedian and lover of animals revealed that he is donating £2.43 million to 22 animal charities.
"These are the lovely charities I’ve chosen. Merry Christmas critters," the 64-year-old wrote on X.
During his show, however, the After Life star opened up about an interview he did in 2021, where he said he would like to be fed to lions as his dying wish.
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“I thought it would be good to be just fed to the lions at London Zoo,” Gervais (we can only assume) semi-joked on Conan.
“That would be useful, isn’t it? We never give anything back. We take everything from this world…everything we do is for us, we’re not even food for other things.
“At least then…I’d like the look on the tourists’ faces when they throw this dead, fat, naked, 73-year-old, maybe, if I’m lucky, to the lions, and as it lands some people go, ‘is that the bloke from The Office?’”
At the time, London Zoo shut down his 'wish' and said to The Sun: “I suspect Ricky may be a bit gristly for our lions.
“We are struggling financially because of lockdown so if anyone wants to ‘give something back’ we welcome donations that will help us keep our lions fed on a more suitable diet.”
Addressing the ordeal during his recent show, Gervais said: "I was doing an interview a while ago. I don’t think the journalist liked me.
"He asked me this question. I thought it was rude. So I gave a fake answer. Right? He said, 'So, uh, what have you got planned for your funeral?'
"And I went, 'Oh, um… Oh, I wanna be fed to the lions at London Zoo'. He went, 'Really?' I went, 'Yeah. I want the zookeeper to take out my big, fat, dead, naked, bloated body in a wheelbarrow'.
"Just dump it in the lion’s den, doof, like that. Loads of tourists going, 'Is that the bloke from The Office?' Like that."
Going into the specifics of his 'request', he added: "And then two big lions come out and just start eating me. And lions, they start with the soft bits of the body, to get inside to the rib cage.
"So they’d probably get a testicle each, ’cause that’d be the easiest available.
"By then, my testicles would be about a yard apart, so they’d be easy.
"They’d just start eating towards me, like Lady and the Tramp. Really… [laughs] …romantic."
After the article of the zoo responding went out, Gervais recalled: "So I said that, as a joke, but he believed me. So much so that when he was writing up the article, he called London Zoo and asked them if that would be allowed.
"And they said, 'No, of course not'. Right? So when the article came out, the headline was 'London Zoo refuse Ricky’s request to be fed to lions'. Like I’m a f**king psychopath.
"My point is, you can’t worry about what happens after you die. Live your life. Let someone else worry. You’re dead. You’ve done your bit."
Quite an unreal end to that segment, but that's Gervais for you.
Topics: Celebrity, Celebrity News, Netflix, Ricky Gervais, Animals, Weird, UK News
Anish Vij