Inside Ricky Gervais’ feud with ‘privileged’ Tom Hanks after string of jokes about star ‘on his high horse’ fall flat

RICKY Gervais has been known to wind up some of the biggest names in showbiz.

During his multiple stints at hosting the Golden Globes, the creator of The Office has never shied away from a joke at the expense of the world's most famous celebrities.

He's taken swipes at the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Mel Gibson and many more over the years.

Some took it well, though, with Titanic star Leo laughing off the comedian's jibe about his penchant for younger women.

But sometimes the comic comes up against an industry giant who isn't too impressed with his words.

Tom Hanks became a reaction meme back in 2020, when a photographer caught the Oscar winner looked not-best-pleased.

It came after Ricky's stream of controversial gags while he sitting in the audience at the Golden Globes.

When the After Life star then reflected on the reaction later that same year, he accused the legendary actor of being on his "high-horse", after he failed to crack a smile following his jokes about "woke" culture.

Speaking on Christian O'Connell's  podcast in November last year, Ricky said: "The big meme was Tom Hanks going, 'Why is he saying that?'

"And people are going, 'Oh look he's on his high horse,' But when Leonardo DiCaprio laughed, people loved him for it.

"I could say a lot worse things about them, but I don't want it to get really nasty and for no reason."

He added: "I think people who laugh at a joke, they get a round of applause because people go, 'Oh that's good, they can take it,' we don't want people to be above it.

"We even let people be privileged as long as they say, 'I know I'm privileged, but I'm nothing really,' we don't like people to go, 'Oh I deserve it, how dare you talk to me like that'.

"And we sense that, if we really think these people start believing their own hype, we want to bring them down a peg or two."