The working class is the only group of people comedians can safely make jokes about, Ricky Gervais claims.

Jokes about other demographics are often considered to be controversial but the working class is one exception to this rule, according to the creator of The Office.

On an upcoming episode of the Radio 4 podcast This Cultural Life, Gervais said: “People understand most power struggles – they understand why racism, homophobia and misogyny are wrong but they are very disparaging about the working classes.

“It’s the one thing that it seems to be fine to take the mickey out of with no blowback at all.”

The comedian has made a career out of portraying working class people, including in The Office, a sitcom based in a paper company in Slough, and After Life, his series about a grieving local paper journalist in Berkshire.

Gervais, who was raised by working class parents in Whitley, Reading, says people in Britain are obsessed with class, which he calls a “power struggle”, and admits he is no longer working class.

He went on to say he would “probably” amend his older jokes that made disadvantaged people the butt of the joke, and would use trigger warnings.

“You are a product of your time and you do make things for people of your time,” he said. “I’d put trigger warnings on things, but I wouldn’t go back and change something. Do I regret anything? No. Would I do things differently now? Probably.”

Gervais said he “only deals in realism” in his work after a breakthrough moment as a child when he got an A for writing a “boring” story about his mother cleaning up for an elderly neighbour.

“If you can draw on your own mannerisms, that’s easier than putting on a ridiculous French accent and wearing a silly wig, because I only deal in realism,” he said.

“I don’t do those heightened things. I don’t do surreal stuff. I don’t do fantastical stuff, I don’t do high concept, I don’t do time travel.

“You can be watching the greatest movie ever on TV, but if you hear a siren, your neighbour being taken away, you’re at the window because it’s more interesting, because it affects you.”

Gervais has, like many comics, a track record of controversial jokes and punchlines at the expense of certain people.

A Netflix special in 2022 made jokes at the expense of trans women, referring to genitalia and pronouns as part of a performance he says is a way of “satirising attitudes”.

In the same show, SuperNature, he said he supported trans rights.

He said: “I support all human rights, and trans rights are human rights. Live your best life. Use your preferred pronouns. Be the gender that you feel that you are. But meet me halfway, ladies: lose the c---. That’s all I’m saying.”

Gervais has in recent years garnered a reputation for “punching up”, targeting powerful and high-profile people.

Topics of the jokes he has made while hosting the Golden Globes have included Scientology, Paul McCartney, Harvey Weinstein, the Catholic Church, and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Gervais has won four Golden Globes for The Office (two in 2003), Extras (2007), and his Armageddon stand-up show (2024), which drew criticism for using an ableist slur and mocking terminally ill children.

Next month he is nominated again, this time for his Mortality stand-up set which will be shown on Netflix on Dec 30.