A Ricky Gervais skit was shown in a court hearing of a man who claimed he was copying the comedian when he allegedly did a Nazi salute outside a Jewish museum in Sydney.
Daniel Muston, Ryan Peter Marshall and Anthony Raymond Mitchell were charged with behaving in an offensive manner in public and over their actions knowingly displaying Nazi symbols without an excuse near the Sydney Jewish Museum on October 13, 2023.
The three men told the police that they were joking, with Mitchell saying he was copying a Gervais routine.
In a clip played to the court, Gervais performs a mock Nazi salute while pushing his hair down to mimic Hitler, saying: “I do that quick so no one can take a picture of me doing that. Not a traditional subject for comedy the old Holocaust.”
However, magistrate Jennifer Atkinson questioned the timing of the acts, which occurred less than a week after an attack by Hamas killed hundreds of people in Israel on October 7. “It really is a matter of common knowledge what occurred in Israel days earlier,” she told the court.
“He might have said it was a joke but why that location, why that time?”
In addition, police prosecutor Sgt David Langton told the court that it was not in dispute that what the men were doing was a joke, but there was a major distinction between Gervais doing a mock Nazi salute in the context of a comedy show as opposed to others doing so in public.
“I’m not making a decision about Ricky Gervais,” Atkinson said.
The matter will return to court on October 24.
In other news, Gervais recently denied reports that he will be making an appearance in a celebrity edition of The Traitors.
“I love the show and I’m very flattered, but it won’t happen. I’m too busy and there’s no way they could afford me,” he wrote on X/Twitter.
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