Ricky Gervais Jokes Will Smith Ban Could End Early With 'Good Behaviour'

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has handed out their punishment to Will Smith, but one popular comedian posted that he thinks it may not ever be fully realized.

On Friday, AMPAS announced that Smith will not be allowed to attend the Oscars for the next 10 years. Following the news of Smith's punishment, Ricky Gervais posted on social media that Smith may not have to do the entire time.

Gervais posted on Twitter that "Hopefully, he'll only do 6 years with good behaviour."

The move from the Academy comes after Smith, in reaction to a joke about his wife actress Jada Pinkett Smith's hair from comedian Chris Rock, walked onstage at this year's Oscars ceremony and slapped Rock in the face.

Friday's tweet from Gervais about Smith's punishment wasn't the first comment The Office creator has made on the situation between Smith and Chris Rock.

Gervais said that instead of going after Pinkett Smith for her hair, he would have made a joke about "her boyfriend."

"I'll get it out of the way. I have not got any Will Smith material. I trended when that happened and I was not even there," Gervais said at a show in London.

During a live Twitter Q&A session last week, Gervais joked about alopecia, the condition which causes Pinkett Smith to suffer from hair loss. He mentioned that since the incident, he has heard people referring to it as a disability, leading the After Life star to say he is also disabled due to thinning hair.

"Someone said it was joking about her disability. Well I'm going a bit thin. So I'm disabled. That means I can park right up next to [British supermarket] Tesco now."

He referred to his fellow comedian's joke about Pinkett Smith's hair as "the tamest joke I would've have ever have told," in the clip which has been posted on his TikTok account.

While some may have found Gervais' joke about alopecia humorous, one organization did not appreciate the comedian's quip about the condition.

The National Alopecia Areata Foundation (NAAF), in a statement to Newsweek, said that alopecia areata is "no joke."

The statement went to explain that it is an "autoimmune disease that causes hair loss on the scalp, face and sometimes on other areas of the body" and that "nearly seven million people in the United States and 147 million people worldwide" are affected by the disease.

Following the punishment doled out to Smith by the Academy, the Oscar winner released a short statement which read, "I accept and respect the academy's decision."

Newsweek reached out to AMPAS and a representative for Smith and Gervais for comment.

Update 4/8/22, 6:28 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information and background.