James Corden has responded to criticism that he copied a Ricky Gervais joke on his US television show.
During a segment of his Late Late Show, Mr Corden made a joke about Twitter, a town square and a guitar.
Mr Corden said: “When you see Elon Musk talk about Twitter he does this thing where he goes, ‘Well, it’s the town square’.
“But it isn’t. Because if someone puts up a poster in a town square that says ‘guitar lessons available’, you don’t get people in the town going, ‘I don’t want to play the guitar! I want to play the piano, you piece of ****!’
James Corden
Beresford Hodge
Ricky Gervais
Ian West
“Well that sign wasn’t for you, it was for someone else. You don’t have to get mad about all of it!”
But some on Twitter compared the joke to a section of Mr Gervais’ 2018 stand up show Humanity.
While, in a now deleted tweet, Mr Gervais also likened his work to the joke.
Mr Corden has since responded to the claims, admitting that he had “invadertedly” copied the joke.
In a tweet, Mr Corden said: “Inadvertently told a brilliant Ricky Gervais joke on the show last night, obviously not knowing it came from him.
“It’s brilliant, because it’s a Ricky Gervais joke.
“You can watch all Ricky’s excellent specials on Netflix. J x”.
Mr Gervais was asked whether he had been approached about the show using the joke, to which he replied: “No. I reckon one of the writers ‘came up with it’ for him.
The comedian added: “I doubt he would knowingly just copy such a famous stand-up routine word for word.