Some stars appeared displeased with James Corden’s recent joke about Judi Dench.
“Tonight is the one night that Hollywood and science come together,” Corden, 46, said while presenting at the 2025 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony on Saturday, April 5. “Other than, of course, that one magical evening where Dr. [Anthony] Fauci had a one-night stand with Dame Judi Dench.”
The joke was met with silence, according to video footage obtained by the Daily Mail. The camera even panned to Olivia Wilde, who was sitting at her seat open-mouthed with eyebrows raised after hearing the jab.
Neither Fauci, 84 — who formerly took on the role as chief medical advisor to the president — nor Dench, 90, has publicly responded to the joke.
Corden, meanwhile, seemed unbothered by the quip, continuing on with his speech after he was seemingly met with silence from the audience. The comedian, who hosted The Late Late Show from 2015 to 2023, is no stranger to creating controversy when it comes to his jokes, however.
In 2017, Corden apologized after making a joke about Harvey Weinstein amid the disgraced producer’s highly publicized sexual assault scandal.
“This is a beautiful room. It’s a beautiful night here in L.A,” Corden said, in part, at the time. “So beautiful, Harvey Weinstein has already asked tonight up to his hotel to give him a massage.”
Corden met backlash from several celebs on social media and explained that he was trying “to shame” Weinstein and not poke fun at the situation. (Weinstein is currently in prison.)
More recently, Corden was accused of stealing jokes after joking about Elon Musk during an October 2022 episode of The Late Late Show.
“When you see Elon Musk talk about Twitter, he does this thing where he goes, ‘Well, it’s the town square,’” Corden said at the time. “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 s***!’”
Fellow comedian Ricky Gervais responded to the joke at the time.
“The bit about the town square advert for guitar lessons is brilliant,” he shared via X alongside a clip. Gervais, 63, made a nearly identical joke during his 2018 Humanity comedy special.
“It’s like going into a town square and there’s a notice for guitar lessons and you go, ‘But I don’t f***ing want guitar lessons!’” Gervais said during his past comedy special.
Corden addressed the situation in a statement via X at the time.
“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,” he wrote. “You can watch all Ricky’s excellent specials on Netflix.”
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