Ricky Gervais wants to be "more like Larry David"

Talking about his experience of social media, Ricky - who has more than

14 million followers on Twitter - explained: "There is an equality to Twitter, which should be a good thing ... but you can have a man who shouldn't be allowed sharp objects, living in a bin saying really horrible, racist, misogynistic things. And then you'll get Richard Dawkins or someone saying something important. And they're both in the same font, in the same place. So it's confusing.

"If I want to make a point now, I keep it to the art. I've explained too much in the past. I've found myself explaining jokes within jokes. I want to be more like Larry David. He doesn't explain anything."

Ricky thinks some people take his comedy too seriously.

The stand-up star also admitted that he'll adopt any position in order to make people laugh.

The 'After Life' actor told NME: "Some people think a joke is the window to a comedian's true soul. That's just not true.

"I'll take on any view that makes the joke funnier. I might pretend to be right wing. I might pretend to be left wing. I pretend to be clever and I pretend to be stupid. Whatever makes the joke funny without prejudice. I'm all the characters. I wrote all of them. I'm having an argument with myself!"

Ricky also feels the world has become more "judgemental and hypocritical" than ever in recent years.

He said: "I've never seen a world that is so judgemental and hypocritical as it is right now.

"I honestly think it's about controlling the tribe. Once upon a time, if a guy was good at collecting coconuts or they were brave, we'd choose to work with them. It was about achievement and competence. That's how we got status. But at some point, we worked out that we could obtain status via virtue too."