London Zoo refuses to grant Ricky Gervais his dying wish of being eaten by lions

 

London Zoo has denied Ricky Gervais' dying wish of being eaten by lions. The "After Life" star last week told Conan O'Brien that he'd want to give something back to the natural world after his own life has ended by being "fed to the lions at London Zoo."
Sadly for Gervais, that wish has now been refused by the zoo. Kathryn England, Chief Operating Officer of ZSL London Zoo, told The Sun: "I suspect Ricky may be a bit gristly for our lions."
England also said, however, that the zoo is "struggling financially because of lockdown."
She added: "So if anyone wants to 'give something back,' we welcome donations that will help us keep our lions fed on a more suitable diet."

During a chat on TBS' "Conan," Gervais and Conan discussed the afterlife, and Gervais told the chat show host that he thinks a lot about how he wants to go, and what he'd like to happen to his body post-death. Cremation or burial isn't for him. Rather, Gervais would like something a bit more charitable.
"I thought it would be good to be just fed to the lions at London Zoo. That would be useful, isn't it? We never give anything back. We take everything from this world, we eat animals, anything that moves we eat. We destroy. Deforestation. We don't give anything back. Everything we do is for us, we're not even food for other things," Gervais said.
The comedian continued: "I'd like the look on the tourists' faces when they throw this dead, fat, naked, 73-year-old, maybe, if I'm lucky, to the lions, and as it lands some people go, 'is that the bloke from 'The Office?'' they go, 'what, Steve Carell?' 'No not f---ing Steve Carell. He's much fatter than Steve Carell.'
Gervais said he doesn't care about "being dead," but does worry about how he dies, with both Gervais and Conan agreeing that they don't want to leave this world in any embarrassing way.
Gervais actually used the word "gristly" himself in a rather graphic description of how he thinks the lions' dinner might go if his wish did actually come true.
"The idea that the lion, they all start with the soft bits but if two lions went for my testicles, right, they'd be in for a shock because they're really gristly and long," Gervais said.
"So you'd have two lions about three feet apart - it'd be like Lady and the Tramp, they're eating my testicles getting closer together."
Over lockdown, Gervais was working on the script for season three of acclaimed Netflix comedy-drama TV series "After Life." In 2020, Gervais posted to Instagram confirming that he's finished the second draft of the script.