Friday the 13th is trending on Twitter as people across the world fear bad thing might happen.

Ricky Gervais says that fear of bad things happening is superstitious nonsense and he doesn't buy it!

In a tweet on Friday 13th, 2017, the comedian, actor, screenwriter, movie director of "the Office" and "The Ricky Gervais Show" pooh-poohed the idea.

He said that Jesus is there to keep us safe from this kind of thing anyway. (And we know he has some streak of sarcasm)

By his own admission, he is "godless" and had something to say about how Christians always tell him to keep his ideas to himself, but they never say that to other Christians!

Friday the 13th Tweet by Ricky Gervais

it seems that lots of people liked to take some comfort or just have a giggle at Ricky's message as his tweet got over 3.4k loves, was retweeted 974 times and he got 184 replies in just two hours. In answer to a question by a Jaden Collins, Rickey Gervais let rip some of his humour that we all love him for. See the tweets below:

Ricky would rather talk about comedy and Netflix than bad things

In the world of Ricky Gervais, comedy and great Netflix is far more interesting than sitting around worrying about the doom of Friday the 13th.

In fact, he already moved on from gloominess and posted up the great news that The UK's Number 1 Comedy is heading to America! So if the Americans survive Friday the 13th they have something to look forward to in February.

The origins of Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th is a particularly western superstition, so I guess that means its ok to be Chinese or live in Fiji on this day.

The common superstition has even been given a scientific name, so it is officially known as 'triskaidekaphobia.' This sounds dreadful, like some kind of disease, but it may come from fear of a Friday involving the Jesus origins. It first arose in the Middle Ages and was thought to come f"rom the Jesus' last supper and crucifixion" as there were 13 people at the last supper the night before his death.

"In British tradition, Friday was the conventional day for public hangings, and there were supposedly 13 steps leading up to the noose," reports Corsinet.

Since those days, the superstition was perpetuated by Thomas W. Lawson's popular novel "Friday, the Thirteenth."

Bad things that did happen on Friday the 13th

  • Buckingham Palace was bombed heavily on this day in 1940 after the start of the 2nd World War.
  • Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashed in the Andes in 1972. The survivors were forced to eat other dead passengers to stay alive.
  • Isis terrorists killed innocent people in Paris, France on this day last year when they detonated bombs and shot people across the city. 130 people died in the massacres.

Bad things happen every day, so Friday the 13th should be just another day but you might want to reach for the salt and put a pinch on the doorstep to keep evil away, touch a lot of wood and definitely don't look out for owls flying during daylight hours.