Ricky Gervais thinks fame has become a "ruthless and demanding profession".

The 56-year-old star believes people "would rather be known as an idiot" nowadays than not at all.

He said: "When I wrote The Office, I watched a lot of docusoaps from the '90s where an ordinary person would be followed at work and get 15 minutes of fame.

"But since then, fame has become a much more ruthless and demanding profession. People would rather be known as an idiot than not known at all.

"We've had things like Big Brother and The Apprentice, the host of which is the President of the United States. Trump has more in common with David Brent [his 'The Office' character] than he does with JFK. He's a man who wanted to be famous, who wanted to be loved."

And Ricky will be using his stand up tour Humanity to "whinge from the most privileged position imaginable".

He quipped to Canada's Postmedia Network: "It's me whinging from the most privileged position imaginable.

"It's like, I've got everything, but the tiniest things annoy me ... so it's me, ranting and raging, and the audience are laughing all the way through."

Meanwhile, Ricky previously admitted he used to "fear" fame.

He said: "When I was about to be famous, I feared it on a few levels. I feared it because I didn't want people to lump me in with those people who'd do anything to be famous.

"I didn't like the word 'celebrity'. I feared intrusion, you know? Make me famous, and suddenly you can go through my trash bins. I was very protective of my privacy.

"I didn't want people to write bad things about me that weren't true because that's just not fair. Fifty percent of everything written about me is wrong."