Ricky Gervais had the honour of hosting the 77th annual Golden Globe awards last night and he wasted no time in telling big actors, producers and companies exactly what he thought of them.
The 58-year-old has taken on the role of host numerous times before, but this year’s event marked the last time he’d be stepping on the stage to kick off the evening.
Now, it’s no secret that Gervais often makes controversial comments – it’s essentially what his career is built on – and as last night was his final chance to address the audience as host, he decided to go all in.
Almost immediately after introducing himself and kicking off the event, the comedian admitted he didn’t care about what anyone thought of him and told the guests he was going to make jokes at their expense.
Having hosts mock celebrities isn’t unusual, but with Gervais in charge there’s no doubt the A-listers started to get a little nervous – and with good reason.
Check out the speech below:
The After Life star started out quite tamely by comparing actor Joe Pesci to Baby Yoda, but things quickly took a turn when he addressed ‘some of the most important TV and film executives in the world’ as ‘perverts’, joking they were all ‘terrified of Ronan Farrow’, the journalist who helped uncover allegations of sexual abuse against film producer Harvey Weinstein.
Gervais continued to lay the controversy on thick and fast, as he went on to include The Two Popes, a recently released movie about Pope Benedict and Pope Francis, in a list of ‘paedophile movies’ before quickly pointing out, once again, that he ‘doesn’t care’.
The host managed to work a plug for his own show, Netflix’s After Life, into the flurry of insults and said, despite it being ‘about a man who wants to kill himself because his wife dies of cancer’, it was still more fun than the Golden Globes.
Seeing an unmissable opportunity to rile the conspiracy theorists out there, Gervais then went on to point out the fact there’s a second season of After Life indicates his character didn’t kill himself, ‘just like Jeffrey Epstein’.
The 58-year-old went on to take shots at Martin Scorsese, saying he was ‘not big enough’ to ride rollercoasters; Leonardo DiCaprio, who he mocked for taking a younger woman to the premiere of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, and James Corden, who Gervais joked was a ‘fat p*ssy’, and not just in Cats.
The comedian then turned his attention to big companies like Apple, Amazon and Disney and suggested they were hypocritical in claiming to be ‘woke’. He then begged winners not to make political speeches because, according to him, they know ‘nothing about the real world.’
Unsurprisingly, Gervais’ speech was met with many shocked reactions, one of which came from award nominee Tom Hanks, who looked far from impressed with the shots being fired.
The host’s microphone had to be cut a couple of times when NBC, the network hosting the awards, deemed his comments to be over the line. With that in mind, I’m impressed Gervais was only muted twice.
There’s no doubt the actor made the most of his time on stage, though I’m sure the celebs will be looking forward to seeing another, preferably less brutal host take the microphone next year.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.