I haven't actually watched a lot of Ricky Gervais; I've never seen the original The Office- and only a smattering of the American version- and haven't watched his stand up either, because I don't generally like blue humour. So mostly I've just seen clips online of him hosting the Golden Globes on numerous occasions, which are admittedly pretty funny with him verbally smacking around the stars, smirking all the while . This was his fifth and final time hosting, and so he apparently decided to burn his bridges on the way out.
Gervais hit on a lot of issues that the Hollywood crowd would prefer were swept under the rug- or red carpet, as the case may be. He mocked their constant droning on about "diversity", impishly told the executives in the room that they were terrified of Ronan Farrow- and should be- and bluntly pointed out that most of them knew what Harvey Weinstein was up to, but turned a blind eye to further their careers. He mocked Felicity Huffman's conviction and made an Epstein joke, drawing attention to the fact that a lot of them consorted with the pedophile, even after his conviction. Gervais also sneered at their faux woke-ness: pretending to occupy the moral high ground, all the while dealing with companies with dubious business practices who kowtow to China. He concluded his monologue by advising the stars not to use their acceptance speeches to deliver political diatribes: "You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything. You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg." Ain't that the truth.
- Samuel Johnson