Gervais gets blunt at the Golden Globes
Tom Hanks’ face said it all. This year’s Golden Globe Awards featured a slew of controversial speeches, with the host, Ricky Gervais, mercilessly roasting the awards show in the opening monologue.
As his fifth and final time hosting the Globes, Gervais has been praised immensely for his past runs. Historically charismatic, clever and funny as an awards show host, Gervais did not walk the classic, politely comedic line this time. Instead, he leaped over it with his opening monologue cutting jokes about everything from racist nomination snubs to the pedophilia in Hollywood that’s continued to come to light this year.
“Let’s go out with a bang, and let’s have a laugh at your expense, shall we? Remember, these are just jokes. We’re all going to die soon, and there’s no sequel.” Acting as a sort of preface to the “offensive” jokes to come, Gervais’ monologue then proceeded to use his comedic background to make fun of the awards show itself.
“You could binge watch the entire first season of ‘Afterlife’ instead of watching (the Golden Globes). That’s a show about a man who wants to kill himself because his wife dies of cancer, and it’s still more fun than this,” Gervais said. This joke does have some truth behind it since my experience of watching award shows like the Golden Globes is 90 percent fast-forwarding through the boring parts. However, entertainment is slowly but surely being integrated into these shows, so hopefully this issue will be resolved.
Gervais continued by telling award winners in advance that they should not talk about politics in their speeches because they “know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg so if you win, come up, accept your little award, thank your agent, and your God, and (back) off.”
The blind idolization of celebrities by Americans have led to an onslaught of support for political candidates, causes, etc., endorsed by those in the entertainment industry by imperceptive fanatics. It is incredibly accurate that a significant amount of celebrities either do not know what the life of a common citizen is like, or have forgotten, and yet their politically-based comments, that are normally uninformed, significantly impact the opinions of large populations at a time.
However, this is not to say that their influence in the media and wealth can be put towards a good, researched, or created cause. If there is a cause they want to fight for or advocate, let them do it. As celebrities, they can make a huge positive impact the same way they can make a negative one. If winners have a cause they are passionate about, they can make change by all means, and through the proper channels. However, the industry standard and expectation should definitively not be to preach one’s morals upon accepting an award. Thanking people and leaving the stage is an acceptable way to go about the process as well.
The Golden Globe Awards are often shrouded in a bubble,but whether or not viewers or celebrities agreed or disagreed upon Gervais, his comments ignited an increased and much-needed dialogue regarding Hollywood culture as a whole. Gervais’ brutally honest monologue is the taste of truth that Hollywood needs.
