On Ricky Gervais and Awards Show Hosting

I had to jump on this while it's hot. Now, I typically don't even like Ricky Gervais that much. The kind of super-awkward humour that fills both versions of The Office can be incredible, more often it's just really painful. His film career is full of terrible films and he seems to continuously be in love his own asshole self.

But Extras is the shit and damn this dude was funny at the Golden Globes.

Boo yah!

If you haven't heard Ricky's work yet, you may check some of it out here. I don't even think the material is all that outrageous. He's gained a good amount of controversy by simply saying everything we're all thinking about these moronic celebrities all the time. Of course the major difference is he's saying it all to their faces at an event honouring them without any "Just Kidding, I Love You!" afterward.

I think the positive response to his jabs around the Interwebs is pretty refreshing. It's funny that someone like Robert Downey, Jr attempting to counter while he presented appears more as a whiny celebrity douche than Ricky is an asshole. It's hard to sympathize with these overpaid actors, the audience

Along with deconstructing and ridiculing celebrities, Ricky also ridiculed Awards Shows through his irrelevant attitude, crass drinking and even making fun of how bad some of the movies were that were nominated (The Tourist [2010], what the hell). The underlying issue with a lot of the offense Hollywood took to the act therefore, is the fact that Ricky's again pointing out what we all already think: The most prestigious Self-Congratulatory Awards Shows are pointless; rarely effectively and accurately honour the truly Culturally Significant or Popular films of the year, instead enshrining performances based on arbitrary, mysterious standards and a heavy dose of politics. The Globes are typically far more bullshit and this year in particular had some outrageous nominations (see especially the Nominees for Best Comedy or Musical Picture...seriously, how is The Tourist or Red [2010] even eligible here?). The Globes have always been a joke, suddenly Ricky's controversial for pointing this out.

Now, that said, the Shitshow Award Show should be thanking Ricky for an unprecedented amount of attention. I know my only reason for tuning in was seeing what he'd do, and when the whole thing was over those were the only moments I'm glad I caught (well, that and repeated references to how much fun Table 114 [Bale and Wahlberg] were having. That rules). Supposedly the President of the Hollywood Foreign Press, Philip Berk has banned Ricky from both any further Globes hosting duties as well as any nominations for any film or show he makes in the future. Moronic. Firstly, this also supports the "Globes are Bullshit" hypothesis by acknowledging that if sometime in the future Ricky puts out the greatest acting performance in the History of Time, the Globes will openly ignore it. How can you possibly still maintain yourself as a respectable assessment of the Year in Movies? It's insane.

It's also very clear that Ricky's the talk of the town this week. And may be for some weeks to come. People are talking about the Globes for more than an hour after the show. When's the last time that happened? Besides awkward DeNiro comments (what the hell is wrong with him?), a pissed-off Bruce Willis ("Ashton Kutcher's Dad!") and Downey decrying Ricky while then making a much less funny, awkward sexual pass at the Best Supporting Actress nominees, the only reason to watch was Ricky.

At least he didn't go with his original idea.