Los Angeles:
With his usual borderline-cocky humour right from taking personal digs at Sean Penn, Caitlyn Jenner to calling the awards “useless”, host Ricky Gervais returned with a bang at the 73rd Golden Globes.
“Shut up, you disgusting, pill-popping sexual deviant scum,” he began addressing the glittering, grinning crowd while taking a sip from a glass of fizzing beer in his opening remarks.
“I’m going to do this monologue and then go into hiding,” the host said before adding, “I’m going to get this monologue out of the way and then go into hiding. Not even Sean Penn will find me... Snitch.”
The joke on Penn was regarding his recent controversial secret interview with drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman that helped authorities locate his whereabouts.
He went on to let everyone know he has no time, or interest in the Golden Globes themselves. “If you do win tonight, remember that no one cares about that award as much as you do,” he said.
“Don’t get emotional; it’s embarrassing, OK? That award is, no offense, worthless.”
He casually laid into a wide swath of people and addressed current events at the same time.
Gervais touched up on a raging topic in Hollywood—pay disparity—and said he believed in equal pay for women in the industry but before anyone expected something serious, he remarked, “I’m getting paid exactly the same as (co-hosts) Tina (Fey) and Amy (Poehler) did last year... It’s not my fault if they want to share the money.”
Jenner’s gender transition, which garnered a lot of attention last year, also made its way in Gervais’ monologue.
“She became a role model for trans people everywhere...,” he said before adding a tongue-in-cheek comment, “She didn’t do a lot for women drivers, but you can’t have everything,” referring to Jenner’s run-in with the law after a traffic accident.
Gervais returned to host the Golden Globes for the fourth time.
Noting that NBC had no nominations of its own, which made it a “fair and impartial” network to host the show, Gervais said, “Nothing in it for them tonight; they don’t care,” he noted.
The Golden Globes, which are considered an early predictor of the upcoming Oscars, were held at the Beverly Hills, California.
