The Golden Globes have always been a second-choice award show. They embody the slightly less attractive sister standing next to the Oscars at the bar. It typically pulls in fewer than half the viewers of the Oscars, and the inferiority of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences needs no delineation here.
What allows the Globes to compete for relevance is its atmosphere: It is more laid-back, a place where jokes should be able to fly unimpeded by the usual stuffiness of the Oscars. Instead of solemn theatre seating, those in attendance are at tables, with clearly visible alcohol lubricating the mood.
That is, of course, until this past Sunday, when Globes host Ricky Gervais’ comedic poniards stung a bit too hard for the Hollywood brass to take during his monologue and throughout the show. In his blistering opening, Gervais covered Charlie Sheen’s off-screen troubles, Sex and the City 2, Cher’s declining career, closeted Scientologists and the none-too-shocking revelation that HFPA officials might be taking bribes in exchange for nominating less-than-popular films.
The pace lightened over the course of the night, but Gervais took shots at most of the night’s presenters, mocking the imbalance of career achievements between Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, Robert Downey Jr.’s addiction problems, and introducing Bruce Willis as “Ashton Kutcher’s dad.” His jokes were insidiously hilarious to watch on television, but the audience at the Beverly Hilton grew increasingly uncomfortable as Gervais’ jabs continued.
Hosting a major award show has recently been much more of a burden than an honor. The Oscars, Emmys, and Tonys have struggled to assign hosting duties onto the shoulders of someone who could rise to the occasion like long-standing stalwarts such as Bob Hope, Johnny Carson, or Billy Crystal. If you remember any of those names, you’ve watched your fair share of award shows growing up, and I commend you for sticking through this modern age of dismal attempts to recapture the energy of those shows.
Until recently, the Golden Globes had no host. Like the Screen Actors Guild awards, there was an introduction followed by presenters, but no host with a monologue or interspersed jokes throughout the show. Then came the Writer’s Guild strike, and a cancellation of the show in 2008. In response to that gigantic hiccup to stealing the Oscar thunder, the HFPA decided to go with a host for the first time in its history, and going slightly with the “foreign” in its title, chose British comedian and creator of the original, UK version of The Office, Ricky Gervais.
In the past decade, Chris Rock, John Stewart, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, Ellen DeGeneres and Hugh Jackman have tried to revitalize the spirit of Oscar hosting. Each time, the main criticism has been that the hosting gigs have been too uptight, too limited, too scared to break loose and do something to rejuvenate the increasingly boring atmosphere. The Oscars have tried to change and become more mass-audience-friendly in expanding Best Picture to ten nominees, including musical numbers a-la Neil Patrick Harris hosting the Emmys or the Tonys, and this year skewing incredibly young with hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway.
But the only truly revolutionary hosting performance in at least twenty years has to be Gervais at the Golden Globes on January, 16, 2011. Gawker called it “one of the most unrelentingly harsh and uncomfortable monologues in awards show history,” which, coming from a website specializing in celebrity gossip and snark seems a bit pot-kettle-black. In a moribund awards landscape, he managed to jolt the audience out of its stupor and created such a stir that after his opening monologue and shots at early presenters, Gervais disappeared for over an hour, presumably at the behest of the showrunners.
Everyone presenting awards took their stabs at Gervais as well, with Robert Downey Jr. calling Gervais “mean-spirited with mildly sinister undertones” before launching into his own introduction to the Best Supporting Actress – Comedy category by hitting on each of the nominees and wondering aloud, while channeling his Tony Stark Iron Man performances, if actresses can give their best performances until after they’ve slept with him. The audience had a far better reaction to this diversion, which only begs questions: was it because Downey Jr. is American? Because he was going for sex jokes in praise of the nominees instead of joking about their worst work?
Steve Carrell, Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and many others bit back at the host, suggesting that in the midst of all the faux-sentimental boredom of awards season, most stars just couldn’t take the heat that Gervais created with pinpoint accuracy, choosing to introduce several presenters by listing off the most derided bits from their resumes.
Robert DeNiro received the Cecil B. DeMille for lifetime achievement during Sunday’s ceremony, and mixed into a montage of performances in Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino and his other great non-Martin Scorsese directed films was a clip from Rocky and Bullwinkle, the 2000 cartoon adaptation where DeNiro played Fearless Leader. During his acceptance speech, DeNiro chided that he was thankful the HFPA selected him two months before critics lambasted the dismal Little Fockers. In the five-minute speech, DeNiro didn’t so much graciously accept as give a mini stand-up act where he reminisced on his successes while poking fun at his flops, and it is in this attitude where most of the celebrities in the audience were exposed as ultimately forgettable.
While notable right now in the cultural zeitgeist that demands constant public recognition, the difference between a legend like DeNiro and the likes of financially successful actors like Tim Allen, Robert Downey Jr., Angelina Jolie and others is that DeNiro could distinguish his career achievements from what he could joke about. His repartee with Matt Damon after his introduction was classy in a roast-type way, and anyone offended by Gervais should look to DeNiro for the proper way to act in the face of some pointed jokes that are meant in good sport, especially from a host whose greatest success was licensing his UK television show to a major American network for development.
The Golden Globes have long strained for legitimacy in the award show horserace, but beyond that, for sheer popularity. Its ceremony is before the Oscars, more of a dinner-and-drinks affair, and focuses more on entertainment than art. But as Gervais skewered brilliantly in his monologue, the seemingly desperate clamoring for higher ratings with the presence of big stars does not come without a price.
The Tourist, a movie that Alfred Hitchcock could have directed in his sleep, was a critical and box-office disappointment that was somehow nominated for three awards. Burlesque, touted as the second coming of 2002’s Chicago before its release, also failed to performed as advertised, yet received nominations. The Best Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Actor – Musical or Comedy categories were miserable examples of terrible nominations by the HFPA, overlooking well-regarded films and actors in favor of big stars.
Gervais served up a bit of well-needed anarchy to the proceedings, leaving the audience unable to predict where his attention would turn next. Nobody seemed able to go along with the fun. It is not hard to predict that we’ve seen the last of Gervais as a host of the Golden Globes, or even to predict that the Globes will abandon having a host altogether, but last night, Gervais left an indelible impression on the history of the award show.