Ricky Gervais only hosted the Golden Globe Awards five times between 2010 and 2020, yet people still talk about his jokes more than anything else that’s happened in the history of the ceremony. His shots at Hollywood’s elite have become the stuff of legend, and continue to resurface online around this time every year. But while most of the people involved took it in stride, the comedian did manage to ruffle a fair number of feathers in the process. Here are a few celebs who didn’t appreciate Gervais’s brand of humor at the time (including some who weren’t even targeted by him).
TIM ALLEN AND TOM HANKS
Gervais has admitted that the one joke he regretted from his second hosting gig in 2011 was one at Tim Allen’s expense. At that year’s ceremony, the comic introduced Allen and Tom Hanks like so: “What can I say about our next two presenters? The first is an actor, producer, writer, and director whose movies have grossed over three-and-a-half billion dollars at the box office. He’s won two Academy Awards and three Golden Globes for his powerful and varied performances, starring in such films as Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, Cast Away, Apollo 13, and Saving Private Ryan. The other…is Tim Allen.” When the pair took the stage, Hanks started out by saying, “Like many of you, we recall back when Ricky Gervais was a slightly chubby, but very kind comedian,” after which Allen quipped, “Neither of which is he now.”
Though Allen told Page Six that he thought Gervais was “pretty sharp” at the 2020 Golden Globes, he wasn’t impressed with the joke in question from 2011. “Perhaps I didn’t get it…I wasn’t the only one. Tom and I even said, ‘I didn’t really get it. It’s like he didn’t finish the joke. It just went flat.’” As for Hanks’s thoughts on Gervais’s 2020 performance, he looked visibly uncomfortable throughout the opening monologue as the comedian joked about Felicity Huffman’s college admissions scandal, the Hollywood Foreign Press being racist, and celebrities lecturing people at award shows:
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ROBERT DOWNEY JR.
Gervais also successfully rubbed Robert Downey Jr. the wrong way at the 2011 Golden Globes. While introducing the Iron Man star, Gervais joked that many of the people in the crowd “probably know him best from such facilities as the Betty Ford Clinic and Los Angeles County Jail.” Addressing the audience afterward, Downey Jr. said, “Aside from the fact, uh, that it’s been hugely mean-spirited with mildly sinister undertones, I’d say the vibe of the show is pretty good so far, wouldn’t you?” The actor elaborated on his feelings in a backstage interview as well, explaining, “I think it’s great to be funny, but it’s just better if you can do it without hurting people.”
JAMES FRANCO
In a 2011 interview with Shortlist, James Franco said that although he thought Gervais was a “great comedian,” he wasn’t a fan of his Golden Globes jokes or the fact that he was so unapologetic after the fact. Franco went on to say, “People in the movie business live very good lives and they should be made fun of every once in a while. But when it’s an event where you’ve been asked to host and it’s a celebration, it just doesn’t seem like the right context. He should do that kind of thing on his show. If he’s been asked to participate in something where he’s supposed to celebrate people, don’t bring that kind of humor in. It just doesn’t fit and it’s bad taste for me.”
BILL BURR
Surprisingly, one of Gervais’s own contemporaries, Bill Burr, wasn’t wowed by his performances either. Burr also acknowledged that he found his fellow comedian’s jokes funny, but didn’t think that Gervais deserved any “edgy points.” As he put it to Joe Rogan, “You fucking get a staff of writers to write roast jokes to sling them at people armed with acceptance speeches? It’s like, and then what do you do, go down and fucking start slapping around some first graders?” Furthermore, he said, “If you didn’t wanna do the gig, if you don’t like celebrities, and you think they f—–g suck, what are doing at their award show with a fucking tuxedo on?”
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