Ricky Gervais will make jokes about the "general community" in Hollywood at the 2020 Golden Globes.
The 58-year-old British comedian is set to host the annual awards ceremony for the fifth time on Sunday (05.01.20), and has said that the stars of Hollywood will be safe from his jibes this year, because he plans to aim his material at bigger concepts rather than individual people.
When asked who is in the firing line at this year’s event, Ricky said: "Well, I don’t think this time [any] individuals are. I think I’ll go after the general community. I’d go after cinema and I’d go after television and I’d go after actors and I’ll go after pretension and hypocrisy. You know what I mean? I’d go after those big, nebulous things where they can all feel I’m not picking on any one person. I’m never going to point to someone and say, ‘You had a bad year, mate’, you know?"
Ricky – who previously hosted the star-studded ceremony in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2016 – has learned his lesson when it comes to making targeted jokes, as he felt bad when actor Tim Allen became offended by a joke Ricky told in 2011.
Asked if there was anyone he regretted poking fun at, he confessed: "Yeah, [a joke about] Tim Allen [when he presented with Tom Hanks at the 2011 Golden Globes]. Because I think he took it wrong … I’m teasing Tim Allen. But anyone standing next to Tom Hanks, unless it’s Dustin Hoffman or Robert Redford or Robert De Niro, that could be me. But it happened to be Tim Allen. And I have nothing against Tim Allen. He’s a good actor. He’s probably a nice bloke. So even though there’s no malice and I can justify it comedically and everyone laughed, I didn’t want Tim Allen to think, ‘Oh, that was written for me. Why me?’ Well, because you were standing next to Tom Hanks."
The ‘David Brent: Life on the Road’ star also admitted he gets paid well for hosting the event, but doesn’t care about the money.
When asked if the job pays "a lot of money", Ricky told The Hollywood Reporter: "Yeah, of course, but that’s not why I do it. I’ve got enough f***ing money. I said to my agent, ‘I won’t do for money anything I wouldn’t do for free.’ He went, ‘Please don’t say that ever again.’ "
Ricky Gervais won’t make targeted jokes at Golden Globes
