Ricky Gervais pledged to "go out with a bang" as he mocked the star-studded audience at the Golden Globe Awards.
The 58-year-old comic fronted the ceremony for a fifth time on Sunday (05.01.20) and insisted he had "never cared" about the event so wasn’t too worried about offending people.
He said: "You’ll be pleased to know this is the last time I’m hosting these awards, so I don’t care anymore. I’m joking. I never did. I’m joking, I never did. NBC clearly don’t care either — fifth time. I mean, Kevin Hart was fired from the Oscars for some offensive tweets — hello?
"Lucky for me, the Hollywood Foreign Press can barely speak English and they’ve no idea what Twitter is, so I got offered this gig by fax. Let’s go out with a bang, let’s have a laugh at your expense. Remember, they’re just jokes. We’re all gonna die soon and there’s no sequel, so remember that."
The ‘After Life’ star went on to poke fun at the college admissions scandal, which saw actress Felicity Huffman jailed.
He quipped: "I came here in a limo tonight and the license plate was made by Felicity Huffman. No, shush. It’s her daughter I feel sorry for. OK? That must be the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to her. And her dad was in ‘Wild Hogs’.
Ricky also made jokes about disgraced filmmaker Harvey Weinstein and late financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Referring to the expose which laid bare claims about the producer, he told the audience at the Beverly Hilton Hotel: "In this room are some of the most important TV and film executives in the world. People from every background. They all have one thing in common: They’re all terrified of Ronan Farrow. He’s coming for ya."
And when discussing his own Netflix series, ‘After Life’, he said: "That’s a show about a man who wants to kill himself cause his wife dies of cancer and it’s still more fun than this. Spoiler alert, season two is on the way so in the end he obviously didn’t kill himself.
"Just like Jeffrey Epstein. Shut up. I know he’s your friend but I don’t care."
After taking jibes at ‘Cats’, Leonardo DiCaprio’s love life and Martin Scorsese’s height, Ricky took a swipe at "woke" celebrities for being hypocritical and warned them not to speak for too long on stage.
He said: "Apple roared into the TV game with ‘The Morning Show’, a superb drama about the importance of dignity and doing the right thing, made by a company that runs sweatshops in China.
"Well, you say you’re woke but the companies you work for in China — unbelievable. Apple, Amazon, Disney. If ISIS started a streaming service you’d call your agent, wouldn’t you?
"So if you do win an award tonight, don’t use it as a platform to make a political speech. You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything. You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg.
"So if you win, come up, accept your little award, thank your agent, and your God and f**k off, OK?"
Ricky Gervais mocks audience in opening monologue
