Ricky Gervais' Most Scathing Golden Globes Lines

Host mocked Hollywood's Epstein, Weinstein ties
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 6, 2020 1:22 AM CST
Updated Jan 6, 2020 6:58 AM CST

Ricky Gervais hosted the Golden Globes for what he said would be the final time Sunday night—and he out-Ricky Gervaised himself with a barrage of scathing jokes about celebrities and the hypocrisy of Hollywood. Gervais, hosting for the fifth time, told the audience he didn't care if they were shocked or offended. "Let's have a laugh at your expense, shall we?" he said. "Remember, they’re just jokes, we’re all going to die soon, and there's no sequel." Some of his targets:

  • Jeffrey Epstein. Gervais joked about Epstein and his Hollywood connections while plugging his own Netflix show, After Life, the Daily Beast reports. "OK, spoiler alert, season two is on the way, so in the end obviously he didn’t kill himself," he said. "Just like Jeffrey Epstein." After groans from the audience, Gervais said: "Shut up! I know he’s your friend, but I don't care. You had to make your own way here on your own plane, didn’t you?"
  • Felicity Huffman. "I came in a limo tonight and the license plate was made by Felicity Huffman." He also zinged Huffman's husband, William H. Macy, saying Huffman going to jail in connection with the college admissions bribery scandal "must be the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened" to her daughter. "And her dad was in Wild Hogs."

  • "Woke" celebrities. Gervais mocked celebrities for lecturing about morals while working for big companies with dubious records, reports the Washington Post. "You say you’re woke but the companies you work for—Apple, Amazon, Disney—if ISIS started a streaming service, you would 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, right? You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything. You know nothing about the real world."
  • Leonardo DiCaprio. Targeting DiCaprio's reputation for dating younger women, Gervais quipped that the actor attended the premiere of Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, "and by the end, his date was too old for him. Even Prince Andrew's like, 'Come on, Leo, mate, you're nearly 50-something.'"
  • Hollywood execs and #MeToo. Gervais joked that the room was full of important TV and movie execs from all kinds of backgrounds, "but they all have one thing in common: they’re all terrified of Ronan Farrow. He’s coming for you. He's coming for you."
  • Martin Scorsese. Gervais poked fun at the Irishman director, though he agreed with his remarks about superhero movies being more like theme park rides than cinema. Scorsese "made the news for his comments about Marvel," said Gervais, per the Hollywood Reporter. "I agree. Although I don't know what he's doing hanging around theme parks. He's not big enough to go on the rides. He's tiny."
  • The Hollywood Foreign Press Association. "Many talented people of color were snubbed in major categories," Gervais said. "Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do about that: The Hollywood Foreign Press are all very, very racist."
  • Harvey Weinstein. The Independent reports that there were gasps after Gervais said. "Our next presenter starred in Netflix’s Bird Box, a movie where people survive by acting like they don’t see a thing—sort of like working for Harvey Weinstein." After the audience reaction, he added: "You did it! I didn’t—you did it!"
(More Golden Globes stories.)

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