In recent years, the Golden Globes have been picking up steam as a less stuffy, less predictable awards show than most others. From the marvelous hosting of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler for the past three years to glorious little moments like Emma Thompson tossing her shoes in the air, the Globes were starting to get a little bit of air under them — a fun diversion during awards season.
It was not to remain so. Sunday night, Ricky Gervais, who hosted the three ceremonies before the Fey/Poehler years, returned. What distinguished Gervais’ previous appearances was the attempt to position him as a dangerous, rebellious, take-no-prisoners host — a tough sell when he was making jokes about things like Hugh Hefner being really old. But for the most part, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (which gives out these awards) has successfully sold the narrative of Gervais as fearless provocateur, and from the minute he stepped on stage Sunday, it was clear he was going to ride that horse as far as it would take him.
His early targets included Caitlyn Jenner (one joke about her car accident followed one that was basically just “transgender people, right?”), Jeffrey Tambor for playing a transgender woman, NBC for having no nominations (true, but there are far more daring things to say about network TV than that NBC didn’t get nominated for any Golden Globes), and the Globes themselves, which he ribbed with a tamer version of a joke he made years ago about how the awards are all bought and paid for. It’s a joke that doesn’t feel particularly daring since he’s basically already made it and been invited back. They clearly don’t mind and he’s already said the same thing years ago, so where’s the risk?
Unfortunately, Gervais’ weak monologue was followed by a weird appearance by Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill, who — OK, look. The whole reputation of the Globes is that everybody is bombed the entire time. Either bombed in practice or in spirit — that’s part of the charm. And I would never comment on who is bombed and who is not as a matter of science, but I can say that Hill, wearing a bear head, threw himself into the bombed feeling of the ceremony in the “some drunk people are hostile and nonsensical” fashion rather than the more enjoyable “some drunk people burble delightfully with enthusiasm” fashion. Whether he was actually bombed or not, you see.