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Ricky Gervais' third stint as Golden Globes host slated by critics
Funnyman went after easy targets at 2012 show and was slammed for being too tame
It was third time unlucky for Ricky Gervais, whose latest stint hosting the Golden Globes was slated by critics.
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Much of the build up to this year’s awards saw Gervais promise to be even more risqué than last year, when he skewered various a-list stars including Johhny Depp at the ceremony.
This year however he went after easier targets such as Kim Kardashian, joking: "The Globes are to the Oscars what Kim Kardashian is to Kate Middleton. A bit louder, a bit trashier, a bit drunker and more easily bought. Allegedly."
He also directed gentle barbs at Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, and exchanged some banter with Colin Firth (he jokingly called him "racist"). Critics weren’t impressed by the tame material.
Robbie Collin in The Telegraph said his performance “fell flat”. “This year, with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association presumably desperate for him to repeat the same trick, his most vicious lines were aimed at a handful of easy targets who were safely out of earshot.”
The Guardian reckoned Gervais seemed “muzzled” and that the show was “pretty muted and boring. Gervais didn't live up to the dangerous image he'd built up in previous years.”
Hitfix said: “Gervais seemed reluctant to go for the jugular the way he did in 2011… It was oddly reminiscent of his first time hosting the show, when he seemed nervous and unsure of just how far he could go.”
The LA Times thought Gervais was “markedly respectful and restrained… leaving one to wonder why he bothered to take the gig at all (except for the money, of course).”
According to the Huffington Post, “if Gervais doesn't get invited back in 2013, it might be because he was so boring Sunday night”. They said his “performance as host was decidedly anti-climactic and underwhelming.”
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The worst criticism came from the Deadline blog, written by notoriously acerbic columnist Nikki Finke. During her ‘live-snark’ of the show, she wrote: “[Gervais] has obviously been muzzled or muzzled himself. What a sell-out…. This is the best Gervais can do to open the show? Incredibly stale stuff. It’s going to be a loooong night…” After the show, she concluded: “Gervais didn’t kill at the Golden Globes. He was killed by it. He went from supervillain to eunuch in the space of one year. Tonight Hollywood got its revenge by ruining his career…”
Did you see the show? What did you think of Gervais’ gags? Let us know in the comments below.
