Awards season is around the corner and that means once again we are in for an onslaught of tired, annoying, or straight-up bizarre hiring choices for the prestigious role of the master of ceremonies.
Yes, you guessed it. The Hollywood Foreign Press has decided to once again hire Ricky Gervais to host the 77th annual Golden Globes in January 2020. We had a few brief and glorious respites over the years: the golden age of Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, Seth Meyers, even the strange pairing of Andy Samberg and Sandra Oh. But alas, for 2020 the Hollywood Foreign Press decided to revive the smug, hacky corpse of Ricky Gervais for the fifth (and supposedly last) time.
When asked about why he accepted the role once again he said “they’ve made me an offer I can’t refuse” and then added with just a hint of threat, “But this is the very last time I’m doing this… which could make for a fun evening.” Translation: his latest show After Life hasn’t been a huge success in the United States, and they are offering him bags of cash to be mean to celebrities once again!
And this leaves me feeling so very … tired. At the risk of beating the now-dead horse of the “cancel culture vs consequence culture” debate, let me just remind everyone of Gervais’ last comedy special for Netflix—“Humanity.” Essentially, Netflix paid Gervais $40 million for him to: misgender and deadname Caitlyn Jenner, and to make the same transphobic (and extremely boring) joke about how this means that he can identify as chimp if he wants to (essentially comparing trans people to monkeys, A+ work there). Seriously. $40 million dollars to make the same tired old joke that every boomer-aged, right-wing comedian makes on their morning radio talk show about how if trans people have rights that means that they can identify as an airplane or whatever. But sure, give him more money and another large platform, that will teach him!
It’s truly depressing to learn that Ricky Gervais has actually been his Office character David Brent all along. And while I’m not advocating for him to never work again (though with the millions and millions of dollars in his bank account he can certainly afford to retire), I have a big problem with networks continuing to give him access to a large audience and an even larger paycheck.
I strongly doubt there were no other good hosting options available. What if, instead of giving their platform to a notorious (and unfunny) transphobe, they made history by hiring their first trans host? Laverne Cox would KILL it! MJ Rodriguez is currently performing as Audrey in a critically acclaimed, sold-out run of Little Shop of Horrors in Los Angeles! Shit, call up Peppermint, or Jinkx Monsoon (who is non-binary) from RuPaul’s Drag Race!
Dear Hollywood Foreign Press, do better.
(Photo: Paul Drinkwater/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
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