Ricky Gervais Breaks Silence On Golden Globes Hosting Speculation

Ricky Gervais' reputation for stirring controversy as host of the annual Golden Globe Awards has become iconic. Helming the awards ceremony in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2016, and 2020, the unfiltered Gervais never fails to make waves for his brutal takedowns of Hollywood (including the attendees that night). Some of his famous targets, like Johnny Depp, take it well, while others, like Tom Hanks, have their shocked reactions immortalized in GIFs and memes.

Although the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) — which organizes the Globes — skipped a televised event in 2021, Gervais was never guaranteed to return as host anyway. After all, the comedian opened his 2020 monologue by quipping, "You'll be pleased to know that it's the last time I'm hosting these awards... I don't care anymore." Now that HFPA has signed a new deal, per Variety, for NBC to broadcast the 2023 ceremony — one pandemic and a diversity scandal later — could there be hope for more of Gervais? The "After Life" star recently spoke out on the possibility. 

Ricky Gervais is RSVPing N-O to hosting the 2023 Golden Globe Award ceremony. After noticing a fan's October 9 tweet asking others to "retweet if you wish [Gervais] would host the Golden Globes again in 2023," Gervais fired back,  "F**k that." This is hardly surprising, especially given Gervais' past comments about hosting the awards. "Do I pander to the 200 billionaires in the room or the 200 million people at home sitting in their [underwear] drinking beer who aren't winning awards, who aren't billionaires?" Gervais told The Guardian in 2021. Indeed, Gervais' approach as host has always been nihilistic toward the Hollywood crowd, spitting out epic quips seemingly derived from the minds of Average Joes. "I play to the other peasants in the mud," Gervais continued to The Guardian, adding that Hollywood gives him plenty of worse content he could have joked about. 

In fact, one reason the actor, writer and stand-up comedian has hosted the Globes five times and — but never the Oscars — is due to the lack of restrictions in the Globes' past. In January, the comedian acknowledged on NBC's "Today" that the Academy would never give him as much freedom. "I mean that's why the Globes got me," Gervais explained. "They said I could write my own jokes and say what I wanted, no rehearsals." 

Well... Tom Hanks is probably breathing a sigh of relief right now.