Culture

Ricky Gervais’ Golden Globes Monologue Made Everyone Extremely Uncomfortable

Sure you were uncomfortable, but were you Tom Hanks uncomfortable?

by Michelle Rennex  6 January 2020
Tom Hanks Uncomfortable Ricky Gervais Golden Globes

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

We all knew that Ricky Gervais hosting another award show was going to yield some interesting results.

And for the 2020 Golden Globes, Ricky Gervais, in true Gervais style, didn’t hold back. On a mission to make every celebrity in that tightly-packed room uncomfortable as possible, Ricky Gervais fired shot after shot in his opening monologue.

Touching on Leonardo DiCaprio’s history of dating younger women, Felicity Huffman’s prison stint, and everything about the film that is Cats, Ricky ended his speech by getting political, of course. “So if you do win an award tonight, don’t use it as a political platform to make a political speech,” he said. “You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything, you know nothing about the real world.”

Understandably, whenever the camera panned over to the celebs reacting in the audience, they all looked uncomfortable to say the least. But no one looked as uncomfortable as Tom Hanks, who’s grimace summed up all our thoughts towards Ricky Gervais and his style of humour.

But Tom Hanks wasn’t the only celebrity in the audience who was caught trying to hide their discomfort with the jokes dotted throughout Ricky Gervais’ monologue. Almost every pan to the crowd revealed a new face of an celebrity unimpressed with what was unfolding before them.

Whether the reactions stemmed from an unease with the type of comedy being shared or from a fear that they may be the next butt of the joke, it’s safe to say that the energy in the room was awkward. This tension was even felt through the screen, with people at home even noticing the shift in Ricky’s demeanour after his monologue, suggesting he may have been told to tone it down a little.

Later in the show, while introducing the Best Director category, Ricky decided to address the lack of nominated female directors.

The opportunity was a perfect chance for Ricky Gervais to highlight the problems with the male-dominated category, but he instead chose to poke fun at women with a joke that fell flat. Ricky claimed that the lack of nomination wouldn’t be a problem if we went back to when they weren’t hired at all.

Unsurprisingly, the audience did not laugh.

As the show continues, there’s no telling what might come out of Ricky’s mouth next. But one thing’s for sure: No celebrity is safe.