“Listen, if you do win tonight, remember that no one cares about that award as much as you do, ok? Don’t get emotional. It’s embarrassing. That award is, no offense, worthless. It’s a bit of metal that some nice confused journalists wanted to give you in person so they could meet you and have a selfie with you.” Within the first few minutes of the 73rd Annual Golden Globes, four-time host Ricky Gervais established an “I could not care less and neither should you” attitude while sipping his beer that set the stage for the show. For those who are unfamiliar with the British comedian, these words may seem harsh, but any viewer who has tuned in to this award show in years past would expect nothing less from Gervais than a verbal attack on the ways of Hollywood and the show itself.
It was also hardly a surprise when Gervais made it clear that he saw no controversial subject as untouchable. Jokes he made included the alleged crimes of Bill Cosby, the gender transition of Caitlyn Jenner, and the Hollywood gender wage gap. After his monologue, subsequent comments were heavily muted and censored, whether it be due to inappropriate language too vulgar for a 8 o’clock time slot or attacks on controversial topics. The atmosphere set by Gervais was carried throughout the whole night. The celebrities who presented awards took note of the carefree direction the show was headed in and took advantage of the comedic freedom that it gave.
The host was not the only one whose words were heavily censored; many of the weirder and more memorable jokes were quickly censored by NBC. Channing Tatum was the first to present an award and began by apologizing for not being accompanied by Jonah Hill, who was sick. Viewers did not need to mourn for long, for Tatum welcomed on stage the bear from the film “The Revenant” alongside Leonardo DiCaprio. Viewers were quick to notice that this ‘bear’ shared a striking resemblance to Jonah Hill in a costume. The bear then proceeded to thank the director for giving a small-town bear a chance and how wonderful his co-star Leo DiCaprio was to work with. However, the next 40 seconds of his speech were bleeped out. Judging by the completely unhappy look on actress Jane Fonda’s face when a camera cut to her, it can be inferred that the censored section was a raunchy joke typical of Jonah Hill’s humor.
Channing and Jonah were not the only ones making jokes, The hilarious new celebrity duo that everyone fell for this year, Amy Schumer and Jennifer Lawrence, took advantage of the comedic atmosphere when they went up to present short clips of Lawrence’s new film “Joy” and Schumer’s successful comedy “Trainwreck,” both of which were nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. The two proceeded to call out a member of the audience using their cell phone and humorously quipped that no more pictures be taken of them even though it may be hard to resist. By the end of their spiel, Schumer had dubbed herself with several new nicknames, including “A-Schu”, “Amy Hemsworth”, “Amy Tom Hardy”, and some that were unrecognizable as they had to be censored.
In one of the more serious moments of the night, a major award was given. This year, Denzel Washington was bestowed with the honor of the Cecil B. DeMille Award presented to him by his old co-star, Tom Hanks. Hanks gave a speech that concluded with a heartfelt movie clip montage consisting of all the great film accomplishments of Washington throughout his career. The iconic actor stepped on stage with his whole family to find out that after searching through his coat pockets, he had lost his acceptance speech and then after finding it, noticed he had left his glasses at the table and could not make out what he had written. He then gave up all together on the speech and simply said “thank you!” When watching his speech, viewers could almost feel second-hand embarrassment gitters. Although the incident was awkward, it was refreshing to see that Washington’s entire family stood behind him and he simply ended with a thank you.
This year’s Globes most definitely live up to their reputation of not being too serious, as a result of the crude humor and commentary from the host, presenters and winners. The Golden Globes created a feeling that NBC seemed to put all the nominees in the same room together and allowed them to freely run it, which supplied an “anything could happen” atmosphere. Celebrities took advantage of this freedom to make jokes and poke fun at those around them and this resulted in a night full of memorable moments and laughs. With that being said, the 73rd Annual Golden Globes were a hilarious way to begin this year’s award season.
