How Ricky Gervais' Golden Globes monologue divided the world

It always promised to spark some sort of outsized outrage, and Ricky Gervais – frequent beacon of the PC-baiting, truth-'splaining eggheads of Twitter trolldom – did just that with his Golden Globes monologue on Monday.

It wasn't the rim-shot on Leonardo DiCaprio's dating history that did it ("Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, three hours long. Leonardo DiCaprio attended the premiere and by the end of it his date was too old for him.") Or the goofy gag about acting's standing in today's Marvel-led landscape ("Have we got an award for most ripped junkie?") but a more sinister stab at Hollywood piety.

Ricky Gervais' hosting gig at the Golden Globes has led to furious debate.Credit: AP

"Apple roared into the TV game with The Morning Show, a superb drama about the importance of dignity and doing the right thing, made by a company that runs sweatshops in China," Gervais said to a smattering of gasps. "You say you're woke, but the companies you work for, I mean, unbelievable: Apple, Amazon, Disney. If ISIS started a streaming service you'd call your agent, wouldn't ya?"

He continued: "So if you do win an award tonight, don't use it as a platform to make a political speech, right? You're in no position to lecture the public about anything. You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg. So, if you win, come up, accept your little award, thank your agent and your god, and f--k off."

Of course, everyone loves a celebrity roast. It takes some sort of nihilistic guile to mock the shiny and revered right to their plastic faces – but it's not real. That's why Don Rickles died in his Beverly Hills home at 90 rather than being blasted in the face by mobsters on a Las Vegas casino stage in the 1960s.

Gervais explained as much in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter last weekend ahead of the hosting gig. "I try and play the outsider," he told the publication. "I've got to be the bloke sitting at home who shouldn't have been invited. That's who I've got to be."

The stars in the room seemed to get the act, as few paid heed to Gervais' dog-whistling antics. Here's a guy self-righteously telling a room to shut up and jog on, and one by one they ignore him. Sounds like an episode of The Office.

Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett were the first to use broadcast time to make an urgent call for climate action, highlighting Australia's bushfire crisis; Patricia Arquette reminded everyone the world was "on the brink of war" and urged her fellow Americans to vote for change in 2020; a pregnant Michelle Williams spoke in support of abortion rights; and Joaquin Phoenix mumbled something about ditching "private jets to Palm Springs".

Unfortunately, by the following morning Gervais' arch posturing had been lost on the peanut gallery, his act sparking the viral hashtag #HollywoodHypocrites and drawing praise from potatoes like Piers Morgan, who suggested the comedian "delivered a glorious kick in the globes to Hollywood's woke, virtue-signalling hypocrites". That's funny, I just watched The Invention of Lying on iTunes (not really, I would never do that, but it's there); I guess Gervais' own Apple royalties get laundered through puppy orphanages before they get to him?

I find it harder than many to take Gervais' Globes act seriously, but those who do should feel duped. It's almost a parody of Donald Trump's approach, extolling himself as an outsider among Hollywood's elites while being one and the same (the US version of The Office, of which Gervais is an executive producer, is worth $US500 million, for example). Dimwits buy the facade, or opportunistically latch on as a way to further their attacks on progressive views. In the end, we're all still arguing about an awards show monologue a week later.

To borrow another line from Gervais' own hosting gig, "Kill me." (Maybe after February, I'm looking forward to the no-host Oscars.)