Ricky Gervais has hosted the Golden Globes five times, making Hollywood sweat with his take-no-prisoners approach to jokes mocking showbiz.
In his new Netflix stand-up special “Mortality,” which was released Tuesday, the comedian reveals that while the awards ceremony never nixed any of his material, he actually scratched one joke himself. He then proceeded to share it near the end of his special.
“I said earlier, I’ve never had a joke stopped by the Golden Globes, and that is absolutely true,” Gervais said. “But I’ve just remembered the joke that I stopped myself, ’cause I bottled it a bit, and I think I was being over-cautious. I want to share it with you. So I’ve got the chance to introduce Jason Momoa. So I thought the meta joke would be to show my hypocrisy and my cowardice. I’m OK to slag off actors — who’s scared of actors? — but when it comes to a big dude, right, I’m not so brave.
“So I was going to go, ‘I’ve got nothing bad to say about our next presenter, because he’s got a cock like a baby’s arm,’ right?” he continued. “And I told my mate I was gonna do that, and my mate went, ‘Do you think people will think that’s racist?’ I was like, ‘Why is it racist?’ ‘Well, because he’s a person of color.’ And I went, ‘No, it’s nothing to do with that. It’s to do with the fact that he’s so big that he’d probably have a cock like a baby’s arm, right?’ So I didn’t do it. And I had a great follow-up, so I’ll tell you the whole thing. This is the whole thing. What I was gonna do: I’ll go out and go, ‘I’ve got nothing bad to say about our next presenter, because he’s got a cock like a baby’s arm — unlike Peter Dinklage, who’s got an arm like a baby’s cock.’”
Nikki Glaser is set to host this year’s Golden Globes for the second consecutive time. The ceremony takes place on Jan. 11.
Variety parent company PMC owns Dick Clark Prods. in a joint venture with Eldridge.
From Variety US
Love Film & TV?
Get your daily dose of everything happening in music, film and TV in Australia and abroad.
