I went to the Doctor’s on Monday to get an update on the shoulder (I start therapy later this month, looks like Surgery is off the table for the moment) and something amazing took place as I entered the x-ray room.
The x-ray tech was talking about the golden globes.
Now if you are my age you are old enough to remember when the award shows of Hollywood were a big deal, who can forget that moment when John Wayne finally won an Oscar.
But this century, and particularly over the last decade as Hollywood has become more disdainful of the people who actually buy the tickets interest has dropped to the point where absolutely nobody cares and so politically correct that a ten year old tweet can doom a promising comic.
Then came Ricky Gervais who came on the air Sunday to host the golden globes and gave an opening monologue for the ages.
I’m writing this post at 2:24 PM on Monday afternoon and as of this moment this video has over 2.3 MILLION views.
As you might guess this monologue didn’t please Hollywood, the response of Lorraine Ali of the LA times (via the Washington Examiner) was typical:
Well, you say you’re woke, but the companies you work for in China — unbelievable. Apple, Amazon, Disney. If ISIS started a streaming service you’d call your agent, wouldn’t you?”
The commentary would have meant far more if Gervais himself had been brave enough to drop the tired agitator shtick and, for once, read the room.
In that critical moment Lorraine Ali revealed that she did not know who the room was.
Lorraine Ali thought his “room” was the assembled talented but self righteous celebrities who gain their wealth and influence by pretending to be what they’re not for the pleasure of the people who actually build and do the things to keep the world going. But that was not his room, nor is it the room of any TV host as I explained the next morning on twitter
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshe was hosting a TV show, his room is the base of potential viewers & he read that room perfectly
— Peter Ingemi (@DaTechGuyblog) January 6, 2020
his job was not only to keep the eyeballs he had, but to get people talking so more would tune in to see what he would say next.
Mission acomplished@rickygervais #GoldenGIobes
For the first time in decades people are talking about the golden globes both the night of the golden globes and the next day and while I don’t know if the ratings improved as the night went on I suspect more than a few people tuned or streamed in to see if Gervias had more to say, he did:
And in fact in a post show poll over 71% wanted to see him come back next year.
Golden Globes viewers have spoken, and they want Ricky Gervais to host “every year.” A whopping 71% of fans who voted in our recent poll said he did an “amazing” job overseeing the 77th ceremony on NBC. To compare, 9% thought he was “good, but forgettable” while the remaining 20% of haters voted that he was “awful.”
The funniest reaction came from this fellow:
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsThe fake self-flagellating “let’s have Gervais ‘roast’ people LOL” thing has turned into THE grossest faux-populist spectacle outside The Razzies (and Razzies are shit.)
— Bob Chipman (@the_moviebob) January 6, 2020
Posh Brit reheating leftover 4chan dunks on marginalized people whose wealth is supposed to make it “okay”
because NOBODY is more marginalized that Hollywood actors.
Now don’t let anyone be fooled, Gervais is a man of the left, he remains such a man but he was hired to do a job and part of that job is to produce buzz for this show.
If I’m NBC I would have make sure people were talking about if the would be signed next year and then with a month or two before the event sign him and watch the buzz begin and the ratings sour.
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