Ricky Gervais recalls upsetting Tim Allen with Golden Globes joke: “It’s a great joke”
Ricky Gervais has looked back at hosting the Golden Globes and revealed the one joke that upset Tim Allen.
In a new episode of The Romesh Ranganathan Show, Gervais reflected on his times hosting the Golden Globes on five occasions between 2010 and 2020.
On the backlash he received from the Hollywood stars in the room that were the butt of his jokes, Gervais admitted, “You know what, I didn’t meet many of them after.”
He elaborated, “There’s a couple that I found out after didn’t appreciate it much. I did a joke, right, I found out that Tom Hanks was hosting with Tim Allen, it’s a great joke, but it is a bit cruel.”
Gervais then revealed the joke in question that angered Allen which took place in 2011, sharing, “I go out there, ‘Our next two presenters, the first was in Forrest Gump, Philadelphia, listed all of his films like that… he has made over five billion at the box office,” before continuing to list the awards and achievements that Hanks has accumalated in his career.
Then, as the time came to introduce Allen, Gervais recalled telling the audience, “‘The second is Tim Allen.'”
Gervais then revealed that he saw Allen after the ceremony, who was not best pleased at being the punchline, remembering, “I met him afterwards, and said, ‘Listen, I said, the thing is Tim, who would win standing next to Tom Hanks?’ There clearly was bathos in that, right, but who couldn’t I do that with walking out with Tom Hanks?”
The Office co-creator did concede that he does understand why Allen reacted how he did, acknowledging, “He’s TV, sitcom, or whatever, but it wasn’t that bad, I do get it. It is embarrassing to be the butt of the joke, even against Tom Hanks. I didn’t have to do the joke, I can’t go, ‘I have to do the joke’.”
Gervais then explained that he didn’t set out at the Golden Globes to go out of his way to hurt people’s feelings “unless they’ve done something wrong”, and revealed that he even contacted people ahead of the event to get their blessing ahead of the ceremony.
He then provided an insight into his mindset going into hosting duties, noting, “I had to be an outsider to get away with it,” and said it would be “nauseating” for viewers if he stroked the egos of the Hollywood stars.
This year’s Golden Globes is set to take place on January 11th by Nikki Glaser for the second consecutive year.
Before last year’s ceremony, Glaser highlighted Gervais’ prior work as host, along with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, praising them for saying “exactly what we all didn’t know we desperately needed to hear.”
The big frontrunner in the film categories is One Battle After Another, which leads the pack with a massive nine nominations, including for ‘Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy’ and ‘Best Leading Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy’ for Leonardo DiCaprio.
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