In his fifth gig as the host of the Golden Globes, Ricky Gervais didn't shy away from touching upon hot topics like #MeToo, 2019 college admissions scandal involving Felicity Huffman, Martin Scorsese's Marvel comments and the lack of diversity in Hollywood.
The British "Office" creator began his opening remarks by promising that this would be his last time hosting.
"So I don't care anymore. I'm joking, I never did. I mean, Kevin Hart was fired from the Oscars for some offensive tweets hello?... Remember, they're just jokes, we're all going to die soon. And there's no sequel. ," he said reminding the room full of Hollywood A-listers about his own controversy where many on social media had called him out for being trans-phobic over some of his tweets.
Gervais then quipped that he arrived to the ceremony in a limo with a license plate "made by Felicity Huffman" -- a jibe at Huffman's recent prison stint for her involvement in the college admissions scandal.
He made a swift shift to #MeToo reference as he welcomed the top film and TV executives from the industry.
"In this room are some of the most important TV and film executives in the world. People from every background. They all have one thing in common: They're all terrified of Ronan Farrow. He's coming for ya. Talking of all you perverts, it was a big year for pedophile movies. "Surviving R Kelly", "Leaving Neverland", "Two Popes". Shut up. Shut up. I don't care. I don't care," he said.
After a few digs at William H Macy and Joe Pesci, who he referred to as Baby Yoda, he moved onto the lack of diversity among the nominees at the 77th Golden Globe Awards.
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"Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about that. The Hollywood Foreign Press are all very, very racist. We were going to do an In-Memoriam this year, but when I saw the list of people who died, it wasn't diverse enough. No, it was mostly white people and I thought, nah, not on my watch. Maybe next year," he joked.
Criticising the trend of sequels and remakes, Gervais said the lack of original content in cinema has led to all the best actors joining Netflix and HBO.
"And the actors who just do Hollywood movies now do fantasy-adventure nonsense. They wear masks and capes and really tight costumes. Their job isn't acting anymore. It's going to the gym twice a day and taking steroids, really. Have we got an award for most ripped junky? No point, we'd know who'd win that," he said adding that he agrees with Scorsese's "theme park" remark on Marvel movies.
However, he didn't let the moment slip and joked about the veteran filmmaker's "tiny" height and his "long" film "The Irishman".
"It wasn't the only epic movie. 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood', nearly three hours long. Leonardo DiCaprio attended the premiere and by the end his date was too old for him. Even Prince Andrew was like, Come on, Leo, mate. You're nearly 50-something," he added leaving the crowd in splits, including DiCaprio.
Gervais ended his monologue by asking the stars at the ceremony to not use the platform to make a political speech.
"If you do win an award tonight, don't use it as a political platform to make a political speech. 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*** off. OK?"