Why Do We Have to Be Nice to Celebrities?
By now, you've probably heard more than enough debate about Ricky Gervais' controversial hosting gig at last night's Golden Globes. Why was it controversial? Apparently because he was mean, which is never ever allowed when you're dealing with Hollywood stars. Never ever ever. Of course, the whole thing comes down to what you consider funny, which is very subjective, so instead we'd like to focus on a larger question about celebrities and award shows: Who decided that you couldn't poke fun of them to their face?
We finally watched Gervais' performance on Sunday's show, and we have to admit we're a bit perplexed. Maybe it's because our style of humor is more Letterman than Leno, Louis CK than Paula Poundstone, but we don't quite see what was so beyond the pale about his bits. Yeah, Mel-Gibson-hates-Jews jokes are pretty stale these days, but other than the gags about Hugh Hefner and the aged president of the Hollywood Foreign Press, it wasn't anything approaching offensiveness. Really, his main crime seems to be that he dared mock the vanities and vices of celebrities that are usually airbrushed over, especially during awards season.
We're of two minds about this. One is that programs like TMZ, whose entire existence is based around butting into the lives of the famous and trying to make them seem stupid, are truly evil and disgusting. We know that celebrities are just like us, but we find it sorta gross when the TMZs of the world go out of their way to simply embarrass people. But at the same time, we get really tired of the hushed reverence stars are given on shows like "Inside the Actors Studio" or even "The Charlie Rose Show." (We love you, Rose, but, lordy, do you swoon when you're smitten by a performer.)
In retrospect, the big "mistake" Gervais made was not being fully embraced by Hollywood before doing his routine. Still seen as an outsider -- his movies have tanked in the U.S., if they're even released at all -- he never gives off a vibe of being part of the community he's roasting. So people resent it.
Watching him on the Globes -- and seeing how people like Tom Hanks seemed so annoyed by him -- we thought back to when Chris Rock hosted the 2005 Oscars. It was the same situation: The Academy hired him because he was edgy, and then they were shocked that he ended up being edgy, joking about lifetime honoree Elia Kazan's past consorting with the House Un-American Activities Committee and the fact that Jude Law was in every movie. Nose bent out of shape, Sean Penn stepped up later in the program to tell off Rock and defend his buddy Law. But rather than putting Rock in his place, Penn just made himself seem humorless.
That's the way we felt while watching Hanks and Tim Allen act superior to Gervais last night. You can find Gervais not funny, but to act as if he's somehow broken the celebrity rules by making fun of the powerful is simply stupid. We don't have to be callous in our treatment of stars, but they needn't be treated like demigods either. Gervais probably didn't make a lot of friends in the room last night, but his irreverence was a nice countermeasure to the silly season's endless self-congratulation.
Watch Ricky Gervais Blast HFPA at the Golden Globes (video) [The Wrap]
