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Ricky Gervais Brutally Mocks Oscars Celebs’ ‘Inspirational Speeches’ in Pair of Viral Tweets

By Pluralist / February 10, 2020


Ahead of the Oscars on Sunday, Ricky Gervais delivered an encore performance of his takedown of Hollywood liberals at last month’s Golden Globes. 

Gervais, an English comedian and actor, did not host the Academy Awards — nobody did. But he responded to a Twitter user’s question about how he would have opened the prestigious awards show by sharing a pair of scathing one-liners.

Apparently undaunted by the backlash to his performance as Golden Globes host, Gervais mocked the Oscars attendees for what he implied was their empty rhetoric about social justice.

In the first tweet, Gervais joked that he couldn’t wait to hear all the award winners’ “inspirational speeches about equality” before suggesting that they mistreat their “migrant house staff.”

Minutes later, Gervais ripped the crowd for featuring such a “diversity” of wealthy “sex pests,” which is British slang for sexual harassers.

The posts have since been liked and retweeted tens of thousands of times.

Ricky Gervais Oscars tweets vs. the original

Gervais, who co-created the British TV series “The Office,” was similarly ruthless to celebrities’ faces during his fifth turn as host of the Golden Globes. After a series of jokes about sexual misconduct and racism in the entertainment industry, Gervais directly accused the assembled stars of self-righteous hypocrisy.

“Well, you say you’re woke, but the companies you work for … unbelievable,” he said. “Apple, Amazon, Disney. If ISIS started a streaming service, you would call your agent, wouldn’t you?”

As the audience laughed nervously, Gervais offered some harsh advice to the nominees, whom he unfavorably compared to teen climate activist Greta Thunberg.

“So if you do win an award tonight, don’t use it as a platform to make a political speech, right?” he said. “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.”

Gervais signed off for what he said would be the final time by saying: “Get drunk. Take your drugs. F— off.”

The monologue instantly made Gervais a conservative hero while earning him criticism from liberals on social media and in the press.

In the room, meanwhile, TV images of famous actors and directors looking uncomfortable suggested Gervais had won few friends. And many of the award winners ignored his advice against lecturing and delivered sermons on the virtues of abortion and the evils of climate change.

Oscars so politically correct

By contrast, Sunday’s Oscars stuck to the politically correct script from the start.

Former hosts Oscars Steve Martin and Chris Rock, who made a surprise joint appearance in lieu of an official MC, delivered a string of barbed jokes about the lack of female directors and people of color among the nominees.

“I thought there was something missing this year,” said Martin.

“Vaginas?” quipped Rock, to loud applause.

Rock pointed out Cynthia Erivo, who played slavery-era freedom fighter Harriet Tubman in “Harriet” and who was the only actor of color nominated this year.

“Cynthia did such a great job hiding black people that the academy got her to hide all the black nominees,” he said.

In one of the night’s liberal-themed acceptance speeches, Brad Pitt took a shot at Republicans’ handling of President Donald Trump’s impeachment while retrieving his first-ever Oscar for best supporting actor. He won for his performance in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”

“They told me I only have 45 seconds up here, which is 45 seconds more than the Senate gave John Bolton this week,” he said, referring to the Republican-controlled Senate’s vote not to allow witnesses, including the former national security adviser, in the impeachment trial. “I’m thinking maybe Quentin does a movie about it. In the end, the adults do the right thing.”

Trump was acquitted as expected in his impeachment trial by the Senate on Wednesday.

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Pluralist

Andrew Tobin is Pluralist’s Editor-in-chief.

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