Independent Op-Ed Grovels to Hollywood in Response to Ricky Gervais

We’ve already talked about Ricky Gervais’s opening monologue at the Golden Globes, because it was awesome and hilarious and if you haven’t watched it yet, 10/10 would recommend. ICYMI:

https://twitter.com/jason_howerton/status/1214006658122309632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1214006658122309632&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fchicksonright.com%2Fblog%2F2020%2F01%2F05%2Fricky-gervais-absolutely-blasted-hollywood-in-his-monologue-at-the-globes-and-i-am-here-for-it%2F

But, predictably, not everyone was as delighted by Gervais’s brutal wit at the expense of most, if not all, of the people in the room, plus a bunch of people outside of it. The Independent’s Jo Murch is one such person.

In an op-ed about the speech, she writes,

Once upon a time, Hollywood was synonymous with elegance and class but Gervais’ tirade of nasty and smutty jokes proved that tabloid culture has leaked its way into even the highest tier of entertainment. Call me a prude but a joke about Judi Dench “licking her ass” hardly screams high society.

If there’s a place for cheap humour, it’s at Friday night work drinks after one too many, an episode of South Park or in a best man’s risqué speech. It’s certainly not on the stage that birthed the #MeToo movement, one that should respect its power for mass influence.

Right, it’s Ricky Gervais’s fault that Hollywood has become a den of iniquity. “Smutty jokes” and “tabloid culture” are what tarnished its “elegance and class,” not things like, you know, SEXUAL PREDATORS AND PEDOPHILES. Pick a lane, lady. Was #MeToo respectable and influential or did it address the lack of elegance and complete classlessness of Hollywood??

Make the headlines about the fashion, the acting, the fact that for the first time ever an Asian-American actress won the Best Actress award – Awkwafina for her role in The Farewell. I want to look up to anything that has at least a little craftmanship to it, so that Hollywood feels above me with its otherworldly talent.

I want to be shocked by progress not scandal. Provocative words are easy and cheap and being an actor, a comedian, a director, a writer or any job affiliated with the industry should be neither. Gervais’s f**k it attitude, announcing several times that he didn’t care what anyone thought of him, should be aspirational of Big Brother contestants not A-list comedians.

Oh, brother.

Listen Jo, I don’t know how to tell you this, but if you want to celebrate art and craftsmanship, you’re better off going, oh, I don’t know, just about anywhere besides the Golden Globes. Honestly, I’m not even convinced anyone truly holds this opinion of Hollywood. I think people were just butt hurt that their celebrity heroes were picked on and had to come up with a loftier reason for their grumbling because “oNlY cOnsErvAtIVe sNoWfLakEs aRe paRtISaN wItH hUMoR.”

Now, just for funsies, let’s flash backward to another op-ed from the same publication, this one from April 2018. This one is about the last White House Correspondents’ Dinner and Michelle Wolf’s infamous speech. Let’s see what the Independent had to say back then:

[wolf] didn’t pull her punches, but why should she have? Does Trump  – who Huckabee Sanders spends her day speaking on behalf of – ever pause to consider the feelings of those he rips into?

I’ll admit I found parts of the speech hard to watch. I squirmed at a graphic joke about abortion – and I’m staunchly pro-choice – and for me, some of the barbs fell flat. Insult slinging generally isn’t my bag. Does that mean I think Wolf should have spared Huckabee Sanders and her colleagues? Absolutely and unequivocally not. Political satire is meant to make us squirm. Comedy isn’t just about generating laughs, it’s about cutting to uncomfortable truths and challenging our view of the world.

That’s right, folks. Michelle Wolf’s monologue– which the second author ADMITS wasn’t even well-written comedy– is comedy that “cuts to uncomfortable truths.” Meanwhile, Gervais’s jokes about pedophilia in Hollywood, which I would contend is a VERY prevalent and uncomfortable truth, made him into “an idiotic clapping monkey.” Maybe I’m crazy, but it seems to me like there could be some sort of double standard here.

Oh, and the best part? That piece about Michelle Wolf’s beautiful and brave monologue is called “Criticism of Michelle Wolf’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech shows we still hold female comedians to different standards.” Because sexism, get it?

I guess criticism of Ricky Gervais’s speech shows us is that those standards don’t have nearly as much to do with sex as they do politics.