Golden Globes, Ricky Gervais, AVATAR, & A Few Other Buzzwords

Golden Globes night. I had just cracked open a cold bottle of Paulaner Hefe-Weizen, while recalling my grandfather’s now-legendary words of wisdom: “Just remember, you can’t drink it all – they’ll always make more.”

Even now, years later, I see no reason to attempt to prove him wrong.

I was primed for this awards ceremony, having seen Ricky Gervais several days prior on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, where the subject of his hosting the Globes was discussed briefly. More importantly, Gervais made it quite clear in his comments to Conan whose side he was on, and he doesn’t strike me as one to pull any punches. Gervais + Pro-Conan Stance + Hosting an awards show on NBC = a recipe for some potentially (unintentionally?) hilarious disaster.

I was in no way disappointed. Gervais made some comments that made me squirm in my seat and laugh nervously, repeatedly finding a welcome distraction in my wheaty beer (I would drink three bottles before the show finally ended). A small sampling of what I mean:

– In his opening bit, Gervais expressed his concern that NBC might suddenly replace him as the host of the awards, and put Leno in his place (adding at one point, “I’m not used to these sort of viewing figures … neither is NBC, for that matter”). This didn’t get unanimous laughter from the star-studded audience. Ricky, Ricky, Ricky… this is a Hollywood audience. Leno’s been around since before Jim Carrey was doing In Living Color, for cripe’s sake – he’s gotta have more than a few friends in this audience. Nervous laughter.

– The original creative power behind The Office, Gervais complained to the audience that everyone thinks Steve Carrell is the brilliant one, as evidenced by the fact that he gets all the movie deals. He referred to the American version of the show as having “jumped the shark” (literally, “Arthur Fonzarellied”), and promoted the British version of the show on DVD. More nervous laughter.

– Gervais spoke of having flown over on the same flight as Sir Paul McCartney (who was nominated for Best Original Song from a Motion Picture), noting that McCartney flew coach because he was “saving money… he spent an awful lot last year.” Jokes about divorce are rarely funny to the person who just experienced one. Still more nervous laughter.

– Before introducing Mel Gibson, Gervais walked on-stage with a beer, admitted to having “had a few”, then delivered the blow: “I like a drink as much as the next man… unless the next man is Mel Gibson.” Then he left the beer on the podium, thus setting up one of the night’s funnier moments, which came, not from the show itself, but from the Twitter stream: Ken Plume (@KenPlume) quipped, “Ricky even left the drink out for Mel. Now THAT’S a good host.”

Which brings me to my next point: I watched this entire event with my Twitter stream flowing, washing gently over me and keeping me informed, in 140-character quips, about what other people wanted to say about the show. It was like watching the whole thing with a room full of friends, who for some reason would only speak in short sentences, and only all at the same time. Oh well. At least I didn’t have to share my beer with them.

The whole live-tweet experience probably colored my perception of the awards show. There were a few genuinely funny moments in the show itself (see McCartney’s quip, “Animation is not just for children, it is also for a-dults who take drugs”), but most of the laughs that came from me, specifically (as opposed to “you”), were prompted by comments from the tweeple I follow. When Mickey Rourke walked on-stage in a too-large-to-be-taken-seriously cowboy hat, Ricky Gervais refused to poke fun at him (“mainly because he has arms as big as my legs”, he explained). Thankfully, Caissie St. Onge (@Caissie) was there to jab, “I love that Mickey Rourke declined to do banter of any kind. You’re not going to get wittier than that hat”, while Tim Siedell (@badbanana) noted, “Not sure Mickey Rourke knows someone put a hat on him as a joke.”

These were the golden moments of the Golden Globes. It gave me a great idea for future ceremonies: live-streaming Twitter feeds, running constantly on a jumbo-tron in the background. Wouldn’t that be awesome? We could sit in the comfort (read: safety) of our own homes and launch our stream-of-consciousness thoughts directly into the audience. I’m betting that would change a few things about the environment and atmosphere of those shows. Granted, Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) might have to stop tweeting during those events, but I consider that a net win, really.

It also made me wonder: in what other scenarios might this live-tweeting medium prove to be a major enhancement to the event currently being experienced? Sporting events? Movie premiers? Book readings at the local Tea Society? Papal Vespers?

I don’t know. But I think I’m close to discovering something big here. I’ll let you know when I figure out what it is.

(A quick BTW/PS: I know, this post was about the Golden Globes, and I didn’t say anything about which movies won which awards. It doesn’t really matter. Same amount of shockers, upsets, disappointments, complaints, victories, no-kiddings, and they-deserved-its as last year.)

–Jacob Michael

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