Ricky Gervais has said he would have make jokes about the on-going sexual harassment allegations in Hollywood, had he been asked to host the Golden Globes this year.
The 2018 ceremony saw famous faces from across the industry come out in support of the Time’s Up movement by wearing black and delivering empowering speeches, but the British comic has said he wouldn’t have been able to resist making a gag about it.
Ricky, who has hosted the Golden Globes four times, added he believed more sensitive subjects make for better gags.
“I’m so close to death, I think, ‘What’s the worst that can happen?’” he said on ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’. “Someone being offended now is nothing. I go, ‘So what? I’m gonna die.’
“The more sensitive [the subject] the better. That’s the fun for me, talking about irreverent and sensitive and taboo subjects.”
He continued: “There’s nothing you shouldn’t joke about, there’s no subject you shouldn’t joke about. It depends on the actual joke and the target.
“People get offended when they mistake the subject of a joke for the actual target and they’re not necessarily the same.
“Some people are offended, fine. Just ’cos you’re offended doesn’t mean you’re right, some people are offended by equality. (Donald Trump), he’s offended by equality.”
Ricky’s comments came despite the fact just week’s earlier he claimed he “wouldn’t have been brave enough” to say one of the jokes he’d thought of if he had hosted the awards show.
Fellow comedian James Corden previously came under fire when he made a series of Harvey Weinstein jokes while hosting a charity gala back in October.
After increasing pressure, he later issued an apology, saying: “To be clear, sexual assault is no laughing matter.
“I was not trying to make light of Harvey’s inexcusable behavior but to shame him, the abuser, not the victims. I am truly sorry for anyone offended, that was never my intention.”