Ricky Gervais To Host The Golden Globes For The Last Time (So He Says)

Ricky Gervais is one of the funniest guys on the planet. Together with Stephen Merchant he invented the postmodern sitcom with the British version of 'The Office' and took the form to new heights in 'Extras.' To give you some idea how far his comedy reach is, 'The Office' has now been sold to more than 80 countries.

For the second year in a row Gervais will host 'The Golden Globes' on NBC, his performance last year made headlines as he skewered everyone and everything from the Golden Globes themselves ("One thing that can't be bought is a Golden Globe. Officially.") to Mel Gibson ("Honestly, I like a drink as much as the next man... unless the next man is Mel Gibson.").

This year’s show will again be broadcast live coast-to-coast on Sunday, January 16, 2011 airing 5-8 p.m. (PT) and 8-11 p.m. (ET) from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.

“As viewers discovered with our last awards telecast, Ricky’s surprising and unpredictable humor is a great fit for the Globes which will continue as a live event across the nation," said Paul Telegdy, Executive VP of Alternative Programming for NBC. “He’s a true force of nature with a wicked sense of humor who always keeps everyone on their toes waiting for the unexpected."

No wonder NBC is hot on the British comic auteur, the January 17, 2010 broadcast of 'The Golden Globes' delivered the network’s largest non-sports viewership in that time period in six years.

If the conference call that the network set up for the press with Ricky Gervais on December 8th is any indication 'The 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards' is going to be one seriously raucous affair.

Still, no matter what, this will be his last run at hosting 'The Golden Globes.'

"Well the truth is I’m not a host. I’m not a presenter. I don’t think I should be doing it at all. I do these things for fun. I don’t even count these things as part of my career really. Well there’s loads of things I do that I don’t count as part of my career, you know. I think the things that I’m - I think are more time lesson that I portray is in the beginning. I’d have had to invented the concept of award ceremonies to be as excited about them as I am about doing The Office or Extras or, you know, whatever.

"But I suppose I want this to be great and go out on a high. I think you’ve always got to think that you’re going to do a good job and it’s going to be fun and - because you’re in control. And if you’re in control and it turns out exactly as you wanted it to, then you’ve got no one else to please really and I always try and - I want to do things that I’m pleased with. And so if I’m bad, I shouldn’t do it again; and if I’m good, I shouldn’t do it again. So that’s the thinking really."

Gervais expressed his desire not to end up just another comic, he wanted to be a person's favorite comedian; create a person's favorite show not just another popular sitcom. "The point of art is to make a connection with someone else, another human being that you may never meet or whatever, but I think the size of that connection with the individual is important. And I think you do that by being true to yourself. And if you’re true to yourself you are different to everyone else and I think you won’t be homogenized and watered down and, you know, like ten other acts.

"So and I did - I suppose I did have a revelation this time around that I did sort of think this is a privilege. I mean with stand-up it was the fourth or fifth thing I did. You know, I mean in my list of things that I consider myself, a stand-up was probably fourth, you know, and now I think it’s great. I love the fact that it’s outside the novel or something, it’s the last bastion of self-censorship. You know, what a privilege to be able to say anything you want to hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people.

"So that’s how I approached it. And now I can’t wait for my next stand-up because I can go, 'No, I know where I went wrong there. I can be even better this time.' And I think you should. It’s like, you know, every day I become conscious for the first time. I know how to improve. I know what excites me now. Every day is a new day and you want to improve. It’s like, you know, you can rub out the blackboard and start again. I mean those things still exist, right, but you can say, 'Right, today I ‘m going to do my best work ever from now on.' And I say that every day."

Would he or Stephen Merchant consider joining the cast of 'The Office' here in the states? "No, Steve wouldn’t do it and nor would I. The thing is me and Steve get paid for doing nothing, so why would we work for it, you know? We’ve made so much money off Steve Carell. He’s like a big goose that lays golden eggs for us. Now we need some other schmuck to come along and get up at 6 o’clock every day for seven years."

On the immensely popular 'Ricky Gervais Show,' "It is I think the most fun thing I do and I remember back when I just did it for a laugh to sit in a room with Karl Pilkington and try and expose his beautiful mind to the world. It’s better than the first. I mean the first got better and better I think. And this sort of started with it left off but it’s much better. We’ve really hit the ground running.

"And we’ve taken a lot more liberties with the direction of the piece. It really adds to the audio now. In the first one we were quite cautious that we didn’t want to take away from the audio but now we know what adds and subtracts and everything we’ve done really adds to it.

"It’s... the first episode will straightaway show you the difference with the ambition of the animation let alone the things we’ve chosen. And we’ve gone everywhere with all the stuff we’ve ever done. The first one we sort of did it in order of the first season. Now we have just picked best chunks and woven it in and it’s great. We’re very proud of it. So, yes, I hope it goes down even better than the first season.

"The great thing about Episode 1 is when Karl... a film company called him in, they’d heard him on the radio and they called him in for any ideas. I mean how desperate this film company was I can’t imagine. They’re asking Karl Pilkington for movie ideas. And it’s where he comes up with the worst idea for a movie I’ve ever heard. It’s the man who puts half of his brain in his wife’s head and he casts in the movie Rebecca De Mornay who Steve says we haven’t seen her for 15 years and Clive Warren who doesn’t even exist, he meant Clive Owen. And you actually get to see the movie because as he’s describing it they’ve made the movie. It’s honestly it’s great. It’s really, really great."

Ricky talked about the amazing week he had when he won his first of three Golden Globe in 2004 leading to producing an episode of 'The Simpsons' and selling the American version of 'The Office.' "That was a strange week because let me tell you this is what happened, okay. So as I said before we went over there and I didn’t even think that we should go. I thought we got a long way to go and lose. And people said, ‘You’re mad. It’s an experience. It will be great.’ So we won the Globes. I did - my first acting job I had written for myself on 'Alias' because J.J. Abrams was a fan. I haven’t watched it. I have never watched the episode. It was me being cool. I can’t watch that. I dread it. It sends a chill down my spine, me trying to be cool. But I hear it’s okay.

"And then I was called for an audience for Matt Groening and Al Jean and 'The Simpsons' lot that their favorite show was 'The Office' which is weird because they created the best show ever. And they said, 'Do you want to write one and being one?' Yes. And that was the same week we started working on the American 'Office.' That was one week in January 2004. So if you are to pinpoint a week, it would be that. It would be January - the last week of January 2004."

Last year's Golden Globes got a mixed reaction from critics but to Ricky Gervais a gasp is as good as a laugh any time. "You know, I think a comedian’s job isn’t just to make people laugh, it’s to make them think. I’m not a lever of broad anodyne comedy. You know, I don’t see just going out there and saying things the audience could think themselves and often have, there’s a place for that.

"But I also feel a responsibility, you know, I’m playing venues where people come out and there are tens of thousands and they’ve traveled a long way and they’ve got a babysitter and they’ve found a car parking space and paid $70 or whatever and I think that I better have something special to say. So I always try and be different. As I say I always try to be quite challenging. I mean I want people to laugh and I want to gasp as well. I get as big a buzz from gasp as I do a belly laugh. But I think I do stuff that I’m proud of as well."

Let's face it, this guy is not to be trusted. For that reason alone 'The 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards' on Sunday, January 16, 2011 is likely to be the broadcast event of the new year.

"So I’m going to have even more fun with it, probably go a bit further, push the boundaries a little bit more. I think you always should. And I, you know, what’s the worst that could happen? I didn’t expect to be invited back a second time and I certainly - and I won’t do it a third. So I’ve got nothing to lose. I’ve got nothing to lose. So, yes, I’m going to go for it.

"You know, doing it is the reward. Doing it itself is the reward and I wish there was more of it. I just wish there was more of it just people going, 'I don’t care what happens. I don’t care about the box office. I don’t care about the ratings. I don’t care about the reviews or the awards. I did this and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.' And I think if we had that, it would just be amazing. It would be incredible. But it can’t happen because by definition most things are rubbish and that’s true of any genre, not just art.

"Art, TV, furniture making, most tables are rubbish. But when you see a really brilliant table that the guy spent four years making and he was a master craftsman and it’s lasted 700 years, you want to cry. It brings a lump to your throat. And, yes. I want to bring a lump to your throat. See, that quote taken out of context looks really bad..."