Golden Globes 2016: Was Ricky Gervais funny as host?

The Golden Globes are in the books for another year, but how was Ricky Gervais in his return to hosting the show?

Ricky Gervais was back as the host of the Golden Globes this year, and as soon as it was announced we all wondered how things would go now that everyone appears to be in on the joke. Gervais’ schtick — which is probably mostly real — is to roast the hell out of the celebrities in the room and slag off the Golden Globes for being meaningless awards show fluff.

He’s not wrong, as this time of year is almost unbearable for fans of movies and television as it’s an endless barrage of red carpet photos and awards posturing. Gervais cuts through all of that with his hosting duties and once again turned in a fresh take on the old back patting Hollywood ways.

Perhaps the best moment of the night was when he dug way in on Mel Gibson, who was there to present the nomination for Mad Max: Fury Road.

Gervais roasted Gibson before the actor came out, but then walked off to give the star his moment. Gibson used the moment to try and troll Gervais back — which didn’t so much work out for him. Gervais walked right back out and seemed to both make peace with Gibson but also troll him once more.

What he said was bleeped out, but some in the room were able to hear what it was.

Beyond that, Gervais was his usual spunky self, trolling everything and anyone at the drop of a hat throughout the night. He started the night with a Caitlyn Jenner joke about female drivers, progressively got less and less interested in hosting as the night went on and zinged everyone from Roman Polanski and Ben Affleck for their dicey personal lives.

The night was exactly what we wanted out of Gervais, even if watching him meant having to sit through the Golden Globes. But that was the point of most of his jokes and zingers — the Globes don’t mean anything but why can’t we have a good time in the process?