Earlier this year, British comic Ricky Gervais was supposedly in hot water for his roasting of celebrities at January’s Golden Globes . Gervais spent the Globes ceremony ripping into celebrities with his trademark snarky remarks, even slipping in a gay joke about Tom Cruise and John Travolta.
The comedian was absent from last night’s Emmy Awards, though did deliver a pre-recorded message joking that he was “no longer allowed on American soil” during award ceremonies. What followed was a speech with diplomatically timed edits over any potentially contentious remarks.
“I’ve won a few Emmys myself. I’ve lost a few too,” grinned Gervais, “I was up for five last year and I lost them all to other shows that in my opinion were absolute [edit] ‘Schindler’s List’ but then went on to do TV with ‘Band of Brothers’ and ‘The Pacific’ for HBO, which in my opinion is the greatest channel in the world [edit] apart from [edit] Fox [edit] that is, [edit] obviously.”
He then ended with a variation on his “Thanks to God, for making me an atheist” closing line from the Globes.
Well, I quite liked it. Here’s the speech in full (and below that, Gervais’s Golden Globes intro for those who somehow missed it):