Controversial Golden Globes host Ricky Gervais
promised Wednesday to be "as offensive as last year" when he takes
the stage on Sunday for the world-famous Hollywood awards show, where
silent movie The Artist and family drama The Descendants are the
favorites.
The acerbic British comedian sparked jeering in the audience with
some of his jokes last year that skewered the celebrities in
attendance, as well as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which
organizes the Golden Globes.
"What am I doing? I'm coming up with jokes and annoying people,"
he said in an interviews with NBC's Today show. "I think offense is
taken, not given. If you don't let yourself be offended, you're not
offended. Some people are offended by equality; some people are
offended by mixed marriage; some people are offended by
homosexuality. What are we meant to do, stop all those things because
someone's offended? No."
Gervais pledged that the criticism would not make him soften his
act.
"Some people are just offended and you can't really worry about
them," he said. "I didn't think last year was offensive -- I'm going
to do the same as I did last year. If you think it's offensive I
don't care, because I don't think it is. I don't think anything I said
last year was offensive, so it's going to be as offensive as that."
