Ricky Gervais made his feelings about hosting the Oscars abundantly clear, and he didn’t need many words to do it.
Hours before the 98th Academy Awards got underway on 15 March, the British comedian responded to a fan account on X that was calling for him to take the hosting reins.
The account, The Ricky Gervais Clips, posted an invitation for followers to repost if they wished Gervais was hosting the Oscars that night.
Gervais quote-replied with two words: “Fuck that!”
It’s a notable stance from someone who has hosted the Golden Globes five times, in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2016 and 2020, and built a reputation as one of the most fearless celebrity roasters the awards circuit has ever seen.
His Globes appearances became must-watch television precisely because he said the things most hosts wouldn’t dare, taking aim at Hollywood’s biggest names directly to their faces.
Though as Gervais himself revealed to Variety last year, the “loose cannon” image was always more carefully constructed than it appeared.
“The marketing thing is that, ‘It’s live. He could say anything. Oh, my God. He’s brutal. Oh, he doesn’t care about anything.’ All those are untrue,” he said.
“I write those jokes. I look at them from every angle. I make sure they’re bulletproof. I go out with a beer, I pretend to be a loose cannon, but I’m not. I’m never drunk. I have like a sip. And I can justify anything. I’m never that brutal. It just seems like it.”
The carefully crafted chaos, it seems, has its limits, and the Oscars stage is apparently where he draws the line.
Conan O’Brien hosted the event.
Gervais has nonetheless been having a strong awards run of his own lately.
His most recent stand-up special, Ricky Gervais: Mortality, won best stand-up comedy performance at this year’s Golden Globes, his second consecutive win in the category, having taken the same award last year for Ricky Gervais: Armageddon.
