At least twice a year, when the Golden Globes and Oscars come around, a bunch of us — mostly academics (media professors and grad students) but also some fans, journalists, and other cool people you should be following on The Twitter — set aside our evenings to live-tweet these (silly) televised spectacles. That’s right; we shun our lecture preparations, grading, and student emails as well as much of what we teach our students about why they shouldn’t objectify women and men (OMG, Colin Firth! January Jones!), and then we dive in with both feet. We criticize and berate, gush and swoon. But it’s okay; it’s just a couple of nights out of the year. We’ll climb back atop our pretentious pedestals in no time.
NOTE: Many of us live-tweeted the Globes and Oscars last year as well; if interested, read more in “Live-Tweeting the Oscars 2010: Virtual Affirmation, Valuable Community.” Finally, when you’re done here, please head over to News for TV Majors and check out “Golden TVeets.” More hilarity will ensue, I promise.
On the Pre-Show Foolishness
From what I could tell, some of us were gawking at E!’s “Live at the Red Carpet” with Ryan Seacrest and Giuliana Whateverhernameis while others were watching NBC’s “2011 Golden Globe Arrivals Special” with Carson Daly and (pilgrim-dressed) Alexa Chung. Either way, the snark surfaced in full force. Have a look:
Ah, that’s the stuff.
On Ricky Gervais’s Hosting Duties
So far, more buzz has surfaced over Golden Globes host, Ricky Gervais’s choice of jokes and means of delivery than the fashion, winners/losers, and speeches. Watch some of the “rudest” jokes on EW.com.
The article that sums up my feelings about Gervais’s hosting job may be found over at The AV Club, “Rich, famous people get feelings hurt by Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes.” Aww, poor things. Honestly, did those who hired the comedian NEVER seen any of his stand-up acts?
Furthermore, in “Master of Ceremonies, Not Master of Civility,” the NY Times reminds readers that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, or those who dole out the awards, were once — and arguably still are — something of an open joke. Cases in point: The Tourist and Burlesque in the Best Comedy/Musical category? Johnny Depp for his performance in Alice in Wonderland? And no Breaking Bad in the Best Drama?! Seriously, sick Tuco on ‘em!
After the evening concluded, Gervais apparently told Deadline Hollywood, “For three hours every year, Hollywood is scared to death of me. It’s great.” Yeah, it is kinda great — for those live-tweeting anyway. Here are some of our reactions to his Golden Globes shtick:
Where’d He Go??
During the last third of the program, several of us wondered what happened to Ricky Gervais. Sure, we know most awards shows don’t make much use of their hosts after the first half, but we sort of thought the poor Brit got tossed out after the jokes he made about Charlie Sheen, gay Scientologists (yes, that’s you, Tom Cruise and John Travolta), the president of the Hollywood Foreign Press (yikes!), and Bruce Willis (“Here he is, folks — Ashton Kutcher’s dad.”). Ha.
No worries. Ricky did return, only to close out the evening with one final zinger: “And thank you, God, for making me an atheist.”
On Presenters, Winners, Losers, and Speeches
There were so many excellent tweets from this portion of the evening it was hard to narrow the pool. So, I’m sorry if… Wait. Forget it; I’m not apologizing. Next time, just follow us on Twitter so you can read them as they’re happening!
That’s right, people: I’m giving myself one tweet. Ahhhh, Colin. =)
Just Tilda Swinton
Well, at least she (along with Helena Bonham Carter) won one award of the evening: worst dressed.
Until The Oscars…
Alright, gang, that’s all I can handle. If I make one more screenshot, upload one more red-carpet photo, or embed one more tweet, Unmuzzled Thoughts is going to explode. So until the evening of February 27, when we’ll collectively bash The 83rd Annual Academy Awards…
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Professor of film and Shakespeare. Advocate of social media. Lover of popular culture, 
Great round-up! The HFPS folks liked how Ricky Gervais did his job last year so much, they invited him back. Publicity! Everyone's talking about their show! Rude host delivers the goods again!
I watched Downton Abbey, but caught up on the show via Twitter, Tumblr (the goldmine of gifs!) and my fashion blog pages. Speaking of which, The Fug Girls just yell SWINTON! every time she appears. It doesn't matter what she wears, she just IS. She and Helena Bonham Carter at least can be counted on not to be boring.
It has become an unspoken (unwritten?) law in British comedy circles that given the opportunity to host an awards show you attempt to upstage the entire event and all the nominees and winners with your own material at the expense of the organisation/awards committee (i.e the hand that feeds you!).
Remember Russell Brand a couple of years ago? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/2704186…
And this from only a few weeks back – fans of Patrick Stewart look away now! (James Cordon is very 'big' on TV here) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIBUWqSTp90
It all started (for Brit comics at any rate) in my time when Julian Clary (a famously 'out' gay comic who had an act based on fetish club wear and gay cultural referencing and innuendo called the Joan Collins fan Club) made this remark at the British Comedy Awards about the then Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-NmMWJ69Xk
It went out live at about 8.30pm. Ever since then they have not risked braodcast without a delay. That was 1993. The bar was set quite high back then before Ricky Gervais was famous, but he was working behind the scenes on radio and has aspired to be that notorious ever since. Last year Russell Brand was kicked off the BBC for making prank phone calls on air to a famous actor about sleeping with his grand-daughter. They keep trying to out-do each other.
Thanks for the explanation! Just sent it out on The Twitter. =)