Golden Globes 2012: Ricky Gervais Was Set Up

This year, Ricky Gervais returned as host of the Golden Globes: his third time on the job in as many years. Despite the vague promise from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and NBC and, most importantly, from Gervais himself, of an “outrageous” show, it turned out to be a letdown.

So, what happened?

MovieLine believes it has the answer: the British comedian was set up, either by the HFPA and NBC or Hollywood as a whole.

This was the elite's way of getting back at him for the unreined way in which he made everybody the butt of his jokes at the Golden Globes 2011.

It might not have been obvious, and chances are Ricky himself might not have been aware of it, but it definitely happened, the movie-oriented publication says.

What's worse, audiences were those who suffered from it. They were promised a spectacular show, a return to form by Gervais, unprecedented fun and entertainment – instead, they got an awards gala that kept claiming it would only get crazier, but never did.

“It wasn't supposed to be this way. Despite all the vitriol directed back at Gervais following last year's caustic turn, NBC's ads for the 2012 iteration featured the host snipping a silken mouth gag away with scissors, as if to promise an ensuing controversy and a reason to watch,” MovieLine writes.

The people at home were thus led to believe that, even if Gervais wouldn't be as naughty as in 2011, at least he'd try to top that performance, which, clearly he never did.

“However, last night we saw not only Gervais' (arguably) inevitable failure to reach last year's superstar-tweaking heights, but what felt like a coordinated effort to both muzzle and get even with the acerbic host,” MovieLine says.

“As it turned out, all of the most amusing lines came not from the host but the presenters, and those that cut deepest were aimed at Gervais himself. In and of itself, this is not a bad thing – Gervais can take it. However, where was the give-and-take? As the night evolved we saw stars wielding knives and a host reduced to using safety scissors,” adds the same publication.

Gervais' performance felt like he was swimming with the sharks, where everyone in the venue was allowed to take jabs at him and he was basically not allowed to fight back because he'd been muzzled.

Critics immediately picked on this and are less than glowing in their reviews of Gervais' hosting job. The Daily Mail summed up some reviews in the leading industry publications and, suffice it to say, they're not doing Ricky any favors.

Thinking that he could have been so much better only makes his latest performance seem worse, a bigger shame.