A CRITICAL LOOK AT THE GOLDEN GLOBES

If you’re like me, you spent Sunday night glued to the TV watching the 69^th Annual Golden Globe Awards, sipping beer, and yelling out your predictions as each category was announced.  The show went pretty much as anticipated: those we expected to win took their awards home, those who feigned surprise at a win made us roll our eyes (::cough:: Meryl Streep ::cough::), and the awkward banter between presenters continued on its merry way per usual.

The night’s host, Ricky Gervais, seemed largely neutered in comparison to last year’s broadcast.  He spent most of his time on stage laughing about how funny and controversial he was last year, rather than throwing out jokes about current nominees.  His opening monologue wasn’t half bad, with a couple generally harmless and mildly gross jabs at Justin Bieber, but Gervais was more an usher than a host, appearing occasionally to move us along to the next nomination and then disappearing for long stretches of time.

Last year I cringed at a lot of Gervais’ jokes, but this year I really only cringed at one: the divorce joke.  I realize that celebrity marriages are notoriously short and are fodder for celebrity gossip rags, but joking about the dissolution of marriages just seems wrong to me.  Gervais ran down a list of the years’ celebrity divorces and naturally paused on the joke du jour, Kim Kardashian: “Arnold and Maria.  J.Lo and Marc Anthony.  Ashton and Demi.  Kim Kardashian and some guy no one will ever remember.  He wasn’t around long. Seventy-two days–a marriage that lasted 72 days.  I’ve sat through longer James Cameron speeches.”  I don’t pretend to know anything about those couples and their failed marriages, but–call me old fashioned–I think that ridiculing them (whether their marriage lasted 72 days or many years) on national television is unnecessary and mean-spirited.  Still, poor taste aside, Gervais’ humor was milder and less vulgar this year.

The Globes were at their most vibrant when the presenters turned the tables on Gervais, taking playful jabs at the acerbic host.  Presenters and award-winners alike took (mostly) good-natured jabs at the host (even Meryl Streep got in on the action; the woman can do no wrong.)  The only person who seemed legitimately pissed at Gervais was Madonna, who didn’t much care for the joke that she was “like a virgin.”  I was surprised by how many jokes concerned male genitals at this event–the Globes seem to get raunchier and more explicit every year, which is an impressive feat for a show that bleeps swear words.  George Clooney joked that Michael Fassbender can play golf with no hands, and Sue Sylvester—oh, sorry, Jane Lynch—joked that the star of HBO’s “Hung” was, shall we say, typecast.

Most of these jokes were meant and taken in good humor by the parties involved and myself.  I enjoy a good vulgar joke every now and then, but Seth Rogen took the joke too far.  When Rogen approached the microphone to present an award with Kate Beckinsale he looked directly at the camera and said he was trying to conceal a “massive erection.”  Beckinsale took the joke in good humor, but I was put off.  I was reminded of the time Adrien Brody won an Oscar for The Pianist, and when he approached the stage he planted an unexpected and deep kiss on Halle Berry.  These occurrences might sound harmless, but imagine if they had happened in any location other than the national stage: if a guy planted an unwanted, unconsenting kiss on a woman or made a comment about his sexual arousal it would be considered inappropriate—a violation.  So why is this bad behavior excused?  Perhaps it’s the novelty of seeing Hollywood behaving badly that makes this humor somehow okay?  Even if we assume that Beckinsale approved the erection joke beforehand, perhaps she shouldn’t have.

What bothered me the most, however, was the persistent lack of cultural sensitivity illustrated by the producers and award-winners alike.   For an award show predicated on the decisions of an organization called The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the show’s producers showed little consideration for the award winners for whom English was not a first language.  Many of the French-speaking winners were given little time to deliver their speeches.  When Ludovic Bource, the composer for The Artist, stepped onstage to accept his award for best Original Score, he was given little time to collect himself and deliver his speech; surely the producers of the Golden Globes could have given him a bit more time.  Bource was cut off quickly, while frequent winners like Meryl Streep were given ample time to deliver full speeches.  I was appalled when Madonna stepped onstage after Bource to accept her award for Best Original Song, stammered, and apologized by saying “I’m not French, I have no excuse.”  I have news for Madonna: she’s not British either.  After that abysmal show of cultural insensitivity, I was thrilled when the cast of “Modern Family” delivered a bilingual acceptance speech for its Best Television Series–Comedy or Musical win. It was a charming and funny moment that acknowledged the show’s multicultural cast and poked fun at itself.  If only the rest of the telecast had been as good-natured as Sofia Vergara and her co-stars.