Unless you’ve managed to completely avoid TV, radio, newspapers and other humans this morning, you’ll be aware that a little something called the Golden Globes took place last night. And Ricky Gervais was in fine form, using his opening monologue to tear into Hollywood’s bigwigs and a handful of tech giants. But he was only joking and didn’t really mean any of it, obviously.
Apple, which launched streaming service Apple TV Plus late last year, got both barrels, but Disney, Amazon and the many, many A-listers in the room didn’t escape unscathed.
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“Apple roared into the TV game with The Morning Show, a superb drama about the importance of dignity and doing the right thing, made by a company that runs sweatshops in China,” Gervais quipped.
“Well, you say you’re woke but the companies you work for in China − unbelievable. Apple, Amazon, Disney. If ISIS started a streaming service you’d call your agent, wouldn’t you?”
But of course, he was only joking.
There was, however, some faint praise for Netflix, which just so happens to offer several of Gervais’ productions, and TV in general.
“Seriously, most films are awful. Lazy. Remakes, sequels. I’ve heard a rumour there might be a sequel to Sophie’s Choice. I mean, that would just be Meryl just going, ‘Well, it’s gotta be this one then’. All the best actors have jumped to Netflix, HBO,” he said.
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Gervais added: “No one cares about movies anymore. No one goes to cinema, no one really watches network TV. Everyone is watching Netflix. This show should just be me coming out, going, ‘Well done Netflix. You win everything. Goodnight’. But no, we’ve got to drag it out for three hours.
“You could binge-watch the entire first season of Afterlife instead of watching this show. That’s a show about a man who wants to kill himself cause his wife dies of cancer and it’s still more fun than this. Spoiler alert, season two is on the way so in the end he obviously didn’t kill himself. Just like Jeffrey Epstein. Shut up. I know he’s your friend but I don’t care.”
Again, clearly all just japes. Clearly.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
