Golden Globes 2016: Ricky Gervais skewers Sean Penn, Caitlyn Jenner, Jennifer Lawrence in opening

How did Ricky Gervais fare in opening the 2016 Golden Globes? This was something we were looking forward to seeing, just as we’re sure many celebrities were slightly afraid of what he was going to do or say as the host. It was the first time in years since he had the gig, but in the past he had a history of being brutal to many of the stars on a night where they were ready to celebrate their achievements in work.

So who was in his crosshairs? It started with Ricky joked about going into hiding after the show to the point that even Sean Penn could not find him, and then went on to make fun of Caitlyn Jenner’s driving ability, Jennifer Lawrence’s salary, and really women’s equal pay in general. He claimed that he got paid as much for the gig as Tina Fey and Amy Poehler … combined. Most of it was tongue-in-cheek, and while funny, we’ve certainly seen Gervais be edgier, perhaps even on this show.

Still, this is with the knowledge that Ricky did tell a joke about shoving a Globe where the sun doesn’t shine on a fairly regular basis, and also by spending a large period of time discussing a certain part of Jeffrey Tambor’s anatomy, a joke that probably fell a little flatter than some of the others.

Overall, we’d say that this performance falls somewhere in the middle of some of Ricky’s past opening monologues. We’ve seen better, but his third appearance probably remains the weakest of the bunch so far.