Ricky Gervais Made Some Hella ~Edgy~ Jokes About Transgender People In His Golden Globes Monologue

The 73rd annual Golden Globe awards are underway, and besides Matt Damon’s The Martian inexplicably getting nominated in the ‘Best Comedy’ category, the most aggravating part of proceedings thus far has been host Ricky Gervais’ opening monologue. Besides the usual drunk-weary-atheist-British-man act Gervais has been pulling for the last ten years or so, the three-time host was expected to bust out the kind of Super Edgy and Heaps Controversial material he’s been running with in lieu of actual comedy or creative output for the last little while.

On a plane so I am missing whatever trash Gervais is offering as comedy.

— roxane gay (@rgay) January 11, 2016

True to form, Gervais used his opening monologue to generate controversy in the laziest, cheapest way possible: by making cheap jokes about the fact that transgender people exist.

Ricky Gervais didn’t get the memo that he should have left the trans jokes back in the last century (when they weren’t funny either)

— Doree Shafrir (@doree) January 11, 2016

Ricky Gervais was SUPER unorthodox with his monologue tonight. Deciding to replace all the jokes with trans hate speech was a bold move.

— Ryan Syrek (@thereaderfilm) January 11, 2016

Watching the Golden Globes hosted by Ricky Gervais is like watching an amiable stoner comedy intercut with scenes from The Human Centipede.

— Stephen Thompson (@idislikestephen) January 11, 2016

There were a few pretty decent jokes in there, usually when Gervais decided to punch up — his dig at film companies paying for Golden Globes got a huge reception, and his crack at getting the same amount of money as last year’s hosts, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, was well-received for the point it made about the Hollywood gender pay gap.

But in the worst moments — and there were a few — Gervais’ offend-everybody shtick came across less like the opening monologue of a major awards ceremony and more like a stand-up routine from your mate who’s convinced he has a glittering career in comedy ahead of him because someone laughed at his Little Britain impressions once. A routine about Caitlyn Jenner, whom Gervais referred to as “Bruce”, and an extended bit about Jeffrey Tambor’s portrayal of a transgender woman in Transparent which made repeated and bizarre references to his testicles, got roughly the reception they deserved, while Gervais stood grinning at the podium like the MC at the world’s worst bingo night.

You can watch the whole thing below.

Alternatively, you can go back in time to Amy Poehler and Tina Fey’s wonderful opening monologue at the 72nd Golden Globes this time last year, which managed to call out figures like Bill Cosby and actually be funny about it.