I watched the Golden Globes this past Sunday. Normally it’s not the kind of thing I’d be able to sit through, but I’m a huge fan of Ricky Gervais and I was interested to see how he would handle himself as the host. His opening monologue was so funny and entertaining that it hooked me into watching the entire show. If you haven’t seen the opening monologue then here it is…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvHXzP2SpLA

He continued in that vein for the rest of the show and made what is normally an unbearably dull exercise in self congratulation feel spontaneous and exciting. It seemed to me that he may have even influenced some of the presenters and award winners to loosen up a little and take some humorous risks. The next day I was surprised to see that a lot of the news reports and internet commentary strongly disagreed with my opinion. They said Ricky Gervais had bombed. He had crossed lines that should never be crossed. What he did was tantamount to career suicide. Of course he got a lot of praise as well, but the people who criticized his performance were very outspoken about it. They were horribly offended and incredibly angry. They seemed personally hurt somehow. I was slightly baffled by this outrage. I wondered how people could be that angry about a comedian making fun of actors and actresses. Then I began to think about those people who literally deify celebrities. People who look at actors and actresses as not just larger than life, but beyond human. People who routinely buy magazines that are full of nothing but photos of celebrities walking around on the street doing everyday things.
“Look, it’s Brad Pitt drinking a cup of coffee!”
 ”Reese Witherspoon is walking her dog!”
“I can’t believe the celebrities were mingling with the humans and someone caught it on a camera!”
When celebrity-worshipers see a not very famous comedian mercilessly making fun of very famous actors it goes against their sense of how things are meant to be. Especially if it’s during an event like The Golden Globes. It’s one of the high holy days of celebrity worship. It’s as if Ricky Gervais got onstage and spent two hours making fun of God and all the sects of Christianity. Only he did something so much more serious than that. He deflated an American dream, the dream that one day you can be so famous and so powerful that no one will ever be able to make you feel small again.