As we mentally prepare for whatever shenanigans Ricky Gervais has up his sleeve for this Sunday's Golden Globes, the host—who will be doing the gig for the second time around—stopped by Ellen (airing tomorrow) to chat about last year's controversy and why he agreed to come back for another shot.
So why did he?
"The reason I said yes the first time was because I was very flattered, " he told Ellen DeGeneres. "It was a huge global audience for a comedian. I like writing jokes. That's what I do. The reason I did it the second time was I thought I could improve on the first. Which, I think I did. I wasn't going to do it again but there were loads of people in the press saying I'd never be invited back and that's why I said yes."
Last year, people were pretty shocked with Gervais' "jokes," but did he except that much of an outburst?
"I knew what I was doing. It's the same as stand-up. I know where the gasps are going to come. I know when the laughs are going to come…I knew all that. I didn't think the press would…I mean you usually have to kill someone to get that many columnists. They were still talking about it, so I was shocked at the reaction. Yeah, yeah, I was.
"I don't think I was nasty. If they saw my stand-up, their heads would explode. People say is there anything you shouldn't joke about? I don't think there is. I just think it depends what the joke is. Comedy comes from either a good or a bad place, and I was just teasing them, ya know. It wasn't a room full of wounded soldiers. These are the richest, most privileged people in the world."
What can we expect this year? We won't really know until show time, but Ricky's tweet might give us a hint, "Just pre recorded Ellen for tomorrow. Hope they leave in the stuff about Karl, the baby Jesus, my testicles and Meryl Streep in the toilet."
Oh boy.