The Gervais Rules: Never Ever Apologize. Always Double Down. Like Trump.
Now that longtime liberal Ricky Gervais has taken a blowtorch to Hollywood he’s— wait for it— being labelled a conservative!
Yes, Gervais did unkindly suggest the Woke Sisters and Brothers take a reality check. “You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything. You know nothing of the real world, most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg. So if you win, come up, accept your little award, thank your agent and your God and f**k off.”
There was more, lots more, most of it unsparing of the Precious Performers. Personal fave: ’When I saw the list of people that have died, it wasn’t diverse enough. It was mostly white people, and I thought “No, not on my watch.”
In any event, none of it mattered. The beautiful people, burdened by their $50 K goodie bags, still prattled on, droning their pious SJW speeches to a nation that had, moments earlier, been mocking them for just this kind of sanctimony. Hashtag: Not getting the joke.
On Monday, Gervais received broadsides from the Trump Derangement crowd, much if it accusing him of taking the other side in the Culture War. The UK Independent newspaper pontificated: “Ricky Gervais cheapened the Golden Globes and overshadowed vital political statements”. Here’s the L.A. Times tripping on its cassock.“The last thing anyone needed was for the smirking master of ceremonies to reprimand them for having hope…” Boo-frickin’-hoo.
To which Gervais responded that tweaking Tom Hanks doesn’t make him a “f***en Conservative”. Indeed. Gervais is a liberal, but most of all a fierce advocate for free speech. Especially the kind that nicks you and your friends, that draws blood. Which also makes you a drooling Trump fan to the Independent and L.A. Times.
No doubt Gervais will soldier on with the second year of his brilliant series After Life and his touring. No cap days for him. As James Delingpole observes on Breitbart: “If there’s one lesson we on the freedom side of the argument can learn from Ricky Gervais’s superb, heroic, life-affirming performance roasting the Wankerati at the Golden Globes, it’s never, ever, ever apologise; always double down.”
Which is, of course, Trump’s modus operandi. Like Gervais, he delights in appalling his critics with his boorishness. Sending them round the twist is his metier. Never backing down to Hollywood wankers or ayatollahs. He knows he’s not converting the Revolutionary Guard or the Woke Resistance. Like Gervais he just says, “Why bother?”
If the Left is appalled by this crude behaviour, they have only themselves to blame. They savaged anodyne Mitt Romney about carrying his dog on the roof of his car and killing women employees with cancer because of bad health insurance. He just stood there like as mannequin and peed his pants. (So did John McCain, too, in 2008.) Surely they can’t be surprised that the response of the Right was to get someone who could throw punches as well as take them.
The blissful ignorance of the Klown Krew on Sunday (despite Gervais excoriating them) was a perfect distillation of their irrelevance. You’ll remember when Trump won in 2016 and all the Media Party hacks and Hollywood SJWs were stunned. They didn’t know a single person who was voting Trump, and yet here he was president. Those were the befuddled suits and gowns you saw Sunday.
A vast swath of the left has hived itself off from the reality of America. They think Bette Midler is the typical American when most people actually kniw Dolly Parton is the typical American. They convince themselves that their reality is your reality once you stop following Trump on Twitter.
That’s not the experience of the Right in the U.S. or Canada. Yes, there are the pom-pom squads at FOX etc. The loyalty tests. But one can never escape the epistles of Hollywood— hello Golden Globes— and the rest of the pop culture purveyors. It’s always in your face. It’s always demanding that you give up your futile opposition to Civil War reparations, no borders and third-trimester abortion. As opposed to those digesting Morning Joe or Chuck Todd, the Right knows exactly what the opposition thinks and exactly who was voting for Hillary.
It’s a cultural ghetto the Left refuses to acknowledge. Instead they create paradigms about Worst President Ever to bolster their rage machines. Mention to them how JFK used the Mafia to win the presidency and then slept with mobster’s girlfriends in the White House. How LBJ was a serial sexual predator who faked the Gulf of Tonkin incident to escalate the Viet Nam War. How Bubba Clinton was a sexual deviate who enriched himself and his wife through corrupt investments and foundations.
“La la la la la la la… we can’t hear you.” (When I asked how Trudeau was different from Trump, one colleague said, “Trudeau apologized”) It’s easy to get lost in MaddowLand. Don’t bother sending a search party.
Gervais vows not to return to the Golden Globe hosting gig. Been there, done that. Which probably means he’s a lock to get the sacred cows in his sights again after Trump retains the presidency in 2020. Book it.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the publisher of Not The Public Broadcaster. He’s also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, he is also a best-selling author whose new book Cap In Hand: How Salary Caps Are Killing Pro Sports And Why The Free Market Could Save Them is now available on brucedowbigginbooks.ca.