By Greg Evans
Copyright independent
Ricky Gervais has deleted a post where he appeared to mock celebrities at Sunday’s Emmy awards for making political speeches.
In an apparent response to some of the acceptance speeches and red carpet clips, the comedian shared a five-year-old quote on X/Twitter from his 2020 Golden Globes monologue.
“If you do win an award tonight, don’t use it as a platform to make a political speech,” Gervais said at the time. “You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything. You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg.”
On Sunday, the 64-year-old quoted the post with the laughing emoji and the caption, “They’re still not listening.”
As reported by Deadline, Gervais also re-shared a post from another X user who had directly quoted the comedian’s 2020 monologue. “If ISIS started a streaming service, you’d call your agent, wouldn’t you?” read the post.
The quote was posted in response to Hacks star Hannah Einbinder, who said “F*** ICE and free Palestine” during her acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy.
Later that evening, in a backstage interview, she added: “I feel like it is my obligation as a Jewish person to distinguish Jews from the State of Israel, because our religion and our culture is such an important and long-standing institution that is really separate to this sort of ethno-nationalist state.”
Elsewhere, Dune star Javier Bardem, who wore a keffiyeh scarf to the ceremony, told Variety on the red carpet that he “cannot work with someone who justifies or supports the genocide.” Other actors, including Ruth Negga, Aimee Lou Wood and Natasha Rothwell, also wore a red Artists4Ceasefire pin.
Both Einbinder and Bardem are among the 3,900 industry figures who recently signed an open letter saying they refused to work with Israeli institutions and film companies that are “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people”.
Gervais has since removed both posts. The Independent has contacted Gervais’s representatives for comment.
The Office star hosted the Golden Globes five times between 2010 and 2020 and would often make headlines for making controversial jokes about numerous celebrities.
Speaking to LadBible in 2022, Gervais said that he would never host the Golden Globes again. “The Golden Globes could offer me £10m for 10 minutes work, you know, and I’d be an idiot, I’d be a liar, to say I wouldn’t consider it.
“But at the moment, given I’ve done it five times, it got better and better for me – I enjoyed them all, but it got better – and I’m planning never to do it again.”
