Juno News - Ricky Gervais takes on woke Hollywood crowd

00:00:00.000 I didn't watch the Golden Globes but you better believe I watched host Ricky Gervais' takedown

00:00:10.620 of the Hollywood elite and more importantly the Hollywood self-entitlement. This idea that

00:00:16.720 Hollywood's wokeness is to be a guiding light for how everyone else lives their lives. Now I'm not

00:00:22.780 one of these people that boycotts entertainment and Hollywood. I realize that movies and TV shows

00:00:28.460 are a great part of our lives when they're entertaining and I also realize that celebrities

00:00:32.920 are a part of the culture. Even if people want to say they don't matter they do have an influencing

00:00:38.420 effect but at the same time it's important that we check that effect and say yes you may have a

00:00:44.240 because you're famous but you are still just one person and Ricky Gervais did exactly that. When he

00:00:51.360 got up there he didn't pull any punches. He actually gave a very tough line about why they don't have

00:00:57.860 the moral high ground to tell anyone else how to live their lives. So when it comes time to

00:01:02.760 accepting their awards they should probably just get up there and say thank you. Take a look at this

00:01:07.980 clip. Well you say you're woke but the companies you work for I mean unbelievable. Apple, Amazon,

00:01:13.140 Disney. If ISIS started a streaming service you'd call your agent wouldn't you? So if you do win an

00:01:19.620 award tonight don't use it as a platform to make a political speech right? You're in no position to

00:01:25.620 lecture the public about anything. You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time

00:01:31.000 in school than Greta Thunberg. So if you win right come up accept your little award thank your agent

00:01:37.660 and your god. Now even though some people seem to be enjoying it Tom Hanks's reaction face not

00:01:43.760 withstanding it didn't take long for Michelle Williams to get up there and make her acceptance speech 1.00

00:01:50.240 about abortion. She was accepting an award for best actress in a mini-series for her work in

00:01:56.300 Fosse Verdon but ultimately decided to say that she was only able to make the choices in her life

00:02:02.860 to be an actress to become a famous actress to become successful because she embraced a woman's

00:02:09.420 right to choose. She implied that she had had an abortion in this speech. She's pregnant currently 1.00

00:02:15.220 according to media reports and this is what she said making it a call to action for women voters

00:02:20.780 in the 2020 election. And I wouldn't have been able to do this without employing a woman's right 1.00

00:02:27.460 to choose when to have my children and with whom. When I felt supported and able to balance our lives

00:02:45.920 knowing as all mothers know that the scales must and will tip towards our children. So women 18 to 118 0.99

00:02:53.580 when it is time to vote please do so in your own self-interest. It's what men have been doing for 0.87

00:03:00.300 years it's what men have been doing for years which is why the world looks so much like them. But don't 0.89

00:03:17.420 forget we are the largest voting body in this country. Let's make it look more like us. Now listen

00:03:23.820 I think she's preaching to the choir. I don't think there are many people in that room that don't

00:03:28.300 already agree with her on the issues. But to say that she's able to stand up there and accept an award

00:03:34.500 because of a path in life that included an abortion is not really all that relevant. I mean most people

00:03:41.420 get up there and they thank their co-workers, their families, their colleagues, their agents. It's supposed

00:03:46.060 to be a celebratory time and that's not to say you can't talk about important things but she went where

00:03:51.660 the Hollywood celebrities tend to go routinely now to preaching to preaching. She can't get up there 0.99

00:03:58.620 and for two and a half minutes go without making it about politics which is exactly what Ricky Gervais

00:04:04.940 was talking about. In fact one of his other jokes was how most of the people in that room have less

00:04:09.820 education than Greta Thunberg. Michelle Williams is one of many celebrities who left school to pursue

00:04:15.900 a career in acting. Now she's done very well for herself. I don't begrudge her or any of them

00:04:20.700 their success. But why should we care what they have to say? Now conversely you could say why should

00:04:27.500 anyone care what Ricky Gervais has to say? JJ McCullough had a great tweet about this where he said

00:04:32.380 I don't care when they speak against something I believe in but more importantly I don't care when

00:04:37.260 they say something I agree with. And I get what he's saying there. You can't say that their opinions

00:04:41.580 don't matter on some things but when you agree with them hold them up as examples. But I think

00:04:46.460 Ricky Gervais is in a bit of a different situation here because he's not saying a political position

00:04:51.660 that I agree with. He's just saying that we should not believe what celebrities say about politics

00:04:57.500 just because they're celebrities. And more importantly we shouldn't go along with having

00:05:01.580 them tell us that our way of life is wrong just because they make more money than us just because they're

00:05:07.980 more famous than us. And what's really important to understand about Ricky Gervais and about the

00:05:13.260 Golden Globes and about everything that happened at the awards show is that this is a pivotal time

00:05:18.700 where Hollywood's influence is waning. I don't want to say it's going away entirely but people are

00:05:24.140 starting to realize that these are not the moral arbiters. These are not the people that get to stand up

00:05:30.060 and tell us how to live our lives. And we've seen a bit of backlash towards celebrities that have gone

00:05:36.540 down this political road. But this is not a new phenomenon. Whether it was Michael Moore, whether

00:05:41.740 it was Marlon Brando, whether it was Meryl Streep, celebrities feel that their two and a half minutes

00:05:47.580 is about telling us to view the world as they do. Remember they're only famous because of fans

00:05:54.540 supporting them. It's not the other way around. For True North, I'm Andrew Lutton.

Juno News - January 06, 2020

Ricky Gervais takes on woke Hollywood crowd

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