Ricky Gervais Reacts To Winning Golden Globe For Controversial Netflix Special ‘Armageddon’: “I F***ing Won!”

By Radhamely De Leon
Published Jan. 8, 2024, 1:30 p.m. ET

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Ricky Gervais: Armageddon

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Ricky Gervais took to X to celebrate his Golden Globes win over the weekend after he publicly declared that he had no expectation of even receiving the award.

“I f***ing won!” he wrote, with an image of himself holding the Golden Globe award for Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy on Television.

Gervais received the award, which is the fourth of his career, for his controversial Netflix special Armageddon. The longtime comedian defeated Chris Rock, Sarah Silverman, Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes, and Trevor Noah, who were also nominated in the category.

Because he was not in attendance at the ceremony, presenter Jim Gaffigan accepted the award on his behalf — but not before cracking a controversial joke of his own.

Gervais recently admitted on X that, despite being nominated in the category, he did not expect to be the one to take the award home.

“Won’t win, but it’s nice to still be up there in the mix, flying the flag,” he wrote.

Gervais’ award-winning special was highly criticized after the comedian joked about terminally ill children and used the “R-word.”

“I’ve been doing a lot of video messages recently for terminally ill children,” he says in the comedy special. “Only if they request it, obviously. I don’t burst into hospitals and go, ‘Wake up, baldy. Look at me twerking on TikTok. Look.’”

He continues, “I go, ‘Why didn’t you wish to get better? What, you fucking r*tarded as well?’”

Some users on social media balked at his jokes, with one calling the special “the most vile attempt at ‘comedy’” they had ever seen.

Gervais responded to the criticism, calling the public backlash “faux offense,” per Deadline.

“I’m literally saying in the joke that I don’t do that. But people have a reaction,” he said. “They don’t analyze it. They feel something – that’s what offense is. It’s a feeling. That’s why ‘I’m offended’ is quite meaningless. What do you want me to change?”