Gervais to Golden Globe noms: Prepare to be offended

Jan 12, 2012, 14:02 GMT

Los Angeles - Controversial Golden Globes host Ricky Gervais promised Wednesday to be 'as offensive as last year' when he takes the stage on Sunday for the world-famous Hollywood awards show, where silent movie The Artist and family drama The Descendants are the favourites.

The acerbic British comedian sparked jeering in the audience with some of his jokes last year that skewered the celebrities in attendance, as well as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which organizes the Golden Globes.

'What am I doing? I'm coming up with jokes and annoying people,' he said in an interviews with NBC's Today show. 'I think offense is taken, not given. If you don't let yourself be offended, you're not offended. Some people are offended by equality; some people are offended by mixed marriage; some people are offended by homosexuality. What are we meant to do, stop all those things because someone's offended? No.'

Gervais pledged that the criticism would not make him soften his act.

'Some people are just offended and you can't really worry about them,' he said. 'I didn't think last year was offensive - I'm going to do the same as I did last year. If you think it's offensive I don't care because I don't think it is. I don't think anything I said last year was offensive so it's going to be as offensive as that.'