Nikki Glaser Is the Better Ricky Gervais

Following her smashing success at hosting and roasting the Hollywood elite during the 82nd Golden Globe Awards in January, the Golden Globe Foundation has already booked stand-up superstar Nikki Glaser to host next year’s ceremony, which sadly means that we only have a decade until her whole act is just an hour of complaining that people don’t clap for her when she uses slurs.

At the most recent Golden Globes, Glaser earned rave reviews for her ability to balance her famous roasting talents with the playfulness and levity that makes those four-hour celebrity circle jerks so much fun for the A-listers involved. Mocking and honoring Hollywood’s biggest stars in almost equal measure while giving America a reason to tune in beyond rooting against Emilia Pérez was no easy task, but Glaser, who achieved mainstream superstardom following the 2024 Roast of Tom Brady, made hosting the Golden Globes without being either an asshole or an actual glazer look effortless.

For that reason, Glaser has already locked up next year’s hosting gig, news that might prickle the skin of a certain other multi-time Golden Globes host who indulged in being a prick to Hollywood’s shining, laughing faces on national television. Ricky Gervais, who spent this past Golden Globes ceremony live-tweeting all the C-tier pedophile jokes he would have told if he was hosting the show for a fourth time, is quickly becoming as redundant as David Brent.

Glaser didn’t pull any punches at this year’s Golden Globes, hitting all the topics that Gervais himself was eager to attack with all the wit and tact that he has lately reserved for transgender bathroom rape jokes and slams on imaginary Make-a-Wish kids. But while Glaser had plenty of fun with the P. Diddy sex trafficking case and Hollywood’s casting couch culture, she didn’t seem to derive the kind of sick pleasure from real-life sexual violence that “dark” comedians so often enjoy.

And, although Glaser didn’t let Hollywood blowhards off-the-hook, she also didn’t wag her finger at the crowd for daring to have convictions while working the high-paying job of playing pretend and attending galas. While so many viewers loved Gervais’ performances as the Golden Globe host throughout the 2010s specifically because of how he called out sanctimonious celebrities for using their acceptance speeches to push political agendas while immensely benefitting from unequal power structures, Gervais seemed to be blinded to his own hypocrisy when it came to his pet causes.

While Gervais was thumbing his nose at actors who advocated for different political issues at awards shows, he was simultaneously using his own celebrity status to advance animal rights causes in awkwardly earnest PSAs for organizations like World Animal Protection. So, according to Gervais, Golden Globe winners using the ceremony’s massive platform to speak out for human rights is an embarrassment worthy of a 10-minute roast at the top of the show, but an A-list comedian making self-serious YouTube videos about bullfighting in Catalonia is just an artist using their voice for the greater good.

Ultimately, although Glaser might not have as sharp teeth as Gervais did during some of his more controversial and biting hosting jobs, she also doesn’t need to rely on the “roast” part of roast comedy to make the Golden Globes worth watching. Glaser doesn’t have an ax to grind and she doesn’t need to be incendiary to get views — she’s just funny, and she has fun roasting Hollywood. 

The Golden Globes never needed anything more than that.