Can Nikki Glaser be the new Ricky Gervais and give Hollywood the roasting it deserves?
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The stand-up comedian had a breakout year thanks to her new HBO special and a viral performance at Netflix’s ‘Roast of Tom Brady’. Kevin E G Perry examines why her close-to-the-bone comedy makes her the ideal choice to host this weekend’s Golden Globes.
![[‘I get it, it’s hard to walk away from something that’s not your pregnant girlfriend’: Nikki Glaser at ‘The Roast of Tom Brady’]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/31/16/GettyImages-2151653663.jpg)
Historically, the Golden Globes tended to either go without a host or simply pair a couple of good-looking actors. That changed in 2010 when The Office co-creator Ricky Gervais took over the gig and decided to use the opportunity to goad and mock Hollywood stars. He memorably joked that year that he “liked a drink as much as the next man, unless the next man is Mel Gibson”. That reference to Gibson’s DUI and the actor’s subsequent antisemitic rant was just the start of it. The following year, Gervais returned and set his sights on offending even higher-profile targets like Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. “It seems like everything this year was three-dimensional,” he joked, “except the characters in The Tourist.”.
![[Glaser in her latest HBO special ‘Someday You’ll Die’]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/31/16/newFile-2.jpg)
In total, Gervais has hosted the ceremony five times, once more than former Saturday Night Live duo Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, who kept up the trend of skewering stars with jokes about George Clooney (“Gravity is nominated for best film. It’s the story of how George Clooney would rather float away into space and die than spend one more minute with a woman his own age”) and Leonardo DiCaprio: “Like a supermodel’s vagina, let’s give a warm welcome to Leonardo DiCaprio…”.
![[‘Does getting screamed at burn calories?’: Glaser roasts Alec Baldwin on Comedy Central]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/31/16/GettyImages-1173045813.jpg)
A decade of touring as a road comic followed, as Glaser honed her sharp, acerbic voice night after night. She released her first hour-long stand-up special, Perfect, on Paramount in April 2016, but it was her appearance on Comedy Central Roast of Rob Lowe later that same year that really announced her arrival as a biting new voice in comedy. She didn’t hold back, delivering a series of explicit references to Lowe’s 1988 sex tape scandal. As Lowe winced and even road-hardened comedians gasped, Glaser’s star was born. It was no surprise to see her invited back by Comedy Central a couple of years later for the roasts of Bruce Willis (where she announced: “You had an amazing action film career, until Jason Statham started balding”) and Alec Baldwin, where she joked of the actor’s wife Hilaria: “She’s so hot and fit. Does getting screamed at burn calories?”.
![[Glaser bringing ‘Someday You’ll Die’ to an acrobatic climax]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/31/16/nikki-glaser_2.jpg)
