A week after Ricky Gervais unleashed a stream of controversial jokes while hosting the Golden Globes, filmmaker Judd Apatow is biting back at the comedian.
“What did you think of Ricky Gervais? I didn’t like him. I thought he was mean,” the "40-Year-Old Virgin" director said while hosting the Producers Guild Awards this weekend.
Gervais’ quips left many questioning if he'd gone too far, and Apatow took his hosting gig as an opportunity to defend the targets of the Brit's punchlines.
“He had that joke about the guy on 'Lost,'" Apatow said. "He said he ate everybody else. Let’s be honest, Ricky Gervais just lost weight. Even now he’s four pounds away from not being allowed to do a joke like that. Did he lose weight just to make fat jokes? You think that’s how mean he is?"
Apatow also came to the rescue of Cher, Hugh Hefner, Tom Cruise and Tim Allen.
Gervais joked as he introduced Tom Hanks and Allen, “What can I say about our next two presenters? The first is an actor, producer, writer and director whose movies have grossed over $3.5 billion at the box office. He’s won two Academy Awards and three Golden Globes for his powerful and varied performances starring in such films ‘Philadelphia,’ ‘Forrest Gump,’ ‘Castaway,’ ‘Apollo 13’ and ‘Saving Private Ryan.’ The other is Tim Allen.”
But, Apatow told his audience Sunday, "Who looks good standing next to Tom Hanks? We all look like a piece of [expletive] standing next to Tom Hanks!"
Apatow went on, "Tim Allen did 200 episodes of ‘Home Improvement.’ He was in three of the highest grossing movies of all time. And his latest just crossed the one billion mark. Whereas ‘The Invention Of Lying’ made $18 million dollars worldwide...Leave Tim Allen alone."
Not that Allen needs much defending – he and Hanks got their own rebuttal in at the Globes.
“Like many of you, we recall back when Ricky Gervais was a slightly chubby but very kind comedian,” Hanks said as he took the stage, which Allen followed up with a well-timed, “Neither of which is he now.”