So that happened. Those with long memories—stretching back to a time before the Fey-Poehler glory years—can recall a string of dull Golden Globes ceremonies, more boring than last night's strangely offbeat telecast. In case you missed it, here are some of the highlights.
1. Ricky Gervais is filled with gloriously entertaining bile.
Knowing that the whole reason he was there was to offend, Gervais front-loaded his opening monologue with burns on everyone from Caitlyn Jenner ("She didn't do a lot for women drivers"), the host network ("The only network with zero nominations") and even the award statue itself ("It's just the right shape and size"). Later, Gervais would say of Mel Gibson, "I'd rather have a drink in his hotel room tonight than with Bill Cosby."
2. Many of the winners were surprising.
Just when we thought we could safely forget Steve Jobs, it came roaring back with wins for supporting actress Kate Winslet and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. On the TV front, there were squeals of unexpected delight for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend's Rachel Bloom, Show Me a Hero's Oscar Isaac, Mozart in the Jungle's Gael García Bernal and Christian Slater, winning his first substantial award ever for Mr. Robot.
3. Jason Statham put his Spy director Paul Feig in a headlock.
And it looked like it really hurt! Or maybe Feig is also a brilliant slapstick performer.
4. Controversy is where you find it.
Quentin Tarantino definitely knows how to pronounce the name Mozart, as he demonstrated while gushing over The Hateful Eight's original score winner Ennio Morricone. (The same can't be said for Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson, presenting to winner Moe-zart in the Jungle.) Then again, Tarantino also knew how to pronounce the word ghetto, resulting in some touchy day-after complaining.
5. The Revenant suddenly become an "important" film (but Leo's always going to be Leo).
Cruising into the final stretch of the night, The Revenant's Leonardo DiCaprio nabbed his expected Globe for Best Suffering. But literally no one was expecting director Alejandro González Iñárritu to prevail as Best Director (repeating a year after Birdman), nor the film itself to claim Best Picture, as it did. Suddenly we were hearing speeches about indigenous peoples, not merely "I had to eat raw bison." The switcheroo was painfully obvious.
Despite how seriously we were supposed to take The Revenant, Leo himself was never going to take Lady Gaga seriously:
Golden Globes/via Giphy