Nicely, Ricky Gervais did not disappoint, did he?

Elements of his 2020 Golden Globes monologue had been unintelligible because of the sound removing required for the pops of profanity, however the comic, returning as host for the fifth time, left no taboo stone unturned, from #MeToo and Jeffrey Epstein to race relations and Judi Dench‘s enjoyment of lifting her leg and licking her personal… um…

It was a Cats joke.

Anymeans… nearly every thing that got here out of Gervais’ mouth had jaws dropping throughout the room (poor Cecil B. DeMille Award honoree Tom Hanks did not know what to do along with his face!), so we’ll write his zero-f–ks humor off as a given and transfer on to the evening’s actual surprises and memorable moments as soon as they began handing out the awards.

1. The Irishman Takes a Hit: Really, we nonetheless have the Display screen Actors Guild (and Administrators Guild and Producers Guild…) Awards to go, however the Oscar race got here into clearer focus after 1917 and As soon as Upon a Time…in Hollywood had been named, respectively, Greatest Movement Image, Drama, and Greatest Movement Image, Musical or Comedy—leaving Martin Scorsese‘s elegiacal mob epic with none wins Sunday.

2. Three-Legged Race: Sam Mendes‘ shock Greatest Director win for his gut-churning, magnificently shot World Struggle I drama makes it extra doubtless that the Academy is as soon as once more going to award directing and Greatest Image Oscars to totally different movies. They have been splitting the invoice as a rule recently and it is arduous to see them denying Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino‘s ode to a 1969-era La La Land that possibly wasn’t precisely the means he portrayed it (although is not that actually the greatest strategy to bear in mind issues).

“That is the greatest shock, thanks very a lot!” mentioned Mendes, who was impressed to make 1917 by his personal grandfather’s service throughout the “Nice Struggle,” taking the phrases proper out of our mouths.

And…had been these pictures fired at Scorsese—he of the choice to make a film with Netflix that was out there to stream a number of weeks after a restricted theatrical launch—when Mendes accepted for Greatest Movement Image, Drama, at the finish of the evening and famous how arduous it was to get individuals to come back see films “in a cinema, and I actually hope individuals will flip as much as see it on a giant display for which it was meant”?

Probably not—it definitely wasn’t something private—however you understand not each filmmaker is on board with this smaller-screen factor.

3. Come On, Get Glad: “Nicely, hello, all people, it is good to see you,” Renée Zellweger, who channeled Judy Garland and gained Greatest Actress in a Movement Image, Musical or Comedy, for her efforts in Judy, greeted the viewers. “Thanks to the Hollywood International Press for inviting me again to the household reunion.”

Having made just a few movies (and, final yr, a Netflix sequence) over the previous decade, it was pretty to ring in 2020 with a toast to Zellweger, who deserves each ounce of applause for being sturdy sufficient to step away and stay her life privately when she not felt like being part of all… this. However we’re mighty glad she’s right here once more.

4. Hollywood Hearts Brad Pitt: It seems, Pitt’s pretty much as good as British individuals at giving acceptance speeches—award-giving our bodies ought to actually do that extra usually! Twenty-four years after first profitable this award for 12 Monkeys, he gained Greatest Supporting Actor in a Movement Image for his flip as stuntman Clint Sales space in As soon as Upon a Time…in Hollywood, a task that match him like a well-worn work glove. (As a result of Greatest Screenplay Winner Tarantino made positive of it, after all.)

In thanking co-star and “associate in crime” Leonardo DiCaprio, Pitt mentioned, “He is an all-star, he is a gent, and I would not be right here with you, man. I might’ve shared the raft.”

And with that, Brad Pitt invoked Titanic and our hearts have gone on and on.

5. First Time’s the Allure: The Hollywood International Press forgot about The Handmaid’s Story this yr, however Hulu obtained some love in the type of Ramy Youssef‘s win for Greatest Actor in a TV Sequence, Musical or Comedy, for Ramy, which relies on his personal life as a up to date observant Muslim. The HFPA likes to honor new reveals, often for superb purpose, as was the case tonight. (Hulu’s The Act, which appears outdated due to the Emmys-Globes space-time continuum however is from final yr, additionally scored a win for Greatest Supporting Actress in a TV Sequence, Restricted Sequence or TV Film for Patricia Arquette.)

“Look, I do know you guys have not seen my present,” the pleasantly wowed Youssef cracked congenially. “Everybody’s like, ‘Is that this an editor?’ We made a really particular present, about an Arab Muslim household, dwelling in New Jersey, and this implies lots to be acknowledged on this stage.”

One other charming first: Awkwafina gained her first Golden Globe at her first-ever time at the present—Greatest Actress in a Movement Image, Musical or Comedy—for the heartwarming (and slightly heartbreaking) The Farewell.

6. Trailblazers: It is simple to overlook, now that she’s the present queen of daytime and one in all the most profitable entertainers in the world, that Ellen DeGeneres was as soon as a younger comic and sitcom star who misplaced her present after making the polarizing choice to come back out through the cowl of TIME in 1997. However Kate McKinnon did not overlook, and her tribute to the evening’s Carol Burnett Award recipient was a showstopper. 

The present went on, after all, as a result of they and we are professionals, however sizzling rattling, if McKinnon did not supply up a pitch-perfect reminder that we needed to wrest the freedoms we’ve now from a society that may have been content material to by no means permit them, following the paths taken by others and blazing new trails alongside the means. And although this was a joyful second, it was additionally a tacit reminder that there is a lot left to be accomplished and everybody, together with these whose freedoms have by no means been in query, must be concerned.

7. Not So A lot Netflix: HBO—whose new streaming-only service, HBO Max, debuts in Could with your whole Associates accounted for—confirmed it nonetheless had loads of fuel left in the tank in cable kind as the evening’s most profitable purveyor of tv.

The virtually too-close-to-home (not as a result of we’re wealthy, however due to cable information) dysfunctional household saga Succession gained for Greatest TV Sequence, Drama, and Brian Cox—demanding, untrustworthy patriarch Logan Roy—gained Greatest Actor in a TV Sequence, Drama, whereas Chernobyl was named Greatest Restricted Sequence or TV Film and, from the haunting manufacturing about the 1986 nuclear accident, Stellan Skarsgård gained Greatest Supporting Actor in a TV Sequence, Restricted Sequence or TV Film.

Netflix solely had one win, Greatest Actress in a TV Sequence, Drama, for Olivia Colman, who ascended in The Crown‘s third season to the position of Queen Elizabeth II.

Amazon nipped at HBO in the actual place everybody guessed: Greatest TV Sequence, Musical or Comedy, and Greatest Actress in as a lot for Fleabag and the ever-ascendant Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

8. Stars on Stage Getting Actual: Each phrase spoken tonight in favor of a extra simply, equitable and livable world was particularly poignant, partially due to the horrific wildfires raging in Australia—the place Greatest Actor in a Restricted Sequence or TV Film Russell Crowe remained tonight—but in addition as a result of there are such a lot of points bearing down on us simply days into 2020, it is arduous to know which one to handle first.

Presenter Jennifer Aniston learn the message Crowe despatched in absentia about the dire ethical obligation to handle local weather change (mockingly he gained for Showtime’s The Loudest Voice, taking part in late Fox Information mastermind Roger Ailes, not precisely a pusher of scientific truths). Patricia Arquette, accepting for The Act, was all about voting in November. Michelle Williams, who’s pregnant together with her second youngster, spoke up about the significance of defending ladies’s reproductive rights. And almost lifelong vegan Joaquin Phoenix, Greatest Actor in a Movement Image, Drama, winner for Joker and now formally the entrance runner on Oscar evening, gave a shout-out to the night’s menu, which for the first time was solely plant-based, in appreciating the acknowledgment of massive agriculture’s hyperlink to local weather change.

What these actors mentioned will not be for everyone. Some viewers at house might even declare for the fourth yr in a row that they are by no means watching the Golden Globes once more. However that does not make something the celebrities mentioned any much less important. And so they weren’t simply talking for themselves—they had been talking for all of us.