British comedian Ricky Gervais said he expects to avoid being persuaded to host the Golden Globe Awards again after calling his gig at Sunday's film and TV honors ceremony his favorite of the three.
Critics were lukewarm toward his performance, saying his jokes on Sunday were less harsh compared to 2011, and the show suffered a slight dip in ratings. But Gervais said that to him, it was his best performance yet at the gala Hollywood event.
"It was by far my favourite of the three hosting stints. I've told my agent to never let me be persuaded to do it again though. It's like a parachute jump. You can only really enjoy it in retrospect when you realise you didn't die and it was quite an amazing thing to do," the comedian wrote on his official blog following the awards ceremony.
The "Office" comedian also thought the crowd had "finally worked out that my gags only seemed rude and nasty but were actually not too scary at all."
Gervais used his opening monologue to take jabs at actors such as Johnny Depp, Jodie Foster and Helen Mirren, pop singer Justin Bieber and reality star Kim Kardashian as well as the Golden Globes ceremony itself, calling it "just like the Oscars, but without all that esteem."
Critics felt Gervais played it safe this year compared to his caustic jokes last year about actors Robert Downey, Jr. and Charlie Sheen, with TheWrap.com's Tim Molloy saying "despite promises (Gervais) wouldn't hold back, none were as hard as the ones last year."
The comedian's much-hyped third stint hosting also failed to boost the TV audience, with the Globes drawing in 16.8 million viewers to NBC this year, a slight dip from last year's 17 million who tuned in to see Gervais's acid wit let loose. (Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)