Is it his debonaire charm? Dashing looks? Straight smile? British accent? Or is it his loose-sleeve technique of slinging painstaking, brutally honest comments leaving none untarnished of their harsh yet hilarious nature that set Ricky Gervais aside from most other leading comics of this generation? 
Ricky Gervais has kept the attendees of the Golden Globes squirming in their seats in anticipation of public humiliation derived from his jokes and snide comments, leaving no star’s ‘‘personal life stone” unturned.  Over the past three Globes Gervais has hosted, he has paid little to no attention to the previously appropriate line drawn in the sands of entertainment and hosting. No addiction, affair, religion or lack there of, weight gain, family problem, divorce, weakness or lifestyle has been safe from the scrutinizing comical eyes of this Brit, not even NBC or the Globes, themselves.
In his explanation of the Golden Globes, Gervais gave a rather cruel but seemingly accurate comparison of the Globes and the Oscars, describing the Globes as the Kim Kardashian of award shows while deeming the Oscars as the always classy, Kate Middleton.  His explanation of this comparison was that the Globes are “a bit louder, a bit trashier, a bit drunker and more easily bought… allegedly” than that of the Oscars’ sophisticated nature.
“Tonight you get Britain’s biggest comedian, hosting the world’s second biggest awards show on America’s third biggest network (NBC). Sorry, is it fourth? It’s fourth,” Gervais said.
The question at hand is not whether the man has jokes, clearly he is at no loss for jokes although they rest at the expense of the rich and famous.  No, the question is whether his jokes are funny once the audience shakes off the initial shock, regains consciousness and takes into consideration the burn marks left from the sting on the targets backside.
Trey Burke, a graduate assistant and graduate student at Mississippi State University, gave his opinion on Gervais and his hosting skills.
“I think that his comedy relies on being ‘outrageous’ and offending people, but you have to make a distinction between someone’s act and their personality,” Burke said.
Another aspect of Gervais’ scomedy that seems to stifle some members of the audience and reviews alike is his relentless and obnoxious outbursts of his own religious beliefs and atheism.  He feels so adamantly about his religious views that he has refused to marry his girlfriend of 29 years.He said he feels it would be an unnecessary act to be joined together in the sight of a God that he does not believe exists.
Parker Brumfield, a junior at MSU, gave his opinion of Ricky Gervais’s comedy.
“I think that he is hilarious, but I could do without his obnoxious atheism,” Brumfield said.
It seems the more time that passes, the more ‘‘outrageous” comedy acts have to become in order to register a peep of laughter or even a giggle from the audience. The outrageous and over-the-top stomach bug scene in the recent hit ‘‘Bridesmaids,” not to mention the shockingly void, full frontal view of Mr. Chow in the box office hit, ‘‘The Hangover,” both provoked mass bursts of laughter to the point of streaming tears because of the shock value and over-the-top nature of the comedy in these scenes. 
Has comedy gone too far from the “good ol’ days” when Bob Hope and Johnny Carson kept the banter within the bounds of common comedic morality? If this moral compass for comedy has been alleviated from our generation, would that necessarily be a bad thing? Is there a sort of usefulness for this “crude” humor in society today?
Ann Hamilton Dogan, a sophomore majoring in apparel, textiles and merchandising, gave an opinion on the matter.
“I think he (Gervais) was great! Yes, he was too much of everything: vulgarity, awkwardness, humor and disrespect; but with an audience where four out of five nominees didn’t win, you need someone who will go a step too far to keep everyone’s mood light hearted,” Dogan said. “Not to mention how gorgeous his maroon suit looked.”
Is the atmosphere Gervais creates light-hearted in nature, or does he add to the already anxious air and stir in the audience a mood of fear and apprehension that they may be the butt of his next joke?
It will be interesting to see if the Oscars promote a different type of comedic relief with their host, Billy Crystal. Is this hosting choice just proof backing Gervais’ claim of the Oscars being the classy award show resorting back to the old-fashioned, clean-cut, innocent comedy of the past? I guess we will have to wait to see if Crystal stays true to his light-hearted comedy, or if he morphs into the comedy of tearing down and using others as a crutch to get a laugh.
Editor’s note: Trey Burke is a staff writer for The Reflector.