Presenter Wanda Sykes Makes Famed Atheist Ricky Gervais Thank God In Golden Globes Acceptance Speech As He No-Shows Another Ceremony

Tonight at the Golden Globes, presenter Wanda Sykes warned the absent Ricky Gervais that should he win a statuette, she’d be thanking “God and the trans community” on his behalf, regardless of the fact that he’s a famed atheist.

And sure enough, Gervais won his second Golden Globe for Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy on Television. The award came in recognition of Mortality, his latest Netflix special released on December 30.

Gervais previously won the Golden Globes’ first-ever award for Stand-Up, for his Netflix special Armageddon, when the category was introduced in 2024. As alluded to in the special, he also famously hosted the Globes five times between 2010 and 2010. Yet for whatever reason, he’s elected to accept his honors from afar.

Tonight, he beat out stand-ups including Sarah Silverman (Netflix’s Postmortem), Bill Maher (HBO’s Is Anyone Else Seeing This?), Brett Goldstein (HBO’s The Second Best Night of Your Life), Kevin Hart (Netflix’s Acting My Age), and Kumail Nanjiani (Hulu’s Night Thoughts).

Gervais tackles life, death and the state of the world in Mortality, which emerged from his world tour of the same name. His Golden Globe win comes following Ali Wong’s last year for Netflix’s Single Lady — and thus, all three of the show’s Stand-Up awards given out to date have gone to Netflix specials.

Tonight’s ceremony took place at The Beverly Hilton with comedian Nikki Glaser returning as host.