Friday, January 21, 2011

When is a toast a roast?

Last night on fellow Britain Piers Morgan's new show, Ricky Gervais said that he had no regrets about his gig as host of the Golden Globes. He said simply, he did the job he was hired to do.

Here is the question: what was he hired to do?

The "I did my job" defense begs the question, what was his job? I would say the job of a comedian hosting an awards show is to be funny. The response of the audience said he was not funny.

As a communication expert the responsibility for successful communication rests with the speaker not the audience. It was Gervais's responsibility to be funny; it was not the audience's responsibility to "get it".

Gervais blamed the audience that it was their fault that they did not laugh.

It is the job of any speaker to know their audience in advance, not preach about their ill-fated response afterwards.

Joan Rivers chimed in to offer her support. In doing so she spewed venom about celebrities. From an outsider's perspective, celebrities have served her pretty well for the hundred years of her career.

Here is the bottom line: if your job is to be funny. Be funny. That means because of your audience, not inspite of them.

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