By now, everyone has weighed in on Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars.

In the wake of the incident, fans have been comparing past hosts, and speculating whether or not the incident would have happened if someone else was rattling off jokes. One name that came up consistently was Ricky Gervais.

Gervais hosted the Golden Globes five times, but never the Oscars. On an episode of The View from January 2022, he revealed the reason why he would not and could not host the Oscars stating, “I might be allowed to host [the Oscars] if I did what I was told, but there’s the rub,” Gervais said when Sunny Hostin asked him about his hesitation. “The good thing about the Globes was [that] they said I could write my own jokes, say what I want, and not rehearse. And that is just too good for a comedian to turn down, whereas...