Ricky Gervais fans call for comedian to host the Oscars

Ricky Gervais fans have called for the comedian to host The Oscars – but he believes it would be a "bad idea".

Fans of the 54-year-old - who hosted the Golden Globes in January - said the annual event would be better if Gervais played host.

One fan said he is needed to "burst some pompous celebrity bubbles" while another said Gervais, Louis C.K and this year's host Chris Rock should rotate the duty.

Gervais responded to pleas from fans to host the annual event by concluding that he would be “fired” minutes into his opening monologue.

Gervais tweeted: “Thanks for your tweets saying I should host the next Oscars, but I'd be fired 2 minutes into my monologue. It's a bad idea. Cheers though :).”

Rock hosted the 88th Academy Awards on Sunday night and used his opening monologue to wade into the #OscarsSoWhite debate after no non-white stars were nominated in the main acting categories.

The 51-year-old branded Hollywood “racist” but also called out celebrities including Jada Pinkett Smith for boycotting the ceremony saying: "Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties – I wasn’t invited!"

He also cast himself, Whoopi Goldberg, Leslie Jones and Tracy Morgan into several Best Picture nominated films to show how they could have looked had non-white actors landed the roles.

According to reports ABC’s broadcast was only viewed by 34.4 million, which is the lowest it has been for eight years.

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