I don’t care who I offend at the Golden Globes: Ricky Gervais

Ricky Gervais will be pulling no punches when he returns on Jan. 15 for his third stint as the host of the Golden Globe Awards.

In 2011, the British comedian shocked the Hollywood elite with his take-no-prisoners zingers about Angelina Jolie, Robert Downey Jr. and other beloved A-listers.

But despite the controversy, Gervais refuses to tone it down for this year’s ceremony. In a conversation with Today‘s Matt Lauer, Gervais, 50, explained why he doesn’t feel his comedy is offensive.

Gervais said he believes it’s a comedian’s job to get as close to the line as possible without crossing it. And he says that he stands behind every joke he’s ever made, even if others say it goes too far.

“My conscience never takes a day off,” says Gervais. “Some people will be offended, and you can’t really worry about them. You know whether you’ve done right or wrong.”

In terms of this year’s Golden Globes, Gervais says he doesn’t think any of his jokes are offensive — but adds that he didn’t think his jokes were offensive last year, either.

“If you think it’s offensive, I don’t care, because I don’t think it is,” he told Lauer.

Gervais expressed those same sentiments with a post on his blog in December.

“Spent the last few days playing around with ideas for my 3rd (and final) hosting gig at The Golden Globes,” he wrote. “I would say that there’s nothing too offensive in there, but I honestly thought that last year. So I’m not sure of the rules anymore.”

Can it be that Gervais simply doesn’t realize when he’s crossed the line and gone too far? Au contraire!

Gervais quickly followed the above statement with this quip: “Actually I am (sure of the rules)… There is NO joke that everyone in the world will like so don’t worry about it.”

So who will the comedian target this year? No doubt Anne Hathaway and James Franco will get a few zingers tossed their way, after their crash-and-burn gig hosting the Oscars in 2011. (In fact, Gervais was making fun of them from the moment they were chosen.)

Tom Cruise is a guy everyone loves to make fun of, and with his Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol success, he’s fair game once again. Lindsay Lohan would be almost too easy, but Gervais did make fun of Charlie Sheen last year, so we’re not ruling her out. Brad Pitt and George Clooney both had big years, and we know they can take a joke, so they may very well be on Ricky’s list. As for TV stars, where to begin? Zooey Deschanel? The cast of Glee? So many targets, so little time.

While Gervais has promised to be even more outrageous this year, we wonder if his schtick will be less shocking now that people know what to expect. Regardless, he’s one of the few awards show hosts we’ve seen get genuine belly laughs from the audience (even if there were a couple gasps and boos thrown in there). His only job, as he sees it, is to be entertaining — and we’ll be watching on Sunday because we know he can deliver.

The 69th Golden Globes air Jan. 15 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.