All of this may cast the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the force behind the Globes, in Gervais’ svelter-than-in-the-past shadow. But given past experience and ongoing challenges to the group’s credibility, the smartest place for the association to stand may be out of the direct spotlight.

First, asking Gervais back makes the HFPA look confident and self-aware rather than prickly and insecure. At the ceremony last year, Gervais didn’t exempt his hosts from his barbs, lampooning the Globes for nominating the luxe-but-lukewarm “The Tourist.” “I haven’t even seen ‘The Tourist.’ Who has? It must be good because it’s nominated, so shut up,” he joked. “I’d like to quash this ridiculous rumor going round that the only reason it was nominated was so the Hollywood Foreign Press could hang out with Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. That is rubbish. That is not the only reason. They also accepted bribes.”

At the time, members of the HFPA were angry enough for someone to go to the gossip columns and complain that Gervais wouldn’t just be banned from hosting the show again — his projects would be blacklisted, too. But punishing Gervais for something everyone has long assumed is true doesn’t dispel that belief. Especially not after the association fell all over itself to lock in George Clooney’s attendance this year, nominating him not just for his performance in “The Descendants,” but for directing and adapting the decidedly mediocre political drama “Ides of March.” It’s easier to defuse allegations by laughing them off than by trying to quash an embarrassing truth your host shared with 17 million people.

Having a sense of humor over its attempts to reel in a little talent would put the HFPA and its audience on the same footing going into the event. There’s nothing wrong with serving up entertainment with a healthy side of cheese. Or with acknowledging that the Academy Awards will always hold pride of place — and refusing to let that prevent you from having fun. There’s ample middle ground for someone to claim in between taking yourself deadly seriously and drenching your guests in literal slime, like the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards.

And Gervais is more likely to provide an entertaining show than the results of the awards ceremony itself. The Globes play a role in the horse race on the way to the Oscars, but the nominations this year make for a singularly unexciting set of contests. In some categories, it’s difficult to care which already-anointed actor will walk off with this year’s trophy. When it comes to the best actor award, Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio (nominated for the underwhelming “J. Edgar”) and Brad Pitt’s careers will all continue on their merry way without a statuette, and Michael Fassbender and Ryan Gosling are on trajectories steep enough that a loss wouldn’t slow their rise. In others, snubs like “Breaking Bad” in the best drama category mean the wins will inevitably be hollow. Victory comes cheaper if you don’t claim it over your true competitors.

The best the Golden Globes can ever hope to achieve is second place in the hierarchy of awards shows. And that’s where Gervais comes in. But in collaboration with Gervais or a host like him, the HFPA — whether it intends to or not — is producing an awards show that combines our contradictory attitudes toward celebrities. First we get them in the room, and then we cut them down to size.

Still, in the categories where the Globes have only five nominees, they have a strong predictive record. Look at the best director category: Woody Allen, George Clooney, Michel Hazanavicius (of “The Artist”), Alexander Payne and Martin Scorsese. Now, Clooney’s name is a pretty big surprise on that list; I’d have expected to see David Fincher or Steven Spielberg instead. But it’s a highly plausible list. Ditto for the screenplay category, where the nominated films are “Midnight in Paris,” “The Ides of March,” “The Artist,” “The Descendants” and “Moneyball.”

There are a few things we can say with reasonable clarity, some positive and some negative. On the positive side, “The Artist” is for real. As weird as it still seems that a black-and-white silent film by a French director could be a leading Oscar contender, it clearly is. “The Ides of March” and “Moneyball,” two films that did not do well at the box office and got mixed reviews, are clearly still in the money in various categories. Ryan Gosling — who was nominated for best actor for both “Ides” and “Crazy, Stupid, Love” — was not poisoned for awards voters by his year of ridiculous media overexposure. Pretty much all the major actors we were expecting to see nominated are here: Clooney, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jean Dujardin, Michael Fassbender, Glenn Close, Viola Davis, Meryl Streep, Tilda Swinton.

On the other side of the ledger, it sure looks like Fincher’s “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” is out of the running for major Oscars, even before regular people get to see it. Rooney Mara got an acting nomination (and she deserves one), but the film was otherwise ignored. This may be reading tea leaves too closely, but I get the feeling that neither Spielberg’s “War Horse” nor Scorsese’s “Hugo,” the two biggest old-time Oscar-bait movies of the year, exactly wowed the Globes voters. Neither got any acting nominations (I’m startled to see Ben Kingsley overlooked for “Hugo”) and Spielberg was left off the directors’ list. Overall, it remains a mixed-up and unsettled year in the awards race; I think “The Descendants” remains the front-runner, with “The Artist” and “Midnight in Paris” just behind.

Matt Zoller Seitz:

The Golden Globe ceremony itself tends to be a half-jokey, half-mortifying spectacle, but I’ve got to hand it to the Hollywood Foreign Press: with a few bizarre exceptions, they tend to put out a list of worthy nominees. This year’s crop of TV nods is no exception. Looking over the list I see omissions that I personally don’t approve of, but it’s hard to argue with most of the shows and individuals they did select.

The best drama nominees are solid: HBO’s “Game of Thrones” and “Boardwalk Empire,” Starz’s “Boss,” Showtime’s “Homeland” and FX’s ascendant frightfest “American Horror Story.” I would have liked to have seen the epic modern western saga “Justified” or even “Sons of Anarchy,” which had a consistently strong fourth season, in the place of “Boardwalk Empire,” and “Treme” taking the urban malaise slot over “Boss.” It’s stylish, compelling and superbly acted (especially by star Kelsey Grammer, who got a best dramatic actor nod) but rather silly in places. But I’m not hugely surprised that my proposed alternates were snubbed, as they’re specifically, even defiantly American in their textures. (“Sons of Anarchy” has gotten some Globes love in the past, but maybe the organization is over it now?)

The comedy or musical nominees are three-for-five in my book: ABC’s “Modern Family,” Showtime’s “Episodes” and yes, yes, yes to HBO’s “Enlightened.” But the “Glee” nomination is baffling to me — it’s the only major scripted musical series right now, and it has its brilliant moments, but there are severe quality control problems on that series. And the fifth nominee, Fox’s “New Girl,” just gives me a headache (maybe this is the international cult of Zooey Deschanel — a nominee as best actress in a comedy or musical — asserting its clout?) Those last two slots should have gone to “Louie,” “Community,” “Parks and Recreation,” “Bored to Death” or any number of more deserving half-hour shows.

Best made-for-TV miniseries or movie is a mixed bag: Look for “Downton Abbey” to square off against “Mildred Pierce” in this category and related ones, and probably take the top prize. BBC’s “The Hour” was terrific but doesn’t stand a chance against “Abbey” and “Pierce,” and the nod for HBO’s “Cinema Verite” feels like a reflex; it was pretty good, but didn’t say anything about its subject, documentary filmmaking and the myth of objective detachment, that countless other films hadn’t already said as well or better. And HBO’s “Too Big to Fail,” about a behind-the-scenes conference of CEOs trying to halt the economic collapse of 2008, was a rich guy masturbation fantasy in which the guys who caused the problems were turned into heroic problem solvers; that this movie got nominated at all, in this year of all years, is pretty shameful.

I can’t say much against the acting nominations in any major category. I’d like to see Claire Danes and Damian Lewis of “Homeland” take the top prizes in the drama categories. But they might face tough competition from, respectively, Mireille Enos in “The Killing” (awful show, superb lead female performance) and Grammer in “Boss” (critics groups love to reward an actor who obliterates typecasting, which is one of the reasons why Michael Chiklis of “The Shield” and Bryan Cranston of “Breaking Bad” (who’s up again this year) won in the past. Laura Dern should win as best actress in a comedy or musical for “Enlightened” — case closed — but the eerie, mesmerizing power of eternal It Girl Zooey Deschanel should not be underestimated. I’d like Matt LeBlanc to win best comedy or musical actor for “Episodes,” on which he played a sexually voracious, dumb-brilliant-manipulative version of himself, but the character might be too slippery for this group. Besides, three-time Globe winner Alec Baldwin is up yet again, and these days he tends to accumulate awards the way magnets pick up iron filings.

In my dreams, Kate Winslet and Evan Rachel Wood win best actress and supporting actress in a miniseries or movie for their mother-daughter teamwork in “Mildred Pierce.” Jessica Lange deserves to win best supporting actress for “American Horror Story,” in which she seems to be channeling Bette Davis in “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” by way of Blanche DuBois in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” If Peter Dinklage doesn’t pick up yet another award as best supporting actor for “Game of Thrones,” I’ll be most surprised — but I wouldn’t object if Guy Pearce snuck in to win as Monty in “Mildred Pierce,” the kind of sneakily deep performance that tends to be undervalued.

The complete list is here. What do you think?

Also competing for best drama: Martin Scorsese’s Paris adventure “Hugo”; Clooney’s political thriller “The Ides of March”; Brad Pitt’s baseball chronicle “Moneyball”; and Steven Spielberg’s World War I epic “War Horse.”

Joining “The Artist” in the best musical or comedy category are: the cancer story “50/50″; Kristen Wiig’s wedding romp “Bridesmaids”; Woody Allen’s romantic fantasy “Midnight in Paris”; and Michelle Williams’ Marilyn Monroe tale “My Week with Marilyn.”

Clooney has three nominations. Besides best dramatic actor for “The Descendants,” he’s up for directing and screenplay for “The Ides of March.” For the acting prize, Clooney will compete against his “Ides” star Ryan Gosling, who had a second nomination for best musical or comedy actor for the romance “Crazy, Stupid, Love.”

Glenn Close also is a dual contender, as best dramatic actress for the Irish drama “Albert Nobbs” and for best song for writing the lyrics to “Lay Your Head Down,” the film’s theme tune.

Along with the Screen Actors Guild Award nominations a day earlier, the Globes field helps narrow down prospects for the Academy Awards, whose nominations come out Jan. 24.

With drinks and dinner, the Globes are a laid-back affair for Hollywood’s elite compared to the Oscars. The show turned a bit touchy last year as host Ricky Gervais repeatedly made sharp wisecracks about stars and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a group of about 85 entertainment reporters for overseas outlets that presents the Globes.

But Gervais helped give the show a TV ratings boost, and he’s been invited back as host for a third-straight year.

Five-time Academy Award and Globe nominee Morgan Freeman — who won the supporting-actor Oscar for “Million Dollar Baby” and a best-actor Globe for “Driving Miss Daisy” — will receive the group’s Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement at the Jan. 15 ceremony.

Thursday’s nominations in 25 film and television categories will be announced by actors Sofia Vergara, Woody Harrelson and Gerard Butler.

Described by some as “an obvious rip-off of David Bowie,” the band broke up in 1984. Quite oddly, though, they became a runaway success with teenagers in the Philippines in 1985. Because a radio station in Manila misattributed one of their songs — so that listeners couldn’t find the record and would have to keep listening to their station — Seona Dancing never got much credit for their talent.

Gervais did. He stayed in the music business by managing a band called Suede and DJ’ing. Then a while later he created this show called “The Office,” and it was quite successful. And then he starred in a movie called “Ghost Town.” And then he hosted the Golden Globes. (I thought he did a great job, by the way.)

But here’s some more Gervais-as-glam-pop-star. He’ll never perform like this again.