Ricky Gervais has 20 jokes banned after Golden Globes rehearsal

Ricky Gervais arrives on the red carpet at the Golden Globes ceremony. He will host today's show. Photo/Getty

Golden Globes host Ricky Gervais has been banned from repeating at least 20 of the jokes he told during the rehearsal.

Arriving with his girlfriend Jane Fallon, Gervais joked: "I'm heavily sedated under doctor's orders."

Speaking to E!'s Ryan Seacrest, the comedian said his hosting rehearsal featured a string of jokes that he will not be able to tell in the packed ballroom.

He said: "I did it just for fun to get it out of my system. I don't know when I can ever use those jokes."

Gervais added: "Every time I do something like this I'm looking forward to it being over so I can have a little reward, I'm not cut out for this."

Gervais is returning to the hosting job for a fourth time but is a controversial choice because of his cutting jokes about the famous faces in attendance.

At previous ceremonies he mocked Angelina Jolie, Robert Downey Jr, Mel Gibson and Johnny Depp mercilessly.

Gervais, wearing dark sunglasses, laughed continually throughout his interview on the red carpet today prompting questions of whether the presenter had consumed any alcohol or drugs.

Asked by Ryan Seacrest what he had been taking before the show, Gervais replied: "Just a little bit of ... ummm."

Fallon replied: "Before, during, after."

Gervais wouldn't say whether he wrote new material after Rolling Stone released a piece by actor Sean Penn in which he interviewed Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

Hours before the show Gervais posted a shirtless photo to Twitter with an obscene caption, setting the tone of what may be to come.

"Better get dressed and offend some humourless c**** I suppose," Gervais wrote.

This is Gervais's fourth time hosting the Golden Globes.

He last hosted the show in 2012. Crowd favourites Tiny Fey and Amy Poehler hosted the Globes for the last three years.

- AAP with agencies