In Hollywood, it's often common practice for winners at award shows to thank God for their victories. Of course, this gesture takes on different forms, with the actual meaning behind the words completely dependent upon the person uttering them.

During last night's Golden Globes award show, controversial host and self-described atheist Ricky Gervais addressed this theme, while cracking a joke about God's -- and his agent's -- impact on his career.

Gervais also addressed overly-long thank you speeches -- another common component of award shows. The comedian urged winners to limit their list of people they'd like to thank and, in gest, he encouraged them to simply shower praise upon God and their agents.

"You don't need to thank everyone you've ever met...just do the main two, your agent and God," he said. "God and my agent had exactly the same amount of input into my career."

Considering that he's an atheist, Gervais was clearly cracking a joke here about the limited impact these parties have had on his successes.

Watch him make this wisecrack, below:

In 2011, Gervais was seen as "too harsh" and polarizing by many critics when he previously hosted the Golden Globes. This year, he was widely seen as having tempered himself. At the end of the 2011 show, he thanked God for his atheism (which, as can be imagined, created quite a bit of controversy last year):

During last night's show, Meryl Streep also got in on the thank-you-speech joke. The famed actress stunned audiences when she, as Gervais had instructed, thanked her agent and "God" for her award. The only problem? The "God" she was referring to was director Harvey Weinstein (co-founder of Miramax Films).

Watch Streep's speech, below: