7 Times the Golden Globes Were Better Than the Emmys and Oscars

The Golden Globes is often derided as a second-class citizen when compared to its more formal brethren in The Emmys and The Academy Awards, but that's hogwash! The Golden Globes isn't just a diet version of those other award ceremonies, it is often better.

The relaxed atmosphere of the Globes is well known throughout Hollywood and the countries that the Hollywood Foreign Press represents, and the drunken delights and spontaneous scenes that spring from each ceremony are some of Tinseltown's greatest moments. Despite less prestige, that lack of formality gives the Globes an advantage over the stuffy Emmys and Oscars when it comes to satisfying fans.

Here are seven examples of the Golden Globes being better than the Emmys and Academy Awards.

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, hostesses with the mostest

The light mood of the Golden Globes allows its hosts to cut loose and poke fun at the absurdity of the world stopping to watch people who pretend for a living get lavish trophies. And though having a host hasn't always been a priority for the ceremony -- between 1944 and 2009, hosts were used only once (John Larroquette and Janine Turner in 1995) -- its picks in recent years have been fantastically entertaining.

Ricky Gervais has hosted four times and scorched Hollywood in the process, and Tina Fey and Amy Poehler emceed for three years straight between 2013 and 2015. We'll focus on Fey and Poehler here, who were a perfect match for the open bar and relaxed 'tude of the audience. Jimmy Fallon takes the mic this year.

Bette Midler gets raunchy

The Academy Awards is Hollywood's most glamorous night. But it's kind of like going to your in-law's for Easter, in that you have to be on your best behavior and d--- jokes are decidedly off limits. That's no fun. At the Globes, anything goes. And just to show you that raunchiness has been embedded in the ceremony for decades and not just in our current era of ill repute and lasciviousness, here's Bette Midler simulating some sexy times while accepting her award for The Rose way back in pre-Reagan times.

Angelina Jolie goes for a victory dip

The looseness of the Golden Globes isn't just about innuendo, it's about having a good time. You want to watch someone sob about achieving their life's goal while trying to keep their composure and failing? Watch the Emmys. You want to see an in-her-prime Angelina Jolie jump into a pool at a post-Globes shindig like she's a 16-year old crashing a frat party? BAM.

The actual nominations

The Emmys have long been about one thing: boring familiarity. It's been possible to predict the nominations for an Emmys show two years before they're announced (though admittedly, the Emmys has gotten much better about that in recent years). The Golden Globes, on the other hand, always try so hard to make a splash that they aren't afraid to make daring picks based on the hot new thing, or, you know, what we're actually watching.

That's why you'll see actors like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend's Rachel Bloom, Jane the Virgin's Gina Rodriguez, Orphan Black's Tatiana Maslany and shows like Enlightened get love from the Golden Globes while they go largely ignored by the Emmys. This year, the Globes nominated Stranger Things, Westworld, The Crown and Atlanta, putting the onus on the Emmys to match.

Ving Rhames gives up his Globe

Okay fine, actors don't covet a Golden Globe award nearly as much as an Emmy or Oscar, but that allows them to do things like Ving Rhames did when he won for portraying Don King. He gave it to someone else. A legend. Aww! You think DiCaprio would hand off his gold man statue for someone else? Fat chance.

The three-way ties of 1988

How many times have you been watching an awards show and couldn't decide who to root for because they were all so good? A billion times, probably. While the Academy is a stickler for rules -- even going so far as to make incredibly stupid ones -- the Golden Globes aims to please. Everyone.

Take for example the 1988 ceremony, in which there were two three-way ties for winners, and for good measure three additional traditional two-way ties. Either a Golden Globe isn't that expensive to make and it was giveaway day or the person counting the ballots is involved in youth soccer. Whatever the reason was, the answer was clear: WE won.

Because you're wondering, the two three-way ties went to Sigourney Weaver, Jodie Foster and Shirley MacLaine for best actress in a drama film, and Judd Hirsch, Michael J. Fox and Richard Mulligan for best actor in a comedy series. (The Globes has since changed its rules on ties, unfortunately.)

The Golden Globe Awards airs Sunday at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT on NBC.