But when you perform a stand-up routine like the one you did at this year’s Golden Globes, you don’t have to look over your shoulder when the night is over?

No, the world hasn’t changed. No one looks at me differently. And I’ve got nothing against those people, really. I think that’s the mistake people make: They think that every joke is a window to the comedian’s soul — because I wrote it and performed it under my own name, that that’s really me. And that’s just not true. I’ll flip a joke halfway through and change my stance to make the joke better. I’ll pretend to be right wing, left wing, whatever wing, no wing. I’ve got to go after the richest people in the room, and NBC and the Hollywood Foreign Press [Association, which organizes the Golden Globes]. I’ve got to be a court jester, but a court jester’s got to make sure that he doesn’t get executed as well. I’ve got to make all the peasants laugh at the king, but the king’s sort of got to like it. [Laughs.]

A lot of political conservatives became fans of yours after that performance because they felt you’d finally stuck it to the Hollywood elite. Do you think any were driven away after they learned you didn’t share their viewpoints on other issues?

I didn’t notice that on Twitter until a couple of disgruntled liberal elites suddenly said, “Oh, Gervais is alt-right now.” And I went, what? What’s right-wing about taking the mickey out of the richest, most powerful corporations on the planet? But I’ve had this before. People that followed me, if they were far right, they’re probably not atheists like me. They probably don’t like some of the language that I use. They probably don’t agree with my anti-trophy hunting stance. In general, I think most normal people follow a person for a particular reason or two. If the tweets I hate outnumber the ones I like, I’ll unfollow him. No one has to be perfect to have friends. They just have to be, on balance, OK.

The themes of death and how we deal with loss are pervasive in “After Life.” Does that make it any more attuned to the current moment? Or does that make it harder to watch?