BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA • The Golden Globes worked hard on Sunday (Monday Singapore time) to live up to its reputation as the most unserious of Hollywood's major awards stops. Stars spewed profanity from the stage, the host swigged beer, many presenters appeared discombobulated and A-list dinner guests disengaged early on.

Oh, and some trophies were given out.

In an upset, The Revenant, a frontier-era revenge thriller, was the night's big winner, taking Globes for Best Drama, Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Director (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu).

"I cannot say how surprised I am," Innaritu said in collecting the night's top prize, which most handicappers had going to the newspaper film Spotlight.

Addressing the harrowing shoot endured by his cast and crew, he added: "Pain is temporary, but a film is forever. So who cares."

The Martian won two Globes, including the prize for Best Comedy or Musical, a category that was somewhat confounding, since the space adventure is neither a comedy nor a musical.

"Comedy? But anyway, you've got to stay hungry and keep bouncing the ball," director Ridley Scott said in accepting the trophy, as the orchestra interrupted.

Matt Damon, in a widely expected win, was named Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical for The Martian.

"I know how lucky I am to do this for a living," said Damon. Host Ricky Gervais had introduced him earlier in the show as "the only person Ben Affleck hasn't been unfaithful to".

With his Best Supporting Actor win for Creed, a modern, multiracial update to the Rocky series, Sylvester Stallone appeared on his way to a trip to the Oscars for playing ageing boxer Rocky Balboa.

Stallone, who received a standing ovation, thanked the producers who first took a chance on "a mumbling actor" in 1976 and a cavalcade of Warner Bros and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer executives.

In a faux pas, he forgot to thank director Ryan Coogler.

He returned to the stage during a commercial break to add Coogler to the list, but Twitter was still incensed.

Brie Larson beat Carol stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara to win Best Actress in a Drama for her role as a young woman held captive for years with her young son in Room.

Jennifer Lawrence won Best Actress in a Comedy for Joy, about the Miracle Mop inventor.

Gervais set the tone for the night in his monologue, which mocked reality television star Caitlyn Jenner, included a crude joke about actor Jeffrey Tambor's genitalia and called the Globe a "worthless" prize.

Actor Sean Penn, who had a secret interview with drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman before his capture last Friday, took a hit when Gervais joked: "I am going to do this monologue and then go into hiding. Not even Sean Penn will find me."

Taking a swig of beer, he added: "Snitch."

"Relax, I'm going to try and be nice," he said after a few quips. "I've changed. Not as much as Bruce Jenner, obviously. Now Caitlyn Jenner, of course."

Admonishing Globe winners not to grow emotional, he said: "It's a bit of metal that some nice, old, confused journalists wanted to give you in person so they could meet you and have a selfie with you."

The Globes are given by the 83- member Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a group of mostly freelance journalists.

An apparently gobsmacked Lady Gaga, winning Best Actress in a Limited Series for FX's American Horror Story: Hotel, did not get the message.

"I feel like Cher in that John Patrick Shanley film Moonstruck right now," she said. "It's one of the greatest moments of my life."

She added: "I wanted to be an actress before I wanted to be a singer."

As ever, Hollywood will pay as much attention to the snubs as to the winners.

Leaving with nothing on Sunday were Spotlight, the financial crisis comedy The Big Short and the lesbian romance Carol, which led the field going into the ceremony, with five nominations.

But then again, the Globes are the Globes.

It is also worth noting that voting for Oscar nominations closed last Friday. The nominees will be announced on Thursday.

Sunday's TV winners included Amazon's Mozart In The Jungle.

The series about a charming New York conductor found surprisingly strong support among voters, who have a history of backing shows that have yet to pop.

It won Best Comedy - dethroning Amazon's Transparent - and Gael Garcia Bernal won Best Actor.

USA Network's fledgling Mr Robot won the Globe for Best Drama, beating the HBO juggernaut Game Of Thrones. Christian Slater won Best Supporting Actor for the series, which peers into the dark corners of the Internet.

On the film side, the biopic Steve Jobs, which flopped at the box office, was a repeat winner.

Kate Winslet won Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of an Apple marketing executive, while Aaron Sorkin collected the Globe for Best Screenplay.

He said: "I thought I had as much of a chance of winning the screenplay award tonight as I had of winning Best Actress in a musical."

NEW YORK TIMES, BLOOMBERG, REUTERS