Jodie Foster's sons got a good hearty laugh out of Ricky Gervais cracking a "beaver" joke about their mom at the Golden Globes -- at least Ricky thinks so.

We just caught up with the Globes host, and asked him about the double entendre -- which arguably outed Jodie -- and he said, "I don't think anyone thought it was offensive, did they?"

Well, Ricky ... we put a poll on the site and most people agreed with you -- only 21% believe the joke  crossed the line.

As for Jodie's 13 and 10 year old boys hearing the shot? Check out the video ... Ricky seems to think they had a "good sense of humor" about it.

'Cause everyone loves mama jokes, right?