Comedy of errors for ‘unfunny’ Globes host
Christopher Nolan and Taylor Swift both seemed unimpressed as targets of Jo Koy’s ‘awkward’ jokes
GOLDEN GLOBES host Jo Koy took aim at Taylor Swift along with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in a string of “awkward” jokes that were met with stony-faced silence from stars during Sunday night’s awards ceremony.
The 52-year-old comic blamed his writers for the flops, saying on stage that he had taken the hosting job at the eleventh hour, but was panned by critics for the “disastrous” performance.
The jokes included one that poked fun at Swift’s relationship with the NFL player Travis Kelce, much to the star’s apparent dismay.
“As you know, we came on after a football doubleheader,” Koy told the audience in Beverly Hills. “The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL – on the Golden Globes, fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift,” he added.
Swift, who announced her relationship with the Kansas City Chiefs star last year and has since been seen at his games, appeared unimpressed as others around her laughed. The 34-year-old singer was nominated in the new category Cinematic and Box Office Achievement, for Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, but lost out to Barbie.
Her reaction to Koy’s remarks were part of a difficult night for the host, with other attendees also seemingly irritated by his performance as several gags drew “groans” and “boos”.
Rolling Stone reported that Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan registering a disapproving look during the comedian’s opening monologue, in which he made several jokes about the three-hour film.
“The minute I signed the contract… I locked myself in a room and started binge-watching everything. While my family was clinking champagne glasses and ringing in the new year, I was watching Oppenheimer,” Koy said.
“I loved Oppenheimer. I just got one complaint: [It] needed another hour, because I felt like it needed some more back story. My new year’s resolution for 2024 is to finish Oppenheimer in 2025. I love Oppenheimer – especially the first season.”
He later made a joke about the film, which won five awards on Sunday, being based on a “724-page Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the Manhattan Project” while its box-office rival starred “a plastic doll with big boobies”.
“The key moment in Barbie is when she goes from perfect beauty to bad breath, cellulite and flat feet – or what casting directors call ‘character actor’,” Koy added.
When that joke failed to land, he appeared to blame his speechwriters for his performance, suggesting he had little time to prepare after accepting the hosting gig at short notice.
“Some I wrote, some other people wrote,” Koy said. “Yo, I got the gig 10 days ago! You want a perfect monologue? Shut up! You’re kidding me, right? I wrote some of these, and they’re the ones you’re laughing at.”
He then turned his attention to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and joked that the Royal family is “rich, white, dysfunctional” in a quip about The Crown.
“Harry and Meghan Markle got paid millions for doing absolutely nothing – and that’s just by Netflix,” he said. The Duke and Duchess did not attend.
Speaking to American media, Koy admitted he was given only two weeks to prepare for the ceremony, his first major hosting gig.
It came amid reports that some stars avoided the job because of the awards’ links to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organisation behind the Globes that has been accused of corruption and a lack of diversity.
However, critics accused Koy of throwing his writers “under the bus”.
Chelsey Sanchez of Harper’s Bazaar
called his hosting “awkward” and “distasteful”, while Shirley Li of The Atlantic
said that “practically every joke failed to land, mostly because the punchlines were dated or obvious”.