Comedian fails to impress at awards show

Soledad Lee
Graphics/Social Media Editor

Hosts don’t always impress with their jokes and that was certainly the case on Sunday, Jan. 7, at the 81st Golden Globes.

For American comedian Jo Koy, who hosted the award show, the unfortunate reality is his audience in the crowd and people watching at home were not pleased with his jokes or monologue.

Koy in a part of his monologue compared “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” which appeared to viewers at home as not going over well with the audience at the Golden Globes. The statement following was found to be misogynistic to some.

“Oppenhemier’ is based on a 721-page Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the Manhattan Project, and “Barbie” is on a plastic doll with big boobies,’” Koy said.

Reactions to the joke were posted across different forms of social media including “X,” “TikTok” and articles online.

Actress Emma Stone was shown with a displeased look on her face and actress/singer Selena Gomez was seen in distress with her head in her hands.

When watching the award show, the “Barbie” cast appeared as displeased with the joke, and that may have been the case, but director of the film, Greta Gerwig, spoke out about her thoughts on it.

According to BBC Radio 4 Today, Gerwig said, “He’s not wrong. She’s the first doll that was mass-produced with breasts, so he was right on, and you know, I think that so much of the project of the movie was unlikely because it is about a plastic doll.”

Gerwig’s thoughts on Koy’s joke gets someone thinking about whether or not the joke was really that big of a deal, but people should also think about the intent behind the joke and how it exactly proves why “Barbie” was made.

“Barbie” is a film focused on the experience women have in the real world and how Barbie over the years was seen as a villain or a misconception of what a woman was- the morals of the film were not focused on just the plastic doll.

In the opening of the award show, Koy made a few jokes that fell flat among the audience and had him awkwardly laughing to himself.

According to Vanity Fair, Koy said, “I got the gig 10 days ago. You want a perfect monologue? Yo, shut up! You’re kidding me, right? Slow down. I wrote some of these, and they’re the ones you’re laughing at.”
This is where he was met with silence from the audience.

Lots of celebrities had responses and comments about Koy’s jokes and monologue. Including his ex-girlfriend, American comedian/actress Chelsea Handler while hosting the 2024 Critics Choice Awards on Sunday, Jan. 14.

After telling a joke to the audience, Handler said, “Thank you for laughing at that. My writer’s wrote it.”

Referring to when Koy blamed his writers for some of the jokes he said at the Golden Globes.
After all of this backlash, Koy commented on how he felt during and after receiving negative feedback.
According to nbcnews.com, Koy said, “You know I’d be lying if (I said) it doesn’t hurt… We just had 10 days to try and write something for this monologue. It was a crash course, and you know, I’ve gotta still say that I loved what I did.”