It is safe to say that comedian Jo Koy wasn't exactly a household name prior to getting the gig as host for the 2024 Golden Globes award show. Although he's had several comedy specials that have aired on Netflix and Comedy Central, some people were surprised that he got tapped for the first major award show hosting job of the season.
After his cringeworthy opening monologue, even he might be wishing that the Globes had gone with someone with a little more experience.
Nobody has ever said that hosting an award show is easy, but audiences at home, online, and even in the Globes audience seem to agree: That was one of the worst opening monologues ever. From bad Barbie jokes to getting death stares from Taylor Swift, let's break down the reactions to Koy's first (and maybe last) opening monologue.
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His 'Barbie' jokes were tired and sexist.
The Barbie movie was one of the biggest critical and box office hits of the year. It was about feminism, the pressures of being a woman, and the tenderness of being a mother. Or, according to Jo Koy's stupid opening monologue joke, it was about a doll with "big boobs."
Not only is that joke sexist (we're not here for reducing director Greta Gerwig's masterpiece to just being about a plastic doll), but it also clearly didn't land with the audience, as several audible groans were heard.
His sex jokes were more awkward than funny.
We love a little adult humor in an award show opener, but none of Koy's jokes about sex were that funny.
First he came for Robert De Niro, saying "Robert De Niro, your last performance is your greatest performance — how’d you get her pregnant at 80?" and claimed that it must have been "CGI," which doesn't even sense nor did it get many chuckles.
He also went for a joke about Saltburn star Barry Keoghan having a large penis and rhetorically asked where it was before declaring that it was "on Bradley Cooper's face."
If Chrissy Teigen had been there, we suspect we would have gotten another instant cringe face meme!
He got mad when the audience wasn't laughing.
It can't be fun for a comedian to know in real time that his jokes are bombing, but Koy seemed to take it personally, saying, "I got the gig 10 days ago! You want a perfect monologue? Yo, shut up. You’re kidding me, right? Slow down."
Telling an audience that isn't laughing at your jokes to "shut up" is an interesting choice and didn't seem to win him any favors with the audience or with viewers at home, including one person on X who tweeted, "Jo koy never booking another hosting gig again after this…"
He threw other writers under the bus.
All award show hosts, even comedians, work with a team of writers to create their opening monologues. When Koy realized he was bombing, he ad-libbed of the jokes. "Some I wrote, some other people wrote" but claimed, "I wrote some of these, and they’re the ones you’re laughing at."
Sorry, Koy, but the one delivering the groan-worthy jokes is the one who has to take the blame for them.
The stars in the audience weren't into it.
Even after the opening monologue, most of Koy's jokes just didn't land, including his attempt at making fun of Taylor Swift by saying, "The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL? At the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift."
Taylor did not look amused.
We know it wasn't the fault of the other writers because some of the other presenters, including comedian Jim Gaffigan, managed to make the stars laugh, including Taylor.
All in all, it was a rough night for Koy, and we hope he doesn't check his social media mentions for a few weeks because they are gonna be rough.
